Hydro One Implements ArcGIS
Canada's Hydro One Networks Inc. will standardize its GIS platform by using a suite of Esri's ArcGIS products including desktop clients—ArcInfo, ArcEditor, ArcView, and ArcGIS extensions, as well as ArcSDE and ArcIMS. Esri's ArcIMS Internet technology will play a pivotal role at Hydro One to disseminate information stored in the utility's geographic data warehouse through a one-window portal.
Hydro One and its predecessor Ontario Hydro have been innovators in electrical power transmission since the early part of the twentieth century.
Today, Hydro One is the 10th largest electrical utility company in North America, transporting electricity to large industrial customers, municipal utilities, and more than one million smaller end users across Ontario, Canada.
Hydro One is a long-time user of GIS, first implementing the technology more than 20 years ago. The company has developed sophisticated applications and is upgrading its GIS to leverage spatial information and technology across Hydro One. After conducting a 
comprehensive evaluation of GIS software, Hydro One decided to implement a GIS, based on open IT standards, that was capable of integration with other Enterprise systems.
A fundamental component of Hydro One's Enterprise Data Warehouse is spatial information. Whether it is customer-, asset-, environmental-, or competitor-related data, geography will become the integration framework for all of its databases. Various Business units in Hydro One will drive the GIS requirements. For example, the asset management departments will utilize the GIS infrastructure and data to support various spatial Business needs including outage management. Hydro One expects ArcGIS to greatly expedite the implementation of enterprisewide projects.
Geoffrey Cameron, senior IT analyst for GIS at Hydro One, comments on the future of GIS in the electrical utility industry. "As well as historical AM/FM and engineering purposes, GIS will continue to be integrated enterprisewide," he explains. "The main benefit of GIS to any organization comes when spatial data can be shared and leveraged among all Business units. By viewing spatial information as another attribute in a data warehouse, Business applications can now benefit from the additional functionality of GIS."
Esri Canada Limited is very enthusiastic about working with Hydro One to ensure that the company is able to successfully leverage their geographic data and GIS knowledge across the organization. Esri Canada will play an important role by providing local support in the form of training and implementation services for Hydro One.
For more information, contact Mitch Garnett, Esri (tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-2374; e-mail: mgarnett@esri.com) or Roxanne Cox-Drake, Esri (tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-2689; e-mail: rcoxdrake@esri.com).
