Utilities

Power Management

The process of routing energy is highly dependent on geographic information. From network design to outage management, more than 80 percent of utility data management contains spatial components. Many utility companies combine their gas and electric service to customers. Jiangsu Provincial Power Company of China maps four kinds of data in its GIS: the base city map data, the geoschematic of the network, facilities data, and real-time data. Learn more.

Electricity

PPL, listed as a Fortune 500 company, has used GIS for almost 30 years to leverage facilities management (FM). PPL uses its electric facilities database (EFD) for responding to storm-caused outages. The dispatcher clicks on a pole, and the EFD shows all the attachments to that pole, whether they are from a cable company or utility company. The companies can be notified of the outage and quickly restore services.Learn more.

Gas

Gas source and physical pipeline management depend on GIS for every detail from stations and pipe pressures to valves and pipe diameter. METROGAS, the largest natural gas distributor in Chile, uses FM GIS applications for outage management, emergency response, gas distribution, network operation, planning and research, sales, engineering, and construction.Learn more.

Telecommunications

GIS provides telecommunication businesses with many solutions such as analyzing relationships among signal coverage, test results, trouble tickets, customer inquiries, revenues, and gap analysis. Velocom de Argentina uses GIS for geocoding antennas, analyzing service areas, geocoding clients, and correlating equipment requirements to service area demand. Learn more.

Water and Wastewater

The Colorado Springs Utility Water Resources Department's high-resolution maps detail the location of its underground pipelines, watersheds, reservoirs, and hydroelectric facilities. Its database of information gained at its raw water treatment complex will help the department assess possible expansion capabilities.Learn more.