Guelph Hydro receives Innovation in Technology award

ESRI Canada is pleased to announce that Guelph Hydro Electric Systems Inc. (Guelph Hydro) received the Innovation in Technology award at the Small Utility LeaderÂ’s Forum in Cambridge, Ontario. This award was presented to Guelph Hydro in recognition of their innovative Web application and leadership among electrical utilities in Ontario.

Since 1999, Guelph Hydro has been helping other electrical utilities migrate away from their legacy CAD environment to the ArcGIS platform by providing data conversion and application support. Guelph Hydro effectively developed a number of custom applications in ArcGIS that allow electrical utilities to quickly standardize their systems and streamline day-to-day operations.

“Guelph Hydro has demonstrated exceptional innovation in their approach to streamlining internal and external operations using the latest in ArcGIS Server technology,” said John Houweling, Regional Manager, Ontario, ESRI Canada. “Their ability to standardize otherwise disparate systems and meet the Ontario Energy Board’s reporting requirements has effectively inspired fifteen of Ontario’s 93 electrical utilities to do the same.”

Guelph Hydro is one of the first electric utilities in Ontario to develop an internal Web-enabled application using the ArcGIS Server API for Flex. The application is being used for the delivery of several internal applications that link to their Customer Information System (CIS). Applications include an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) application that allows them locate and route service vehicles and Site Inspections – an ArcPAD field inspection application that enables a real-time awareness of current field conditions. In just a short time, their Web application has enabled a number of productivity gains and is helping to better facilitate yearly reporting requests to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).

“We decided to develop this application using the ArcGIS API for Flex because it allowed us to combine a number of independent applications into a single, visually rich interactive map, query and display GIS,” explains Dan Amyot, Manager of Information Systems, Guelph Hydro Electric Systems Inc. “Out-of-the-box capabilities in ArcGIS Server made Web application development relatively easy. We plan to further extend our Web development capabilities to better serve our customers.”

“I am quite pleased to see how our development activities are helping other electrical utilities demonstrate service quality with indicators such as the OEB’s SAIFI and CAIDI,” said Neill Burdett, Communications and Operating Supervisor, Guelph Hydro Electric Systems Inc.