Why now is the time to digitally transform your network model

As with other long-standing industries, the utility industry has followed a winding path when it comes to information technology. This has resulted in different elements of the business relying on tools that are disconnected from one another. Meeting modern needs for agility and efficiency requires understanding this journey and finding the right tools to break down silos moving forward.

The key elements of electricity grid management are generation, transmission, distribution, and customer relations. Traditionally, these components formed a straightforward flow from generation to customer. Today, however, many customers are tied into the grid as both generators and consumers via rooftop solar panels or other technologies. The modern grid is more complex than ever, and improved integration of critical technologies is vital.

A Brief History of Utilities in the Age of Computing

Electric utilities began with the invention of the light bulb in 1879. As technology improved, consumption increased, electric companies consolidated, and electricity became a ubiquitous commodity. Technology guided how the service was delivered, and the advent of modern computing paved the way for major innovation.

As computer technology emerged, electric companies relied on a combination of Outage Management Systems (OMS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to handle outages and emergencies and control operations. Distribution Management Systems (DMS) also came into the picture, enabling better grid planning and operations management.

In the early days, networks were smaller and easier to maintain. Today, it is common for tens of thousands of changes to happen to a distribution system on a weekly basis. The result: OMS, DMS, and SCADA systems merged to form an Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), a modular system that supports full distribution management and optimization.

Today's network-based GIS allows users to model the complexities of network connectivity and effectively handle the complex use cases of modern utilities. In comparison, a general purpose GIS does not deliver the technology and business applications to manage these complex needs. Rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach with a general purpose GIS, a network-based GIS allows the creation of digital-map layers which solve real-world problems.

With a network-based GIS, network model information can be leveraged with other geospatial datasets in order to visualize and cross analyze. Rich, accessible data is nowhere more important than in the energy sector, where every decision can impact network resilience, security, and safety. Industry decision makers want real-time access to the data needed to control, monitor, maintain, update all assets — no matter how remote, and manage network models at scale. A network-based GIS can meet these needs with the scale and performance needed to support your energy transition.

Why It’s Critical to Unify GIS and ADMS

When it comes to the electric utility industry, both ADMS and GIS systems are vital. But because these systems were developed independently for different primary reasons, they are often siloed in their present-day use—inhibiting a utility’s ability to achieve:

• Efficiency to overcome complexity and increasing demand while maintaining a standard of service
• Agility to rapidly adapt to new changes, new technologies, and the unforeseen
• Innovation to improve the customer experience, meet Net-Zero targets, and modernize the grid

GE’s Smallworld Electric Office empowers you to overcome historical barriers between GIS and ADMS without replacing existing systems. Electric Office can model your end-to-end grid connectivity from high-voltage transmission through medium- and low-voltage distribution, including distributed energy resources (DER) and other modern grid assets such as EV charging stations.

In addition to modeling your grid, Electric Office supports business-critical workflows and enables field workers, operations, and customer support personnel to leverage a consistent and shared view of the network model to enable many downstream uses and benefits. GE’s solutions also offer native interoperability, enabling utilities to rapidly adopt modern applications and improve their ability to leverage analytics and AI.

Read our eBook on Three Reasons to Unify Your Network Model to learn more about the importance of breaking down barriers between GIS and ADMS and how GE’s solutions can transform the power of your network model.