Getting to Know Electric Utility Network Data Loading
An overview of the ArcGIS Electric Utility Network Data Loading solution template
The utility network is a new data type in ArcGIS that enables advanced capabilities for representing and analyzing commodity networks, such as electric transmission and distribution systems.
Electric utilities should start their utility network implementation with the free Electric Utility Network Foundation . The Foundation provides a schema to represent electric transmissions and distribution systems as a utility network and rules to ensure proper network behavior.
Organizations with existing electric system GIS data will need to load that data into the Foundation information model. Since the utility network data type and the Foundation information model differ from previous data structures, transformation of existing data is necessary during the loading process.
To simplify loading existing data into the Foundation schema Esri provides a free Electric Utility Network Data Loading solution template.
Electric Utility Network Data Loading provides a documented process for data loading, Excel workbooks used for field mapping and specifying attribute transformations, and a tool that uses the Excel workbooks to load and transform your data into the Foundation schema.
Unlike having to figure out your own process, manually document how your source data relates to your target data, manually perform the transformation, and manually load data; Electric Utility Network Data Loading provides a streamlined process reducing implementation cost and time.
A Simple Method for Source to Target Field Mapping
When moving data between robust schemas, like the ones typically used to represent electric distribution and transmission systems, documenting your source data schema and how it corresponds to the target schema can be confusing and hard to manage.
Microsoft Excel workbooks are used to simplify the field mapping and data loading processes. A tool analyzes your source and target datasets, including subtypes, and populates the workbooks with fields from the target schema and valid source fields. This accelerates set up and reduces potential translation errors.
If loading a source data directly into a target field simply set the field name via dropdown.
The tool also simplifies transforming coded domains into utility network asset groups and asset types.
When advanced manipulation of source data is necessary python functions can be put in the Excel workbook and will be utilized to perform the translation during the data load.
Unlike having to struggle through manually creating a process to transform and load your existing electric system GIS data to the utility network Foundation; Electric Utility Network Data Loading provides a streamlined and reusable data loading process.
Electric Utility Network Data Loading is a fully supported Esri product and is part of the ArcGIS for Electric collection of focused tools and workflows for electric utilities. Visit the ArcGIS Solutions Website for more information.