2010 Spring - Utility Perspective

Delivering Effective GIS/LIS ServicesLori Jarvey & Theresa StinskiGIS TechniciansWisconsin Public ServiceWLIA Regional Meeting

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LORI Script Introduction Names Years with company Years with land emphasis Years relationship with WLIA Land accuracy became important when design tool was introduced (2001). We needed to find a way of maintaining our land base without major interruption to the process.

Agenda

Integrys Energy

Use of online GIS Data across WPS

GIS Services

Real Estate

Field Personnel

Environmental

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LORI

Integrys at a Glance

WPS Investments LLC

WPS Investments LLC

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THERESA At Integrys Energy Group, we provide energy and energy-related products and services in both regulated and no regulated energy markets. These are our major subsidiaries. Structure of our holding companies. Not only do we work with WI, but we also work with the neighboring states which include MI, MN and IL. We also work with IA land for our Crane Creek Wind Farm

GIS Data at WPS

19 Operating Districts

20 Counties in WI

11,665 square miles

Data as of March 19, 2010

Presenter

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THERESA Our service territory covers 20 counties within WI, relationships that we have built over the last 9 years are in general very cooperative. Speed of land updates (subdivisions, site plans) became important when “business was booming” during 2006-2007. Field personnel were too busy to gather information from the field for us, so as a GIS dept we started relying heavily on county websites for information. This helped us keep up with the work load coming in and prevented a back log from occurring.

GIS Services Daily Uses

Address verification

Clarification of land placement

ROW width verification

OH facility verification

Corrections

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THERESA Address Verification North woods such as Oneida County, use websites to validate street names and house numbers. Our Call Centers also use this information. Land Placement/ROW Verification Helps to fill in the blanks when developers do not provide us with complete location information (CSM, POS) If we question the ROW, we can measure at the on-line websites If ROW is inconsistent, we contact counties, developers, or the DOT to obtain correct ROWs. ROWs are very important as they are our easements in the utility business. OH Facility Verification When available, the use of the birds-eye and street views help us pinpoint our facilities, versus having to send a field person out to verify location for us. Example would be a pole or padmount, the arm placement for a streetlight, or which pole the light is mounted to. We find the county aerials are clearer to work with due to the time the flyovers (leaf off, foliage is off) versus BING or Goggle (leaves on). Corrections west side of Green Bay angled the land incorrectly, retrieved the data from Brown County website and corrected the land base. Prior to being able to add new land to our GIS, we had to fix existing.

Real Estate

Parcel Information

Legal Descriptions

Survey Control

Survey Documents

Aerials

Land Division Regulations & Zoning Codes

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LORI We wouldn’t have been able to finish a large project this past winter without the information on the county websites. We were looking at legal descriptions that were 10+ pages long. With the websites we were able to look up the pin number and locate the lot and map it manually or trace it after streaming the website. Parcel Information Parcel ownership (not all counties provide this) Addresses Survey Control i.e. government corners and county specific information (very few counties provide this) Survey Documents Even fewer counties provide this service Aerials Aerial view used especially around our hydro facilities Viewing and printing aerial imagery with parcel information as a backdrop (very useful)

Field Personnel

Parcel Information

Legal Descriptions

Easements

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THERESA Parcel Information Pin Number Owner Name Legal Descriptions Verification of parcel owner Contact information of owner Easements They are not mapped on the web maps (you can’t see it or link to the easement document) Would be extremely helpful to designers

Environmental

Zoning

Land Use

Flood Plains

Aerial Photos

Parcels

Public Lands

Soils

Topographic Maps

Wetlands

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LORI Items listed above are used to create Certificates of Authority or CA’s to gain approvals/permissions from the Public Service Commission for larger projects to move or install gas or electric facilities in environmentally sensitive areas. We use each of these “layers” to create a map of the area in question.

Environmental CAs

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LORI

Enhancements to help us

All counties have online GIS

Streaming Capabilities

Easement Maps & Documents

Map Index (Real Estate)

Links to documents

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THERESA We’re close to having 100% in the state of WI. WPS’s primary GIS platform is Smallworld. We also do work for Real Estate, Environmental and for our IL subsidiaries in ArcMap. The ability to stream the county’s GIS has enabled us to be more accurate and efficient. Without this capability, deadlines would not have been met. We were able to form strong working relationships with other departments (Real Estate & Environmental). Field Personnel (designers) would like to have access to the easement maps and documents without having to go directly to the County’s Courthouse. Once again a time saver. Map index indicating and showing if surveys have been performed and subsequently filed / recorded. Surveyors would constantly use this. Links from parcels to scanned surveys, plats and CSM’s with the ability to print. “Most surveyors would gladly pay a user fee for this type of service.” – Joe Lett “County GIS/LIS web sites in our service territories of Wisconsin have made incredible advancements in information available and ease of use in recent years. Our work in other states and areas of the country are stark reminders that we have an excellent system in place in our area of Wisconsin. Most surveyors are very thankful for the systems in place. “ – Joe Lett

Potential Political Impact

Counties charging for data – California lawsuit

Another terrorist attack

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LORI Santa Clara county must pay a nonprofit watchdog group $500,000 to cover legal fees after losing dispute. They claimed the maps were not subject to open records requests b/c they were protected by a federal homeland security law. But they had sold their data to 18 purchasers, including 3 private entities. Terrorist – if we get a bio or eco attack, information that we are allowed to share may go into further lockdown. Because of 9/11 we have been restricted in what we can share with government agencies and developers. We can share that there is gas or electric down a road, but we can’t provide dimensioning, size of facilities, etc. It is easier to tell you what information we can provide instead of listing what we can’t, which is lines and poles. No information behind them. Our problem is if we give it to governmental agencies, it becomes open record. We must know who is asking for it and what is their purpose.

Questions?

2010 Spring - Utility Perspective

Technology

Transcript of 2010 Spring - Utility Perspective