Esri’s release of a Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM) and ArcGIS Pipeline Referencing (APR) extension provided a major opportunity for Sempra Energy to leverage the full capabilities of their existing Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. Existing system processes and procedures had many limitations but, with the new UPDM/APR extension, those limitations were removed, and processes were enhanced to meet the many pending changes benefiting the Utility’s internal business. Reporting ready data is now maintainable on a much more frequent basis.
In order to develop the SoCalGas and SDG&E high-pressure GIS application to enable improvement for transmission integrity and safety management, in early 2017, Sempra Energy launched a 2-year Transmission Integrity Management Program (TIMP) – Gas High Pressure Enhancement project. The project would move their existing ArcGIS Pipeline Data Model (APDM) to UPDM with APR implementation. Resulting Gas GIS solutions support system wide user compliance, safety, emergency response, and efficiency improvement project requirements.
With Esri Services providing the UPDM/APR implementation, UDC worked alongside our client, SoCalGas, to provide automated workflow solutions and pipeline productivity tools for the extensive project that focused on software development, integration, configuration, and data model enhancements of the existing gas high pressure GIS application. The following primary objectives were successfully achieved by the TIMP enhancement project:
- Provide a synchronized view of high-pressure asset data across GIS applications
- Provide synchronization of high-pressure asset data across GIS and SAP
- Develop new data models for high pressure distribution, transmission and storage data
- Reconciliation of existing assets and their attribution
- Conversion of selected linear asset data to a geospatial format to support connectivity modeling
- Provide a single source for viewing all high-pressure asset data, including equipment assets, maintenance history, electronic documentation, and real-time reads for enterprise asset management (EAM)
TIMP Enhancement Services & Solutions
SoCalGas provided the business logic to guide solution requirements. UDC developed solution options for meeting the business requirements not covered by the OOTB implementation, including custom tool buildout, testing, and validation as well as updating documentation for end user guides.
Solutions Provided by UDC
Specific solutions developed by UDC to meet Sempra business process and TIMP reporting needs that were not part of the OOTB solution included:
- Automation to import Field Crew work completed into the GIS system, in the form of advanced linear referencing system (ALRS) Events in ArcGIS Pro
- Report processing for PSEP, PHMSA, Feature Study, GFVU, and other reports on a nightly basis
- Web enhancements for Event Editor to support many to many relationships for the Work Orders, Documents, Comments
- Web Enhancements for the Data Reviewer product to allow for viewing results only found in a version, through the web, expanding on the OOTB Data Review solution which requires a single version to be used for all Server processing
- Automation for Long running tasks through integration with Work Flow Manager from Esri – this customization allows for background steps to be configured and performed without end user involvement
- A new set of frameworks that sit alongside the ESRI OOTB for Python and ArcGIS Pro, which allow standards from Sempra to be applied during all components of ALRS editing
Supporting SoCalGas’s migration to Esri’s UPDM data model, UDC developed automated workflows to identify and fix data migration issues as well as custom tools to enable data migration to their new model. Utilizing the APR extension, UDC developed enhancements and custom tools for pipeline including web tools enabling users to Edit, Add, or Reshape features within a single editing environment. Custom APDM tools were redeveloped to replicate functionality in UPDM. These tools included support for document work order and comments, Event retirement in ArcPro, edit changes from multiple versions and feature study processing in ArcGIS Pro.
Business Benefits
The TIMP Enhancement project represents the capital activities which include technical and functional application solutions to support company regulatory compliance and reporting requirements. Primary benefits to Sempra include the ability to demonstrate compliance, complete regulatory reporting and improve GIS information on the system infrastructure to support various business needs.
Meeting Regulatory Mandates
A major business need supported by the enhancement project is Sempra’s improved ability to meet and demonstrate compliance with the following State regulations and/or requirements mandated by the Public Utilities Commission:
- CPUC General Order
- Transmission Integrity Management Program (TIMP)
- Distribution Integrity Management Program (DIMP)
In addition to the critical business benefits of the TIMP Enhancement at Sempra, Esri’s UPDM implementation simplified the data model improving speed and efficiency when combined with Esri’s linear referencing capabilities of APR. This platform of OOTB solutions and APIs from Esri allowed UDC to significantly enhance the editor experience. Other key factors reinforcing the business case of UPDM at Sempra included the model’s support for both transmission and distribution and future migration to the Esri Utility Network.
UDC continues to work with SoCalGas and Sempra supporting design and solution development.