General Questions Electrical UN

[Joshua_Moreno]

Hi, I have a few questions as I begin to start setting up a UN from scratch for our Electrical team that was addressed in our kickoff meeting.

1. Are we able to show connectivity of circuits within a vault? Let's say there are 3 circuit lines running through a vault, how can this be shown in the UN? Associations, containment? 

2. Has anyone integrated AMI data for meters?

3. What are some operational uses that the UN provides for an Electrical team?

4. Within a vault we want to show splices and tees or taps. What would be the best way to represent this?

5. Looks like we plan to start from scratch, digitizing a small area of our electrical distribution system from the city. Should I digitize based on plans within an asset package or from a local utility network on a file gdb that has been deployed with older data and digitize within the UN?

Might be a bit broad and a few questions to answer but thank you to those who respond!

[RobertKrisher]

I recommend you check out the electric reading list, the first tutorial will give you a feel for how to model features in a utility network along with some of the benefits of a UN.

Your features will be snapped and connected, ultimately traceable back to a circuit breaker that allows you to see which circuit they belong to. So three circuits in a vault would be three separate lines, each belonging to a different circuit, that are drawn passing through a vault. Likewise if you want to model all the connectivity within a vault you can do that as well, as long as you draw them in a way that maintains their connectivity and, ideally, maintains visual clarity.

If you can you provide some examples of what data you're dealing with currently, we can make better recommendations about what will and won't work in a GIS (and/or the utility network).

Its faster to capture data in an asset package, but you bypass all the validation/snapping/connectivity of a utility network. If you have a utility network that is fully configured and works well for your needs you can capture data directly in that model, but you will need to validate as you go.

[Joshua_Moreno]

Hi Robert! Thank you for your response. 

So we have as built drawings of our electrical distribution system and we have a circuit map. So there's 5 circuits in only two conduit lines "A" and "B" with circuits A5, A6, B5-B7.  Have you seen utility networks in the that contain something like this? I assume conduits can be structure lines and they can contain the underground medium voltage lines either associated or contained within the conduit? 

As for the vaults, since vaults are symbolized as points, would the digitized lines need to intersect at the vertex point of the vault then expand back out after the point?

[RobertKrisher · Accepted solution]

@Joshua_Moreno Yes, the conduits would be structure lines that would contain the electric lines that correspond to each circuit.

Vaults are typically symbolized as structure junctions, but can also have a corresponding structure boundary to represent the footprint of the vault. In cases where a vault only contains a single circuit it is common to snap the circuit to the vault. When there are multiple circuits in a vault you can choose to snap them all to the vault, but some customers will also choose to space out the circuits within the vault since this helps make it easier to visually distinguish the path that each circuit takes. If a circuit terminates at a device or is connection to a junction in the vault, then that junction/device/circuit will need to be offset from the rest of the cables in order to prevent them from all being connected (another reason why circuits tend to be spread out within the vault).

[Joshua_Moreno]

As for adding new asset groups and types in the Structure Boundary to symbolize structures like vaults and manholes as a polygon, is this simply just added as a new asset group in the feature class within the asset package? Will this then keep true in the UN after running Apply Asset Package tool?

[RobertKrisher]

I recommend sticking with the OOTB model and conducting a pilot before modifying the asset package. As soon as you start adding asset groups/types to the model, you will need to add all the schema and network configuration to make them work properly.

All the asset groups and asset types I mentioned above should already exist in the asset package; they may just be named in a way you rename at some point.

[Joshua_Moreno]

Hi Robert, I only see "Electric Substation Boundary" as an Asset Type under the Structure Boundary class. I would like to add vaults, manholes, and pull boxes as structure boundaries to be symbolized as polygons instead of points. Would this require the editing of the asset package schema in the essentials model?

[RobertKrisher · Accepted solution]

Most of those asset groups and asset types exist in the expanded model. This means you can use the Create/Apply Network Copy workbook tools to import them into your asset package. You can read an article about how to use them here: Solution tools to help with data modeling and data migration.

I'm not aware of anyone creating structure boundary for underground/surface structures with smaller footprints (pull boxes, pedestals, junction boxes). You could add these as additional asset types to cabinet/vault boundaries (relatively easy to implement). If you wanted to create new asset groups, you would need to be careful to set up all the domains on the new subtype, in addition to all the steps required to create a new asset group. There's an overview that guides you through this process in the Configure a utility network topic in the ArcGIS Online Help. You would make the data model changes on the asset package schema (make a backup first), then put the corresponding configuration in the various B_ tables in the asset package.

[Joshua_Moreno]

Ahh gotcha, this is perfect. I've currently been using the essentials model so seems like best course of action would rather switch over to the Expanded or just import them into my existing asset package via the tools you mentioned.

Thank you for your help!