Electric Facilities with Joint Use Attachments

Electric utilities have long tried to save money through enterprise GIS. They have also had a difficult time managing attachments to poles that are rented to telephone and cable TV companies. Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) has implemented its Joint Use Management system, which integrates to the GIS. This builds on the past success of implementing an enterprise GIS and a complete field inventory of the electric system.

The field GPS inventory recorded approximately 28,000 telephone and cable TV attachments on 81,000 electric poles. SSVEC maximizes revenue by having an accurate count of these rented poles. GIS is used in partnership with these utilities to keep the work process going and to facilitate communication. The task of maintaining that data falls to the joint use administrator who records new applications for attachment, notifies utilities when they must remove their attachments, and ensures that violations are kept to a minimum.

Joint Use Management records the location and all details that relate to pole attachments by foreign telephone and cable TV companies. GIS is used to make maps to help the foreign utilities find their attachments and record unauthorized attachments. This map helps SSVEC linemen identify areas where work will be performed and which telephone or cable companies need to be called to the work site during an outage. Company-wide access to the data helps ensure that mistakes are kept to a minimum. For a company with 5,800 square miles to cover, knowing the location of these pole attachments is vital to a successful joint use program.