DTE Energy Co. is in production with Designer, a GIS-based design solution from Telvent Miner & Miner (TM&M). The implementation of Designer, which includes embedded ArcFM tools for asset and facilities management, will assist DTE in managing the design process for delivering electric and gas service to its customers.

DTE Energy went into production with Designer and ArcFM in April 2007. The goal now is to expand the training and use of a centralized asset management model throughout the distribution side of the organization to improve overall customer support and continue to drive down costs.

DTE Energy is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide. Its operating units include Detroit Edison, an electric utility serving 2.2 million customers in Southeastern Michigan, MichCon, a natural gas utility serving 1.3 million customers in Michigan and other non-utility, energy businesses focused on power and industrial projects, coal and gas midstream, unconventional gas production and energy trading.

The Designer implementation consolidated DTE’s electric and gas design systems and provides a sustainable platform for the use of geospatial information throughout the entire corporation. The multi-year, multi-phase implementation was part of DTE’s overall corporate-wide information technology (IT) standardization initiative. Designer is a key component in the ESRI-based GIS providing a graphic design framework to improve data management, streamline business processes, and provide improved access to spatial and tabular information.

One of the business goals for this transformation was to automate the use of costs incurred when making capital modifications to the gas and electric distribution systems. One of the key focus areas to address this goal was the facility and asset management space. DTE Energy wanted a solution that was dynamic enough to grow and adapt with its changing needs, but still provided a way to model existing workflows. It also wanted an out-of-the-box solution that it could implement with its vendor’s support.

Designer met those needs by replacing the legacy applications with a single, integrated process and will automate the generation of cost estimates and bills of materials with integration to IBM’s Maximo WMS. The implementation of Designer also ensures a single point of entry into the engineering database of record (the GIS), thereby eliminating redundant efforts and data throughout the project life-cycle. Through the integration with Maximo, the Designer project will deliver a system that supports an end-to-end design process.