Utility Vegetation Management & GIS

Designing A Mobile Geospatial application to streamline field collection & recordkeeping

Joshua DeWees – Spoon River Electric Cooperative

Agenda

I. BackgroundII. Case Study: Spoon

River ElectricIII. Design ProcessIV. Results

Background

Distribution Electric Systems

Consists of substations, poles, wires, overcurrent protection, and meters

Vegetation can cause faults Faults

Blinking lights Outages Voltage anomalies Customer dissatisfaction Regulatory issues

Vegetation Impacts on Distribution Lines

Direct contact

Overhanging branches

Underbrush that prevents access

Utility Vegetation Management (VM)

Expensive Necessary Planning Strategy Detailed Records

Case StudySPOON RIVER ELECTRIC

Spoon River Electric Cooperative

Three electric cooperatives 15 Employees 5,200 Miles of distribution line GPS and ESRI GIS based planning

and record keeping Linear referencing and route event

tables

What’s the Problem?

Planning and documentation takes a lot of time

Manual transcription process

Errors between field notes and database

Lag time between field work and database

Difficult to teach others to update

What’s the Solution?

Utilize good design principles to create a mobile application to:

Improve efficiency over current manual process

Allows edits in the field for real-time updates

Work on easy to use mobile platforms already used personally and professionally at the cooperatives

Consider existing COTS solutions

Create a long term record keeping system

Designed to improve VM for a broader audience than Spoon River

Spoon River Electric: Current Processes

Planning process Collect GPS points Make handwritten notes Transcribe all written notes into

the GIS database Print maps for the crews

Record keeping process Collect GPS record of work

completed Handwritten daily work record Transcribe the work notes into

the GIS Calculate work footage

completed

Field Sheet

Database Structure

((Access+Truck+Chipper+Mower+Manual+Herbicide+Steepness )x Spans) x Canopy

Field Map

Design Process

Design Process

Mobile Platforms

COTS

Cooperative Surveys

CEO Surveys

Assess high level view of VM

Consider budgets related to VM

Obtain permission to survey VM manager

VM Manager Survey

Assess time/effort spent on managing vegetation

Gain feedback on operational perspective for VM Methods, Technology, Planning, Communication, Other Needs

VM Workload

Please rate your agreement with this statement: Vegetation management activities are an important part of my work.

# Answer

Response %

6 Strongly Disagree

1 7%

7 Disagree

0 0%

8 Neither Agree nor Disagree

0 0%

9 Agree

4 29%

10 Strongly Agree

9 64%

Total 14 100%

What percentage of your annual budget is designated for vegetation management?

# Answer

Response %

1 No regular budget amount

1 7%

2 1-2%

2 14% 3 3-5%

7 50%

4 Greater than 5%

2 14%

5 Other (please explain)

2 14%

Total 14 100%

# Answer Min Value Max Value Average Value

Standard Deviation Responses

1 Percent Time 2.00 60.00 24.86 21.29 7

What percentage of your day is spent on vegetation management activities?

Current VM Practices

What technologies are used to track vegetation management activities? Choose all that apply

# Answer

Response %

1 Pen and paper

8 89%

2 GPS

4 44% 3 GIS

5 56% 4 CAD

0 0%

5 Other (Please describe)

1 11%

How are vegetation management records kept?

# Answer

Response % 1 Hard copy

1 11% 2 Database

2 22% 3 Spreadsheet

5 56% 4 Paper maps

5 56% 5 GIS maps

3 33%

6 Other (please explain)

1 11%

How do you communicate work assignments to vegetation management crews?

# Answer

Response % 1 Maps

8 89%

2 Job orders/tickets

9 100%

3 Mobile Device

0 0% 4 GIS

0 0%

5 Other (please explain)

0 0%

Current VM Practices

How are vegetation management activities verified?

# Answer

Response %

1 Physical complete post-run

8 89%

2 Physical post spot-checks

2 22%

3 Contractor affidavit/work records

1 11%

4 Employee work records

2 22%

5 Other (please explain)

0 0%

Who performs vegetation management activities?

# Answer

Response %

1 Full time personnel

2 22%

2

Contracted Vegetation Management personnel

1 11%

3

A combination of contracted and full time personnel

6 67%

Total 9 100%

# Answer

Response %

1 Systematic Physical inspection/evaluation

7 78%

2 Timed rotation of vegetation activities

7 78%

3 Employee reported trouble areas

7 78%

4 Member reported trouble areas

6 67%

5 Other (please explain)

0 0%

Which planning activities are used to determine where vegetation management is required? Choose all that apply.

VM Manager Needs

Summary of Responses:

Better organization

Electronic maps

Enhanced record keeping

Web based application that could be used by all employees

Timed VM rotation followed annually

If you were to envision a completely new system for improving vegetation management in your organization, how would you like it to work?

Paper Prototype

Create a paper prototype to identify a user friendly form for data entry

Evaluate this with current Spoon River employees

Paper Prototype Final

Results

Lessons Learned

Illinois cooperatives Vegetation management is important Still using paper Similar budgets Part-time management Similar work strategies Not using any special apps for VM

Challenges Customizing user interface Adding linear referencing to a feature service layer

Thank You!Questions?

Contact:jdewees@srecoop.org

References:

1. “Utility Vegetation Management Final Report”; CN Utility Consulting, LLC; March 2004 2. “Beyond Status Quo”; Rick Johnstone; Vistas (a trade publication); http://www.ivmpartners.org/pubs/beyond_statusquo.pdf; accessed 11/09/2014 3. “The Economic Impacts of Deferring Electric Utility Tree Maintenance”; D. Mark Browning; Environmental Consultants, Inc.; April 1997 4. “Integrated Vegetation Management on an Electric Transmission Right-of-way in Pennsylvania, U. S.”; Richard H. Yahner and Russell J. Hutnick; Journal of Arboriculture; September 20045. “UAA Best Management Practices Funding”, Lynn Grayson ; http://www.utilityarborist.org/research/resources/fundingWP.pdf; accessed 11/09/2014

6. “Reliability Based Vegetation Management Through Intelligent System Monitoring”; B. Don Russell, Carl L. Benner, and Jeffrey Wischkaemper; Project T-27 Tele-seminar, 10/16/2007, accessed 11/09/2014