Press Releases
ScottishPower invests £750,000 in mobile geographic information system
04/01/2007
< Back to
Press Releases Listing
ScottishPower has awarded a £750,000 contract to ESRI (UK) to provide their second generation mobile Geographic Information System (GIS), which will enable up to 800 engineers working across 70,000 miles of ScottishPower’selectricity networks to access and record map based information while in the field.
The GIS will enhance ScottishPower’s network operations function by giving field engineers immediate access to accurate information such as location of cables and plant. Field engineers will be provided with the latest technology including rugged tablet and notebook PCs to act in the place of legacy field mapping and inspection platforms, giving access to a complete set of mapping, operational and infrastructure data. This will ensure better service for customers reducing the need for engineers to travel to offices or depots to access network information hence increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs.
The contract includes software and services from ESRI (UK) including ArcEngine, a development tool for building customised, geographically enabled software applications and GeoField Network Map Viewer, a comprehensive field mapping application designed for the utility industry and developed by Sigma Seven, an ESRI (UK) business partner. Consulting services are also being provided by ESRI (UK) and Sigma Seven to tailor the field based software for ScottishPower and integrate it with their existing systems.
ScottishPower provides electricity transmission and distribution services in the, supplying in excess of 4.3 million homes and businesses in, Merseyside and North Wales. Investment in the latest geographic information tools supports ScottishPower’s business goals of continuous improvement and operational excellence. It also supports their initiative to provide timely information to field engineers enabling them to be more effective.
The ESRI based system will integrate mapping information and geographic data with other documents, for example new proposals, plans of substations and asset inspection schedules so that field engineers have all of the information at their fingertips.
ScottishPower have been using field based GIS for many years. The ESRI (UK) and Sigma Seven next generation was chosen following a competitive tender including other major GIS providers in the Utility GIS market. The system is currently being delivered and scheduled to go live across ScottishPower’s north and south regions in February 2007.
