[Case study] Jacksonville Electric Authority: Implementing a complete enterprise GIS utility solution

Established in 1865, Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) is a public utility owned
by the City of Jacksonville, Florida. The JEA electric system currently serves
more than 417,000 electric customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent
counties.
JEA owns and operates an electric system with three generating plants and
a fourth in the planning stages, and all transmission and distribution facilities
including approximately 730 miles of transmission lines and 6,000 miles of
distribution lines.

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PROJECT AT A GLANCE
Project Type
Operational utility solutions
Location
Jacksonville, Florida
Number of Customers
417,000
Applications
Provide a graphical view of a utility’s
infrastructure and tools that support cost
reduction through simplified planning, analysis
and operational response times
Software Implemented
ArcFM
™
Enterprise GIS
CUSTOMER BENEFITS
• Less time and resources to maintain
• Reduced trucks rolls per outage incident
• Increased accuracy of information
Jacksonville Electric Authority
Implementing a complete enterprise GIS utility solution
Smart Grid Solutions
Established in 1865, Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) is a public utility owned
by the City of Jacksonville, Florida. The JEA electric system currently serves
more than 417,000 electric customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent
counties.
JEA owns and operates an electric system with three generating plants and
a fourth in the planning stages, and all transmission and distribution facilities
including approximately 730 miles of transmission lines and 6,000 miles of
distribution lines.
Challenges
Throughout the years, crews responsible for the operations and maintenance of
electric utilities relied on construction as-built hard copy drawings and schematics
to reference the electric transmission and distribution grid.

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June 2012
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Jacksonville Electric AuthoritySmart Grid Solutions
In the early 1990’s the utility purchased and
implemented early CAD information systems to
digitize all existing drawings, and to
comprehensively model the electric infrastructure
in a computer system.
In 1997, the City of Jacksonville Department of
Public Utilities, Water and Sewer Operations merged
into JEA. At that time, no digital mapping system
existed that modeled the water and sewer systems.
As with early electric infrastructure operations
and maintenance, crews had to rely on hard copy
drawings to reference the water and sewer systems.
JEA faced a major decision – integrate the water and
sewer into the existing GIS system, or migrate to
another mapping and analytical system.
Solution
After extensive research and needs analysis, it was
decided that a geographic information system (GIS)
would be deployed that would provide extensive
mapping, analysis, tracing, integration and reporting
functionality based on open architecture, database
and development tools.
JEA selected Schneider Electric as the vendor, and
chose to deploy their ArcFM
™
Enterprise GIS, which
provides a complete enterprise utility solution geared
to the needs of utility end users.
ArcFM is based on Esri’s ArcGIS
®
technology and is
specifically designed for the utility industry, enabling
energy companies to model, design and manage
critical infrastructure. By integrating utility data and
advanced geographical maps, ArcFM provides a
graphical view of a utility’s infrastructure and tools that
support cost reduction through simplified planning,
analysis and operational response times.
Schneider Electric worked closely with JEA
professionals to consolidate and convert its previous
data into the ArcFM GIS system to produce a
graphical, data-rich environment, delivering the
information it needs for maximum reliability
and efficiency.
The Bottom Line
With better data quality managed by a single
geodatabase, JEA was able to save on time and
labor by avoiding the need to reenter information into
multiple databases across multiple facilities.
“ArcGIS provides many of the tools and functionality
needed to maintain the integrity of the geodatabase
intrinsically, however, ArcFM packages the necessary
tools and functionality in easy to use interfaces
available via additional toolbars and menus in ArcMap
and ArcCatalog,” said Keith Joiner, GIS business
analyst for JEA.
One of the biggest benefits from the utility
implementing ArcFM technology was the ability of
employees to graphically pinpoint problem areas,
based on customer calls when power is down.
“When customers call in to report an electric outage,
JEA personnel can see the exact location of the call,
and can then use the network model to discern what
asset may be at fault,” Joiner said. “GIS personnel
were able to leverage the tools in ArcFM to analyze,
research, and subsequently reconfigure certain parts
of the electric distribution network model so that the
majority of meters are now connected. The result is
less trucks rolled out per outage incident, thereby
reducing the cost of restoration efforts.”
With the integration of ArcFM GIS, utilities have
a single version of the truth reliably informing a
variety of critical functions, such as dispatching,
troubleshooting, engineering analysis, planning,
reporting, and customer service.
“I’d say we’ve had a very good working relationship with
Schneider Electric, and I definitely look forward to using their
smart grid solutions to help address our customer needs.”
Keith Joiner, GIS business analyst for JEA