Coahoma Electric Power Association (CEPA), a rural electric utility cooperative in northwestern Mississippi, is dedicated to increasing efficiency, improving customer service and integrating greener approaches to electric service provision. As such, the company has a vested interest in the adoption of spatial technologies in its march toward a smart grid.

In 2009, CEPA contacted The Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies at Delta State University (the Center) about the use of geographic information systems (GIS). This request led to a cooperative research and development agreement aimed at developing best management practices for the adoption and implementation of geospatial technologies for small cooperative utility providers. It also enabled practical student learning through cooperative education.

Analyzing CEPA's GIS

The Center applied methodology based on the GIS Development Guide. For example, it assessed the needs of the utility, developed a theoretical framework and then surveyed available data. The Center also looked at the GIS hardware and software, participated in detailed database planning and design, and constructed the database. It then conduced a pilot study and benchmark test, reviewed and modified the original plan, and acquired GIS hardware and software. Finally, it focused on GIS system integration, followed by GIS application development, use and maintenance.

Preliminary Findings

CEPA faced numerous challenges caused by the following factors: inaccurate and out-of-date maps, the lack of a digital system for maintaining infrastructure records, and difficulty in reconciling the location of owned assets versus those mapped by outside agencies. The utility determined that, regardless of the details of any overall proposed program of work, a major conversion effort from existing paper to digital maps was required.

Further, while initial meetings provided employees with a basic understanding of GIS, the types and quantity of questions revealed a need for instruction in more advanced techniques. In addition, CEPA needed to create an enterprisewide GIS and, in the future, hire GIS staff members.

Interviews with individual CEPA personnel revealed the need for a GIS that would integrate and disseminate information across departments, support a multi-user environment, speed data access, and integrate with existing departmental procedures and goals. Finally, the Center discovered that CEPA lacked a truly usable asset inventory system as suggested by the Government Accounting Standards Board Statement 34.

Lessons Learned

CEPA provided several paper map samples, which were examined and reconciled with certified orthophotography. It was determined that translation of these documents from paper to digital by trained student interns would provide valuable work experience and significant return on investment for CEPA. Using as many as six interns at a time, CEPA was able to scan and georeference more than 10,000 service area maps, parcel maps, transformer cards, meter descriptors and similar documents in about eight months. These scanned documents then served as a guide for real-world inventory mapping and subsequent geodatabase construction.

The needs assessment and implementation planning process, while time-consuming, created a return on investment by establishing existing and future system requirements. CEPA then performed a detailed analysis of candidate software and hardware systems using these requirements, which resulted in the selection of hardware and software that would grow with CEPA's needs.

Benefits of Collaboration

By partnering with the university, CEPA was able to work with numerous prospective student candidates and groom its future GIS coordinator. CEPA also was able to maximize financial resources, which led to increased opportunities in the private sector. Successful demonstration of geospatial technologies enabled additional investment in hardware, software and future consulting opportunities.

Through this project, both CEPA and the Center learned that cooperative research, planning and development among institutes for higher learning and the electric industry can lead to improved decision making, lower implementation costs, better training for students and economic development.

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Talbot Brooks (tbrooks@deltastate.edu) is the director for the Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies at Delta State University and serves as the treasurer for GITA.

Editor's note: Also contributing to this column were Subramanian Swaminathan, the Center's technical projects coordinator; Phil Cauthen, the supervisor of engineering at CEPA; and Dru Sowell, the GIS analyst for CEPA.