Optimizing electric utility network data integration

The challenge

ATCO Electric delivers electricity to nearly 229,000 homes, farms and businesses across 242 communities in north and east-central Alberta, Canada. Its service area covers almost two-thirds of the province of Alberta, with approximately 88,000 kilometers of transmission and distribution lines.

To process work orders and service requests, ATCO relied on two disparate systems with two decades’ worth of data. Work order, service request and asset information was stored in the IBM Maximo EAM system, while asset location data was housed in HxGN NetWorks. This caused delays because users had to pull data from different locations to access the information necessary for technicians in the field to begin working on requests. Also, data entry in both systems, by separate groups, led to data quality issues.

The solution

To improve operations and enhance customer service, ATCO decided to integrate the two systems and implemented Hexagon’s commercial off-the-shelf integration framework that bidirectionally communicates through Oracle Integration Cloud middleware.

The integration allows for the synchronization of data back and forth between the two systems so when a work order is issued, it contains both asset information and geospatial data. Also, records can be entered in the GIS before projects begin, and the location data is then synched in Maximo. The result is a more complete picture of what is happening for the users in the office as well as technicians in the field.