ScottishPower plc, headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, has selected Esri (UK) Ltd. to provide a mobile GIS. ScottishPower provides electricity transmission and distribution services in the United Kingdom, supplying more than 4.3 million homes and businesses in Scotland; Merseyside, England; and North Wales. Investment in the latest GIS tools furthers ScottishPower's business goals of continuous improvement and operational excellence and also supports its initiative to provide timely information to field engineers, enabling them to be more effective.

The second-generation system will enable up to 800 engineers, working across 70,000 miles of ScottishPower's United Kingdom electricity networks, to access and record map-based information while in the field.

The GIS will enhance ScottishPower's network operations capabilities by giving field engineers immediate access to accurate information, such as the location of cables and other remote equipment. Field engineers will be provided with the latest mobile technology, including rugged notebook and Tablet PCs, to replace legacy field mapping and inspection platforms, giving them access to a complete set of mapping, operational, and infrastructure data.

Esri (UK) will provide software and services, including ArcGIS Engine, a development tool for building customized, geographically enabled software applications, and GeoField Network Map Viewer, a comprehensive field mapping application designed for the utility industry and developed by Sigma Seven Limited, an Esri (UK) Business Partner. Consulting services are also being provided by Esri (UK) and Sigma Seven to tailor the field-based software for ScottishPower and integrate it with the utility's existing systems.

This system will integrate mapping information and geographic data with other documents, for example, new proposals, plans of substations, and asset inspection schedules, so that field engineers will have all necessary information at their fingertips.

ScottishPower has been using field-based GIS for many years. The Esri (UK) and Sigma Seven next-generation mobile GIS solution was chosen following a competitive tender, including other major GIS providers in the utility GIS market. The system went live across ScottishPower's north and south regions in February 2007.

More Information

For more information, contact Bill Meehan, Esri (e-mail: bmeehan@esri.com), or visit www.esri.com/electricgas.