Sophisticated Technology Plays a Key Role in Helping Cobb Electric Membership Corp. (Marietta, Georgia, U.S.) to operate efficiently and keep costs down. The utility has implemented a whole host of technologies, such as a state-of-the-art supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and remotely controlled switches and devices. One of the utility's biggest and most beneficial technology projects over the past few years has been the development of a fully integrated geospatial technology system.

About six years ago, Cobb EMC sought to improve its outage response and make better use of its wealth of geospatial data. Specifically, the utility wanted to:

• Improve its ability to respond to outages more efficiently and provide quicker restoration time

• Increase data availability and accuracy with an open geospatial database that could be leveraged through other applications

• Integrate geographic information system (GIS) data with key business applications to streamline operations and improve customer service.

To achieve these challenging goals, Cobb EMC first implemented an integrated outage and mobile workforce management (MWFM ) system called InService, from Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.), to replace the manual method of locating outages and dispatching crews. Next, the utility replaced its existing GIS with Intergraph's G/Technology. Finally, Cobb EMC tied these systems together, as well as to other key applications, creating a true enterprise geospatial system that meshed well with the utility's existing enterprise application integration architecture.

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Cobb EMC went live with the Intergraph outage management system (OMS) in September 2004 and followed with the MWFM component in June 2006. Acquiring both OMS and MWFM technology in a single product was a huge benefit to the utility.

The OMS system allowed Cobb EMC to gain a consolidated environment for trouble and same-day service-order-related work (turn-on/turn-off), further streamlining work processes, increasing service reliability and speeding restoration time during power outages.

The MWFM component enabled the utility to optimize the scheduling of daily work orders. The automatic dispatch capability of InService assigns routine work to crews and performs same-day workload balancing of elements, such as crew location, shortest route, type of work, cost of service, customer priority and time. To achieve optimal crew dispatch and visual tracking, Cobb EMC deployed the automated vehicle location feature of InService for trucks equipped with GPS.

Within two weeks of implementing the OMS technology, Cobb EMC experienced the benefits of the system after a storm. The utility's response time improved, because it was able to pinpoint the exact location of field crews and the probable cause of an outage. Dispatchers were able to drag and drop an outage-response work order onto the nearest truck, enabling quicker restoration time and improved customer service. Additional benefits related to improved outage management include reduced labor and fuel costs for trucks, because crews no longer have to drive long distances to outage locations.