ESRI and Miner & Miner have announced that Alliant Energy has gone into production using ArcGIS 8.1 geographic information system (GIS) technology. This includes the ESRI ArcGIS family of software: ArcInfo, ArcSDE, and ArcIMS. In addition, the organization is using Miner & Miner’s ArcFM and ArcFM Viewer software. Alliant is currently in the process of finalizing migration of all legacy data and applications.
Alliant provides electric, gas, water, and steam services to more than three million customers worldwide. Alliant’s enterprise GIS serves the entire scope of energy business applications: work management, outage management, customer service, property accounting, business solutions, and field inquiry.
Departments using GIS information and applications include engineering, planning, environmental affairs, dispatching, marketing, economic development, and more. For example, engineering, planning, and operations create new construction projects, develop long-range system improvement plans, and perform daily operations from the field with GIS. The Outage Management System uses the GIS-generated electrical network to manage outages. Dispatch centres use GIS directly for evaluating facilities and operations and deploying crews. Planning departments leverage GIS data, along with software from Advantica Stoner, for energy load flow analysis and gas distribution planning. In addition, the planning group uses ArcFM to analyse the circuits to identify at-risk areas to make investment decisions.
The GIS database is also used to support the federally mandated gas inspection management program. Users within Alliant schedule and track gas inspections, gas leaks, and corrosion control. In addition, a link to Alliant’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system provides a basis for asset accounting.
