Each year, the Gas Engineering program at SoCalGas allocates valuable resources to investigate and analyze area Odor Calls and Message Center Reports (MCRs) to ensure customer and public safety. The majority of customer complaints to the center, however, are related to emissions from sources other than SoCalGas assets. Many times, non-asset related complaints receive media attention prior to emittance identification. The utility needed a solution that would enable core operators for Odor Analysis to efficiently and effectively assert when the gas odor was not emitting from a utility owned asset.
UDC has actively assisted SoCalGas with the implementation and maintenance of GIS for gas distribution since 2011, including their major Esri upgrade to 10.2.1. We currently provide guidance, expertise and assistance to the company’s Customer Services in building various custom web applications.
Odor Analysis Tool Components
UDC collaborated with SoCalGas to develop an Odor Analysis application tool. The tool acts as a supplemental piece for written California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) reports provided by Gas Engineering. The improved workflow includes an Esri Web AppBuilder application and custom widget which allows users to see possible emitters that are in proximity of the area odor call or MCR based on an algorithm provided by the client. This algorithm, written in Python, connects to an external database, consumes calls for the day and finds possible emitters which are then displayed to the Odor Analysis user.
Allocating Resources Wisely
By giving Gas Engineers the ability to visualize odor complaints and possible emitters of the ambient odor, the Odor Analysis tool provides SoCalGas the power to infer and make informed decisions regarding gas company assets quickly and effectively.
Incorporating tools from ArcPy and Web AppBuilder, the client is now armed with an arsenal to successfully approach the offending area emitters to possibly recoup loss funds from allocated resources. The average cost savings to SoCalGas by mitigating the unnecessary allocation of resources to locate the smell of gas odor complaints is estimated to be a half-million dollars annually.