Linemen today log on to laptops in their trucks to view digital maps and pinpoint locations on the transmission grid. Rather than relying on paper-based map books, field crews now have access to up-to-date computerized maps through geographic information system (GIS) technology.

Laurens Electric Cooperative (LEC; Laurens, South Carolina), a nonprofit member-owned utility with 50,000 customers, implemented enterprise-wide GIS software four years ago. Each one of the company's 120 trucks is equipped with a laptop, and the field crews all have a user name and password to log into the GIS mobile software.

Saving Linemen Time

LEC's 35 field crews no longer have to rely on 6-inch-thick map books that are updated on a three- to four-year cycle. The utility's system analyst, Daniel Ott, wrote a custom script to update the map data. He pushes out the updates once or twice a week. Linemen only have to log in, and the script runs as they are connecting to the network.

While the software currently has no routing capabilities, the system is interactive, and field crews can search for a particular customer by name or ID. With zoom and pan technology, the digital mapping software can help field crews locate different pieces of equipment such as substations or transformers. By highlighting a transformer on the digital map, a lineman can learn when it was installed and find out its serial number.

The utility also inputs information about the poles into the software. With a few keystrokes, crews can find out the size of the pole, when it was treated and when it was replaced. Pole replacements prior to 2004 aren't recorded in the software, which is a work in progress.

When viewing the digital maps, a lineman can look for a grid number and search for a road, a customer or a particular map location. After identifying the location, the lineman can zoom in, pan around the system and trace out a given circuit.

Using the digital mapping technology rather than paper-based maps saves crews about half the time finding a certain location. At first, some of the linemen had an old-tool mentality and were reluctant to change their way of doing things. Once the utility had some group training sessions, the linemen who bought into the technology and learned on their own taught the other field professionals. After using it one time, linemen usually see the value of the technology.

Although the utility kept the map books for the first year during the company's transition, the field crews now exclusively use the digital mapping and GIS technology.

Minimizing Outages

The digital mapping technology saves field crews time on a daily basis, but it becomes especially valuable during storms. The GIS software helps the crews identify problems and get an individual, substation or subdivision back on-line quickly. By seeing where exactly the problem area is visually on a map, the field crews can make better decisions in terms of how to restore power.

In the old days, only one or two experienced linemen knew every square inch of the electrical system. The GIS software leverages the playing field by allowing everyone on a field crew to have access to the same information. That way, the utility can depend on a greater number of field professionals to deal with outages.

The GIS software, which features a map of the electrical network and where services are located, can be updated as often as needed. In an emergency situation, Ott can push out an update in less than a couple of hours and have all the field crew members' laptops upgraded and ready to handle the emergency.

“When you have an ice storm and services are down and contractors are coming in, you can pop in a few laptops with the updates and push out the maps,” Ott says. “The only downfall is that we don't have a wireless solution, so they have to connect to an internal network to get the update.”

Increasing Dispatch Efficiency

GIS mobile software helps the field crews to more effectively handle outage situations, and it also improves the efficiency of dispatch. Because they have access to interactive maps of the electrical system, they don't have to call the dispatch centers as often. And when they do call, the dispatchers can give them better information. In the past, the dispatchers would call a lineman and tell him that a certain substation was off-line, and then he would have to go out and find the location on his own. Now the dispatchers can help linemen find ways to deal with an outage before they arrive at the location.

LEC's outage management system, which goes hand in hand with the GIS software, also helps the utility to see the location of where the crews are working. Within the software, the field crews can tag a crew to a specific location, pull up a diagram of the entire system and find out where a job is located and where a crew is.

By knowing where its 35 crews are at all times, the utility can allow crews to work close to jobs and not have to drive all over the system. When an outage takes place, a dispatcher can tell that a crew is in a particular area and send them to fix the problem.

In the past four years, LEC has continually updated and improved its GIS software and capabilities. LEC is now looking to partner with another system integrator that supports the electrical community and is exploring the possibility of investing in global positioning system technology.

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Nate Brown joined Laurens Electric Cooperative seven years ago as a lineman and is now the director of operations for the utility. nathanb@laurenselectric.com