Utility Vegetation
Management
Application
DESIGNING A MOBILE GEOSPATIAL APPLICATION TO
STREAMLINE FIELD COLLECTION & RECORDKEEPING
Joshua DeWees
Agenda
I.
Goals
II.
Definition
III. Vegetation Impacts
IV. Distribution Utility
V.
Spoon River Electric: Case
Study
VI. Prototype Design Strategy
VII. Information Products
VIII. Timeline
Project Goals
Create a prototype mobile
application to streamline the
Utility Vegetation Management
field survey process by improving:
 Consistency in quantifying
vegetation
 Record keeping and customer
related notes
 Documentation of performed work
Utility Vegetation
Management (VM)
One of the most expensive
maintenance activities in the
electric utility business
Necessary for safety and reliability
Requires a dedicated program
with a good planning strategy
Requires detailed records to track
spatial characteristics over time
(species, volume and location)
Vegetation Impacts on
Distribution Lines
Direct contact
Overhanging
Branches
Underbrush that
prevents access
Direct Contact
Overhanging Branches
Underbrush
Distribution Electric Systems
Vegetation can cause faults that are
transient or constant
High current faults can trigger system
protection devices ( fuses, reclosers, etc)
Faults result in outages, blinking lights,
voltage anomalies, and line loss
Faults also cause customer
dissatisfaction, economic disturbance,
and regulatory issues
Proper vegetation management
minimizes faults from trees and animals
and reduces customer and regulatory
issues
Spoon River Electric
Cooperative
Operates Vegetation Management program for
three rural electric cooperatives in central Illinois
15 Vegetation Management employees split into
two operation units
Use Esri GIS and handheld GPS to track and
document the vegetation management
program. This process involves several manual
steps to get from the field to the database
Model uses linear referencing and route event
table to describe the work
Spoon River Electric: Current
Processes
Planning process
 Collect GPS points of locations where vegetation management is needed
 Make handwritten notes about equipment, access, steepness, percent
canopy, and special notes
 Transcribe all handwritten notes into the GIS database
 Print maps for the crews
Record keeping process
 Collect GPS record of location
 Indicate point number and work performed on written worksheet
 Transcribe the work notes into the GIS database to mark the work that is
completed
 Calculate work footage for the board of directors report
Field Sheet
Database Structure
((Access+Truck+Chipper+Mower+Manual+Herbicide+Steepness )x
Spans) x Canopy
Field Map
Prototype Design
Prototype Design
Design a survey for the cooperative managers in the Illinois electric
cooperatives
 Establish the current methods used at cooperatives in Illinois to
budget, plan and complete vegetation management activities
 Identify technology tools that are used for planning and documenting
these activities
 Identify the primary person responsible for managing these activities
at each cooperative
Evaluate Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions
Consider options for the server implementation
 Cloud
 In-house behind a firewall
Prototype Design
Create a paper
prototype to identify
a user friendly form
for data entry
Evaluate this with
current Spoon River
employees
Prototype Design
Electronic prototype requirements:
 Mobile by tablet or smart phone
 Capable of disconnected editing
 Capable of synchronizing with the
distributed database when
reconnected
 Easy to use for employees in the
field
Primary Information Products
Maps for communicating the work type and
location to the field crews
Records showing daily progress and long
term maintenance history
Estimates for work-units describing each
substation or circuit
Product 1
This product should answer a job foreman’s
question:
Where are the trees and what equipment will I
need to clear them?
Product 2
This product should answer a line clearance
manager’s questions:
Is the work completed?
When was it completed?
Were there any problems or concerns from the
members that need to be documented?
Product 3
This product should answer a CEO or board
of directors’ questions:
How long should this take?
How much will it cost?
How did we perform against our budget for
this work?
Capstone Timeline
The timeline for this prototype/design phase is
approximately six months.
Month seven will be dedicated to the conclusion
of the design approach and preparing to share
my results at Esri UC in San Diego.
I hope to have a working prototype to show for
the conference.
Thank You!
Questions?
References:
http://www.arbormetricssolutions.com/library/arborline_handout_final_reduced.pdf
http://clearion.com/?page_id=176
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4700014&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.or
g%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D4700014
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5594887&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.or
g%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D5594887
http://www.terra-spectrum.com/InsightVM.aspx
http://www.terra-spectrum.com/
http://www.directionsmag.com/pressreleases/electric-utilities-benefit-from-vegetation-managementsoftware/409433
http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=1146791
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 2004
5. “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