How Connexus Energy Is Using ArcGIS Utility Network to Drive Digital Transformation

Connexus Energy stands as the largest customer-owned electric cooperative in Minnesota. Serving over 145,000 residential and commercial customers, Connexus provides reliable and sustainable electricity across parts of the North Metro area and central Minnesota. The cooperative is renowned for its innovative approach to energy solutions, including solar and battery storage, as well as its behind-the-meter distributed energy resource program. Dedicated to community and customer service, Connexus prioritizes efficient, environmentally friendly practices and customer satisfaction.

Connexus needed to modernize the way the utility managed its network. Staff had a goal to introduce an integrated outage management system (OMS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) to streamline operations and improve reliability. While evaluating its future priorities, Connexus leadership understood the criticality of implementing modern network management to achieve their advanced distribution management goals. Additionally, staff aimed to upgrade the design-build workflow so that data created and captured in the field was reflected in the new system in real time, ensuring seamless operations.

Before its ArcGIS Utility Network implementation, Connexus utilized Schneider Electric’s ArcFM Classic for its outage management, geographic information system (GIS) editing, and design-build workflows. These solutions leveraged the geometric network and were due for a standard maintenance upgrade. However, when evaluating their strategic priorities for grid modernization, advanced distribution management, and a connected workflow with design and engineering, Connexus staff chose to move forward with a transition to ArcGIS Utility Network, Scheider Electric’s ArcFM Solution XI Series, and EcoStruxure advanced distribution management system (ADMS).

Looking ahead, staff recognized that implementing the modern network management capabilities of ArcGIS Utility Network and ArcFM XI would support immediate design-build and GIS needs, including reducing design backlogs, data quality and integrity, and enhanced GIS productivity. Staff also anticipated future ADMS needs like enhanced situational awareness, integrated operations, and advanced analytics.

Recognizing the complexity of the project, the team adopted a phased approach that kicked off in late 2019. They issued a request for proposals, aiming to find a utility network approach that would integrate the various systems considered in the project. The project team’s requirements did not mandate a single vendor, but they did build a road map with the utility network at the heart of all considerations. The technical teams responsible for each system collaborated to align on timing, ensuring that the solutions aligned with end users’ work practices, and informed operations.

The GIS team played a crucial role in the solution as they took on the Utility Network migration with the data migration partner. The in-house expertise allowed the GIS team to actively participate in data conversions, and the team established dependencies and determined the order for go-lives to minimize data duplication. However, it also presented challenges as the team was handling day-to-day requests while architecting the new platform.

The project started with an assessment of data readiness. Leveraging their data migration partner’s migration tools, the GIS team mimicked the geometric network schema and aimed for an out-of-the-box utility network implementation wherever possible.

By early 2023, Connexus had a robust data model and had finalized the software vendor selection for design and ADMS. However, as the utility network evolved, staff soon realized they needed to update the data model to the most current version before implementing the software solutions. The GIS team collaborated with their data migration vendor and Schneider Electric to migrate to the final model. Implementation of Utility Network went live mid-December 2024 with DXI, with ADMS tentatively set for early 2025.

Connexus has already realized several benefits from the implementation, such as robust data modeling and improved data management. The Utility Network data model is more robust in data quality within rule and bidirectional power flow. The streamlined database structure simplifies management, providing a better representation of the real world and aligning more closely with systems such as ADMS. The business and validation rules that Connexus has put in place guide users to ensure data accuracy. Additionally, Connexus employees have already started to see performance improvements as some processes can run overnight or on weekends and no longer require auto-updaters or other processes that can bog down systems.

Connexus also benefited in process optimization and reduced overhead. Due to the size and impact of the project, all existing processes were evaluated to ensure that only relevant data was captured going forward. In past project implementations, users would want all data from an asset management system or customer information system to be interfaced into the GIS database, which can be a lot of transactions being updated daily.

The Connexus team took a step back to evaluate what data is truly needed on a regular basis. An example of this is within the customer dataset: For day-to-day operations, users do not need to see what state the service was in, since all services are served in Minnesota. The GIS team also evaluated who needed to interact directly with the system, reducing unnecessary overhead. With the Utility Network being a higher-fidelity data model, along with data requirements for an external system, having non-GIS power users interacting with the data model could cause unnecessary errors downstream. Giving users access to a web application to modify non-network attributes increases the potential for impacts downstream.  

The project also supported efficiency and flexibility for designers. The design team can work per circuit, delivering GIS-based construction “blueprints” to the field and the GIS team simultaneously. The digitization of the construction environment eliminates redundant data entry, allowing field crews to continue to do their work with real-time data, and GIS editors to review and commission updates seamlessly. The digital environment delivers smoother workflows, including integrating new datasets into existing maps or performing quality checks on spatial data. All of this means that training is easier as tools are designed for specific roles across the organization, including the field personnel focused on the physical environment and the GIS analyst focused on spatial data integrity.

Lastly, a critical tool in Connexus’s implementation is the functionality provided by ArcFM Feeder Services. ArcFM Feeder Services is an integration between the Utility Network and critical downstream systems, including EcoStruxure ADMS, which ensures an up-to-date operational network. Processes that used to take weeks, such as posting a version to default, switch-planning, and circuit-based integration, can now happen in minutes. Additionally, troubleshooting, such as markup processes involving potential errors, is simplified as Connexus has visibility into exactly when data is being used, and ADMS operators can push data back to the GIS editor.

Connexus partnered with Schneider Electric to adopt the ArcFM Solution XI Series and ADMS software. 

Within Connexus, this project pulled together a diverse group of individuals who use the software daily to participate in the process, emphasizing the need to break down organizational silos. This included engineering, control center, construction, troubleshooting, power supply, customer service, wholesale power costs, and ADMS teams. Early training and buy-in were essential to ensure successful implementation.

The project had significant impacts, including better team cohesion. Conversations and collaboration across different areas were crucial for achieving buy-in and cohesive teamwork. Understanding inputs from other users in different areas led to improved collaboration. The success required a collective effort from everyone involved.

Schneider Electric served as the technology provider and implementation partner to Connexus. In addition to providing the ArcFM Solution XI Series, including ArcFM Designer XI, ArcFM Feeder Services, and EcoStruxure ADMS, Schneider Electric implemented the solutions, and Connexus went live on the Utility Network in late 2024 and EcoStruxure ADMS tentatively in 2025.

The ArcFM Solution Series is the most comprehensive set of utility-specific GIS applications on the market built to fully digitize and automate the updating and maintenance of Esri’s ArcGIS system of record. This solution bridges the gaps between siloed data, disconnected workflows, and isolated systems to ensure user network assets are accurately modeled and updated to reflect their as-built or real-world state as it feeds critical downstream systems such as ADMS.