Elektro Gorenjska's State-of-the-Art CIM-Based GIS Solution for Utilities

Anybody who has traveled to Slovenia will remember the iconic Lake Bled and villages. These are within the 2,091-square-kilometer distribution area of Elektro Gorenjska. The company supplies electricity to the almost 90,000 customers in the northwestern part of Slovenia. It is one of the five distribution system operators in Slovenia.

Elektro Gorenjska decided to replace its proprietary system to document the location of the company's assets. The system did not meet the company's business and IT requirements. Among its biggest shortcomings were its inability to integrate with other IT systems; the fact that the data was stored in files instead of a database, which did not comply with international standards; and that customer support was below expectations.

GDi successfully implemented the VertiGIS solution for utilities. GDi built the push-and-pull Common Information Model (CIM) interface for the VertiGIS solution. In addition, the Milan Vidmar Electric Power Research Institute Ljubljana, supported the CIM enterprise service bus (ESB) 

The project was executed under the management of GDi. The Elektro Gorenjska team supported the GDi team, especially in terms of data-improvement activities and the input of critical business parameters to the VertiGIS utility solution.

After an international tender, VertiGIS business partner GDi Ljubljana won the contract to implement a new geographic information system (GIS) based on ArcGIS technology and the VertiGIS solution for utilities.

A core element of the new GIS was the introduction of a Common Information Model (CIM) enterprise service bus ESB and a CIM repository and messaging system. The new GIS is sending and receiving data in incremental deliveries to/from the company CIM ESB. The ESB is then distributing messages to other systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

In addition, a push-and-pull CIM interface for the VertiGIS solution was built. This allows, for example, data to be exchanged between the GIS and the SCADA: The SCADA receives the complete network model in the form of an orthoschematic map, and in return, the GIS receives the switch status. 

The key result was the establishment of a professional and open GIS solution based on one central database, thus overcoming the hassle of working with a file-based system. Furthermore, another key requirement was reached: the ability to easily integrate the GIS with other business systems via the established standard CIM. Here, the central CIM-based repository offers very important advantages. All data describing the company's assets is stored the repository. In case another IT system fails, its interface with this one is (for the short term) not affected, since data is cached in the central CIM repository. Also, all interfaces are standards based.