How GIS helps utilities plan for climate change and energy transition
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can help companies build digital maps of their assets, and supply real-time data about their use, enabling utility companies to plan and deliver important changes to their networks quickly and efficiently. To find out more about the possibilities of GIS, we spoke with Jelmer Akkerman from Tensing.
Tensing is a consultancy firm which gives advice to utility companies, governmental agencies and other companies about the use of geographical information. While that might sound complicated, most people are much better acquainted with GIS than they realise.
“In today’s data-driven world, a lot of applications use location information, to the extent that we all have GIS in our pockets now, on our phones. The most common use case is probably Google Maps – so whenever you try to find your way down a new street or plan your route to a location, you’re using GIS.”
Most people will be familiar with the consumer products that use GIS. But Tensing works with companies who utilise GIS for enhancing their decision-making and business operations. The head of the Utility practice, Akkerman is responsible for the firm’s services to utility companies such as energy infrastructure groups and water utility companies.
Two consulting lines
Depending on what each client is looking to get from the technology, Tensing’s consulting offering branches into two propositions. The first offering sees the consulting firm help with the geographical visualisation of asset data. Amid some key demographic changes in the workforce, this is extremely important to many utility operators at present.
Akkerman asserts, “Most utilities companies are facing a huge process of workforce succession. Many members of senior teams are coming up to retirement age, and a lot of information – about cables in the ground, about substations, or pumping stations for water – is typically in the heads of those staff who are exiting. They have their knowhow from ‘back in the days’, but now companies need to find a way to make that knowledge accessible to new staff.”
This is where a GIS system comes in. “GIS helps register assets in the field – and make a digital twin of assets. It is easier to make a map that shows the location of assets that need to be maintained, digitally, than it is on paper – creating a blueprint that can be accessed and updated easily time and again.”
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Making these ‘digital maps’ means that visualised data can be used by teams to keep track of assets, perform on-site maintenance on objects like pipelines. But beyond that, Tensing’s second form of consulting comes into play, which helps merge geographical data with non-geographical data (anything that is about the same object, but does not contain a location, such as price or material) – for an extremely powerful combination.
Integrating these types of data is mostly done to improve processes for management, investments, and future strategies. “GIS being used in this way can contribute to better communication within the company,” explains Akkerman. “To help departments plan when maintenance needs to be done, what its costs will be, or how assets needs to evolve to comply with new regulations.”
In light of major challenges the utilities sector is facing, such cooperation is becoming more important. According to Akkerman, Tensing’s clients are often driven by “common challenges”, so creating broader data sets through collaboration and ensuring better insights as a result, makes sense – even for counterparts and competitors in the field.
“Organisations are more likely to share GIS data and collaborate – given they have similar challenges, both from environmental and economic impacts. For example, we have a client who works in water distribution and they have to replace some pipes. Often those are in a street where gas or electricity pipes also run. If they start breaking up the street randomly, that will impact the other utilities – so there is a clear shared interest to collaborate and share data between companies.”
“GIS helps register assets in the field – and make a digital twin of assets. This helps create a blueprint of the asset infrastructure and its state.”
Climate change
On those shared challenges, utility companies face two particularly pronounced hurdles in the coming years. First, the sector plays a key role in helping society navigate the impacts of climate change. Knowing and understanding the capacity of historic assets is crucial when it comes to adapting to future shifts in weather conditions.
Akkerman says, “In water management, for example, the risk of more extreme weather becoming common brings a number of big questions. In the Netherlands and the UK, there are low-lying areas which make flooding a real risk, and part of that flooding goes into the sewage system. These systems were not designed to handle the amount of flood waters which we will increasingly see as the climate changes. So, the effect of this is spill-out of waste water into areas you don’t want it to be.”
This is one example of where GIS can be used to create practical responses to the risks presented by climate change. Noting that “preventing negative outcomes starts with knowing where assets are, and what the capacity of the network is”, Akkerman suggests that this information can then help water utilities players optimally design and, where needed, expand their assets.
That “spill-over” is currently impacting the core of the business of the UK’s water companies, which have been coming under mounting pressure in recent years to curb the amount of sewage now making its way into British rivers and the sea.
According to Akkerman, there is still a varied range of “maturity” when it comes to adopting GIS in the sector, as a means of getting the situation under control. Some utility groups have poured resources into digital tools in recent years – and are therefore ahead of the curve when deploying GIS to help respond to climate pressures. But those who have “relied on other fixes” in the interim are increasingly coming round to the idea that they will have to invest in GIS.
“I recently was in London for three days, for the annual GIS conference hosted there by Esri,” he recalls. “The awareness of utility executives to invest in GIS in order to prepare for the future is higher than ever before.”
Esri is the provider of one of world’s leading GIS systems, with its Esri Utility Network (UN) tailored to the needs of utility companies. As certified and recognised partner of Esri, Tensing helps utility groups implement Esri and professionalise their use of the system.
“GIS will be central for utility companies to respond efficiently to climate change and energy transition challenges.”
Energy transition
The second major shared challenge is the energy transition. “Traditionally, there was a very centralised electrical grid when everything hinged on carbon-based fuels – or later, nuclear power – for energy. But with the rise of renewables, there are many more outlets where power can be generated – utilising the power of the sun, the oceans, and the wind.”
However, the result of this changing energy mix is that the energy system is becoming more decentralised, which grids must respond to. Knowing how is the challenge every grid operator is struggling with, with GIS often at the heart of the answers that are needed.
“The whole network operation is a spatial exercise – you need to know where everything is, how much you will need to fix or change it – and all that depends on GIS data,” Akkerman points out.
“Combining that with real-time data such as electricity or gas flow, you can see patterns in usage – and also in production – so then you can be more efficient in the energy transition. For example, if you know a certain neighbourhood produces a lot of solar power, because you see it in your system, your electrical grid, you can plan for areas of investment to make the areas around it more robust – and use its excess production to help bridge gaps in the interim.”
Having helped dozens of large utility companies tap into the power of GIS, Akkerman says Tensing has first-hand seen the impact it can make. But with the challenges ahead, he says the sector is at the very start of its next GIS journey. “GIS will be central for utility companies to respond efficiently to climate change and energy transition challenges. At Tensing, we will be ready to support clients in their journey, wherever they are.”
