A Partnership Spatially Enables an Electrical Network

In recent years, ENERGEX, a leading Australian energy company, and Esri-Australia embarked on a project to redesign ENERGEX's electrical network data capture and storage system and provide a mechanism for the dissemination of this data throughout ENERGEX. Today more than 16 gigabytes of data has been loaded into the new system, and staff at ENERGEX can access the GIS database through a familiar Web interface.

ENERGEX supplies electricity to about one million customers spread over a 24,830-square-kilometer area in southeast Queensland. The ENERGEX network stretches around 30,000 kilometers, linked together by more than 800,000 electrically significant sites.

In 1995 ENERGEX began capturing its high voltage network using a customized ArcInfo application. The spatial data was stored in ArcInfo software's Map LIBRARIAN with the attribute data stored in an INFO database. In 1997 the decision was made to transfer the existing storage system to Esri's Spatial Database Engine (SDE) and expand the data capture to include all voltage levels both overhead and underground. The existing data was migrated to the new spatially enabled database ready for the data capture to continue. Currently, teams of 60 contract staff operate in two shifts at the ENERGEX head office in Brisbane to achieve the goal of complete data capture during 2000.

Des O'Flynn, ENERGEX project manager for the new system, says the process of data capture and integration of electronic mapping and data maintenance has placed ENERGEX in a strong position to expand GIS functionality and to realize future Business benefits.

Esri-Australia developed the new data capture application using ArcInfo software. The application consists of 163 ARC Macro Language (AML) programs and 98 AML form menus, totaling more than 50,000 lines of code. The application allows operators to input information about sites, components, conductors, underground conduit cross sections, phasing, and electrical connectivity. The system also had to compensate for the automatic adjustment of the electrical network relative to the digital cadastre each time a cadastral update was received. Spatial Web, a GIS consulting firm, assisted ENERGEX and Esri-Australia. A document management feature permits scanned images, AutoCAD drawings, and digital photographs to be attached to electrical objects. To date, approximately16 gigabytes of spatial data has been loaded, including the Digital Cadastre Database (DCDB) comprising some 1.3 million records.

Web-Based Access to the Database

The next stage in the project was to develop a Web-based application for dissemination of the data across the company's Intranet. To this end, the Energise Intranet was developed to provide staff with access to maps of the electrical network over any extent and at any scale. Energise is an advanced custom application built from the extendibility of ArcView GIS using Java, JavaScript, HTML, Avenue, and SQL.

Through a familiar Web interface, Energise provides ENERGEX staff with a simple and consistent viewer for the electrical network. Tools are provided to search the database, display or hide layers of information, identify both cultural and electrical features, and print the current display as a map. Staff can select from a range of backgrounds and administrative layers including cadastre and scanned street maps, depending on their requirements. The system also provides staff with the capability to send feedback to the administrators requesting enhancements or identifying errors or omissions in the data displayed.

The Energise system is currently processing an average of 3,500 map inquiries per day. Demand is expected to increase as more purpose built applications are made available to ENERGEX's 2,000 employees.

The Energise system utilizes the ArcView Internet Map Server (IMS) software program as the map server linked to ENERGEX electrical network data stored within SDE. ArcView IMS was chosen for the project as it provides an out-of-the-box solution for publishing maps using existing ArcView GIS projects. ArcView IMS includes a customizable Java applet known as MapCafé, which is used to render the maps produced by ArcView IMS on any Java enabled browser.

The Energise application is currently being enhanced to enable ENERGEX staff to produce high-quality cartographic map products on demand. These products may be initiated over any part of the ENERGEX area of supply at a range of scales suitable to the type of product requested. Once generated, the map product is loaded automatically into a separate browser window to enable viewing prior to plotting on any networked printer.

Customers to the data department now have a choice to either serve themselves with "standard" map products online via the Intranet or request dedicated products and information from the GIS department.

For more information, contact Anna Kelly, Esri-Australia (e-mail: akelly@ead.com.au).

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