GIS Eases Workforce Transition and Boosts Efficiency for Rural Colorado Electric Co-op

With 135,000 customers and more than 200 distribution feeders, Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) is one of the largest and fastest-growing of more than 900 member-owned electric distribution cooperatives in the United States. To ease the workforce transition, the co-op implemented ESRI’s ArcGIS Server technology.

“The GIS we now have through ESRI has opened the door to new ideas and new possibilities to solve problems,” said Duane Holt, senior supervisor of GIS for IREA. “For years and years, we have had a lot of good data, but it hasn’t been available to the enterprise. Knowledge that was once passed along from person to person is now in the database and accessible to everyone.”

Data is now available throughout the enterprise because of ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server solutions along with ArcFM from Telvent Miner & Miner. The GIS technology allows IREA to distribute maps, models, and tools across the enterprise. The ArcFM solution provides industry-specific tools for editing, configuring data models, and managing facility information.

“Our employees used to see pieces of the picture in their minds or on a scrap of paper,” Holt commented. “Now they can all see the whole picture and are contributing to it.”

With its new ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server solutions, the utility is able to maintain electrical facilities, keep track of jurisdictional changes, and perform a variety of mapping applications. Most importantly for IREA, the technology is supporting a much-needed data cleanup of the customer information system. IREA migrated from a CAD-based system and is now fully geospatially enabled.

“A successful pilot by ESRI and Telvent Miner & Miner allowed us to save a great deal of time and money,” Holt added. “With their help, the complete expedited implementation finished right on schedule without a glitch. I couldn’t be happier with the success. The system has allowed the GIS staff of three people to respond to varied requests much faster and more accurately. The company is only beginning to realize the capabilities of this seemingly limitless technology.”