CES International, Utility-Partners, and ESRI Canada Partner for Implementation; Nova Scotia Power to Acquire Advanced GIS for Outage Management, Computer-Aided Scheduling, and More.

Business Editors

REDLANDS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2000

Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI) has selected ESRI software for an advanced geographic information system (GIS) solution.

The implementation, to take place over a two-year period, will include an outage management system (OMS) and computer-aided dispatch and scheduling (CDS) system. NSPI will acquire ArcFM, ArcSDE, and ArcIMS software. ESRI Canada Limited will supply consulting and implementation services including on-site customer support and software maintenance.

As part of the implementation, worth an estimated 11 million Canadian dollars over two years, Minneapolis, Minn.-based CES International and Utility-Partners from Tampa, Fla., will provide their leading technologies and services.

"This is a terrific example of how strategic alliances with companies like CES International and Utility-Partners leverages the strengths of each company to provide a complete solution for utility businesses," said Jack Dangermond, president, ESRI. "Nova Scotia Power is setting the stage for implementing a powerful information technology infrastructure that will impact how the utility leverages information and geographic knowledge to improve service reliability, increase productivity, and automate work processes."

"We took a best-in-class approach," said John Fraser, planning specialist, Nova Scotia Power Inc. "After a significant evaluation process, we are confident that the technology from CES International, Utility-Partners, and ESRI will meet our corporate needs and increase our ability to provide optimum service to our customers."

"The primary driver of the GIS is to facilitate the use of our outage management system," said David McKay, GIS project lead, Nova Scotia Power Inc. "To do that, we have to migrate our connectivity model into the GIS database. We will then link our customers to the connectivity model. GIS will give us tremendous analysis and mapping capabilities that will increase our network efficiency and service reliability."

CES International will supply its Centricity Operations Resource Management System, which includes trouble call/outage management, operations dispatch/crew management, switching plan development, safety documentation, reporting, and other critical distribution infrastructure company operations functions. Utility-Partners will provide its MobileUP software, which includes a customer appointment-setting system. MobileUP is a computer-aided dispatching system with a feature-rich tool for scheduling and dispatching customer service orders, inspections, and trouble/outage work types to the field.

At the core of the GIS implementation is ArcFM, a powerful ArcInfo-based application for the editing, maintenance, modeling, and data management of utility information. ArcFM is an all-relational utility application software program developed using ArcInfo software's open development environment and object-oriented programming.

ArcInfo 8 is ESRI's new GIS platform for creating, managing, distributing, and applying geographic knowledge. ArcInfo 8 has been developed using modern software engineering and computing standards and has been completely reengineered to take advantage of the very latest in computer advances such as an object-oriented data model, a fully integrated database management system, and a complete component architecture.

Engineers will be able to use GIS for operations management, distribution design, and planning purposes. Technicians and field crews will use GIS-generated operating diagrams that show the location and normal status of distribution system devices such as switches, reclosers, and more. Accuracy of this information is critical to the safe operation of the system. In addition, GIS will be used to support an innovative vegetation management application that will model vegetation growth and treatment programs along rights-of-way. Operations personnel expect to achieve significant, cost-effective improvements in tree-related outage performance.