Rochester Public Utilities in Production with Responder™
Largest Municipal Utility in Minnesota Benefits from GIS-based OMS
Fort Collins, CO -- Rochester Public Utilities (RPU), a division of the City of Rochester, MN and the largest municipal utility in the state of Minnesota, has gone into production with Responder, Miner & Miner, a Telvent company’s outage management system (OMS). The new OMS solution will allow the utility to better serve their more than 46,000 electric customers through efficient response to service interruptions.
RPU has been a long-time user of Miner & Miner’s ArcFM Solution suite of applications, running ArcFM to support facilities management for six years, and Designer, which provides graphic work design, since January 2005. An integrated GIS workflow has afforded RPU the ability to efficiently manage assets, create designs, and streamline business processes. With the addition of Responder, RPU will take additional advantage of GIS functionality by leveraging the asset data immediately for outages.
Responder provides crucial information for accurate decision-making, both for storm restoration and daily operations. Prior to the OMS implementation, RPU recorded outages manually, so they sought an automated system with the ability to track outages in real time, to rollup outages to a probable outage device, and to improve overall reporting. Now, system operators will have access to a user-friendly interface and intuitive menus to quickly and efficiently dispatch crews based on geographical and tabular data. Marketing and customer service representatives will also access the system to gain updated outage information and accurately relay it to the public without having to interrupt the system operators.
The project, managed primarily by in-house administrators and supported by M&M’s project team, began in October 2005 and took less than three months to rollout into full production with an out-of-the-box implementation. “The relatively simple setup and process-intuitive GUI interface made switching to Responder and training the users quick and easy,” said Greg Rowley, RPU’s GIS Specialist.
Six operators currently utilize Responder, but their system supports a potential for 18 call-takers during a crisis. RPU is now evaluating ways to further leverage the capabilities and benefits of Responder to continue to improve their outage management process.
Miner & Miner (M&M), a Telvent company, is a world leader in the development and implementation of GIS software for utilities. M&M’s ArcFM Solution and extended services assist electric, gas, water, and wastewater utilities in increasing productivity, lowering costs, and improving services by allowing them to effectively manage spatial information. Founded in 1946 as a full-service electrical engineering firm, M&M has been a business partner of ESRI since 1987. This partnership has enabled M&M to become the world's leading developer of ArcGIS applications for the utility industry. M&M services include implementation, integration, and customization of software to fit the needs of individual utilities. For more information, please visit www.miner.com.
Telvent (NASDAQ: TLVT), the Global RealTime IT Company, specializes in high value added solutions and services in four industry sectors (Energy, Traffic, Transport and Environment). Its technology allows high performing companies to make real-time business decisions using data acquisition, control, and advanced operational applications, providing secure actionable information delivery to the enterprise. (www.telvent.com)
ArcFM Solution, ArcFM, ArcFM Viewer, Designer, Responder, Conduit Manager, and Network Adapter are trademarks of Miner and Miner, Consulting Engineers, Inc. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
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