Georgia Power announces plans to implement Designer, a GIS-based design application from Miner & Miner, a Telvent company. Designer, which includes embedded ArcFM tools for asset and facilities management, will enable the investor-owned utility to more efficiently provide electricity to its 2.1 million customers in the state of Georgia.

The implementation of a GIS-based design and facilities management application will allow the utility to take advantage of a streamlined environment for preparing construction work sketches and job cost estimates in line with their business processes.

The application's functionality, which includes automatic network connectivity, a seamless database, increased usability and additional tools such as structural analysis, will create an effective solution for improving operations.

Phyllis Cox, Georgia Power GIS manager, said, “Our engineers believe our customers will benefit from the streamlined responses to service requests resulting from the integration with our work management systems. We also plan to move toward a more mobile work environment utilizing Mobile Designer.”

Currently, Georgia Power operates a customized AutoCAD-based application for design, but lacks an integrated workflow with their in-house work management system (WMS). The new solution will minimize redundancy of data and effort with the integration to their WMS and expedite the design process.

Tami Barron, general manager for Georgia Power Distribution Services, said, “We are pleased to select Designer to aid our company in achieving additional operational efficiencies and continue improving reliability for our customers.”

Georgia Power is the largest of five electric utilities that make up Southern Company. The four other divisions of Southern Company will also leverage Designer and have plans for future rollouts of the solution across the enterprise.