Tom Newdome, Charles Davis

AM/FM IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING AT ALABAMA POWER CO.

Introduction -

In 1989, Alabama Power completed a Company wide feasibility study to examine current methods and costs of managing facilities located throughout the service territory. As a result, a phased approach to AM/FM implementation was approved, beginning with a pilot development. Primary reasons to pursue AM/FM included:
  1. Obtain a positive cost-benefit.
  2. Eliminate the inaccuracies and backlog caused by manual methods.
  3. Provide a base system to support business change.
The pilot was completed in April 1993. Although Alabama initiated the pilot, other operating and support companies of the Southern Electric System participated. This included Georgia Power, Savannah Electric, and Southern Company Services. Esri and Miner & Miner managed the pilot application development and Geonex Corporation performed the data conversion. The pilot met objectives of investigating conversion issues and demonstrating AM/FM technology to users. Issues were also identified relating to the complexity of the pilot database design and application performance. Concurrent with the pilot, development of other systems such as Distribution Automation, underscored the need to have a base computing system that could maintain and provide a model of the electrical network to other applications and thus avoid duplication.

This paper reviews the development of the AM/FM Implementation Plan at Alabama Power. It details the objectives which were established and explains the organization. The most significant objective, post pilot completion of the database design and Graphic Editor is described. The primary sections of the implementation plan are also outlined.

Implementation Plan

At the top of implementation planning is a definition of the objectives, and; just as important, a common understanding of what they mean by both management and other department personnel. The translation of those objectives to a detailed implementation plan, can facilitate this common understanding and keep expectations in perspective. At Alabama Power, the specific objectives which were established at the end of the pilot were:
  1. Adjust, simplify and refine the AM/FM database design
  2. Develop basic graphic editing and mapping/database applications for production use, in concert with ArcStorm technology.
  3. Convert line and switch data from AutoCAD to a sectionalizing database.
  4. Convert detailed facilities data from manual sources to a pole spotting database.

The first two objectives were joint between Alabama, Georgia, and Savannah. The last two were specific to Alabama Power. From these objectives, a top down approach was applied to identify organization, detailed tasks, manpower, funding, and required schedules. For a long term project like AM/FM, it is also important that a formal periodic review of the plan be performed so that progress may be assessed and objectives reaffirmed or modified according to the current state of the Company and industry developments.

Organization -

Once the implementation objectives were established, the organization of the project was addressed. Several factors complicated the required arrangement. In addition to the defined joint developments, each operating Company had its own implementation agenda and specific requirements. Even from a joint standpoint, the fact that commonly developed applications would run on different computing infrastructures at each Company was challenging. Overall though, Power Delivery personnel at each Company were committed to joint cooperation in order to avoid duplication where possible. One example was the agreement by all Companies to a common and standard mapping symbology. Although straight forward in concept, the attainment took much debate, compromise and work as the result modified many years of adopted practice at each location.

It was decided that project management would reside jointly through a Project Manager at each Company. At Alabama, in addition to a Power Delivery Project Manager, an Information Resources Project Manager was established because of the dual organizations. A Technical Project Manager was established at Southern Company Services to manage database development, maintenance, and application coding. The Technical Project Manager would be responsible for detailed development, at the direction of the Company Project Managers. This facilitated joint areas of development. He would provide day to day coding direction to SCS staff and any vendors that were used. Design was accomplished by teams designated by the Project Managers and facilitated by the Technical Project Manager. Team makeup was usually those individuals at each Company assigned to the project along with SCS staff. The Project Manager at Alabama was designated to be the point of contact, for contract purposes, to one vendor, while the Manager at Georgia was designated for another. This allowed the vendors a single point of billing that could then be split between the Companies. Since data conversion was not a joint objective, each Company established its own related organization. At Alabama, the Project Manager became the conversion contract administrator, while a three man organization was established for conversion management at the working level. An organizational definition, if established well, can facilitate the project, but the definition is secondary to having talented personnel who are dedicated to accomplishing the objectives in a team oriented manner. Leadership at the Project Manager and Technical Manager level is a must.

Application Development -

The application development effort focused on meeting the objectives identified at the end of the pilot project while developing initial production- ready software usable by all of the companies involved. The first step was a thorough review of the database design and pilot applications. There were two goals of this effort:
  1. Incorporate changes necessary to ensure that the design would support all of the operating companies requirements.
  2. Simplify the design where, based on knowledge gained in the pilot project, performance could be improved.
Early in the development effort, several design parameters were established. Since much of the data in an AM/FM system is available from or needed by other non-graphical applications, it was decided that all attribute information for facilities would be stored in the relational data base. It was a goal of the effort to utilize the capabilities of the relational data base as much as possible for the manipulation of the non-graphic data. Use of the Info Feature Attribute Tables was limited to those items required for symbology while other Info tables were limited to data required for Look Up Tables used by the various form menus. Wherever possible, DBMSCURSOR variables were used for menu fields and DBMSEXECUTE statements were used to manipulate the database.

Although not commercially available at the beginning of development, it was recognized that ArcSTORM could provide needed functionality to improve overall application performance and the maintenance of data between Arc Info and the relational database. Therefore, an initial decision was made to base the design on ArcSTORM and perform the development on ArcSTORM Beta versions until released. Being a Beta site for a software package like ArcInfo introduces some additional complexity and effort in the development. While it provides earlier access to new functionality, it also requires additional effort by the programmers to determine the source of problems, isolate the cause, and provide documentation and feedback to Esri. At times, it is necessary to work with limited documentation and changing functionality. Overall, participation as a Beta site for ArcInfo allowed the initial application to be completed sooner.

The pilot contained a significant amount of functionality in five applications: Editor, Map Products, Work Order, Ad-hoc Mapping and Query, and an interface to transmission design (ADP). To move toward production implementation with limited programming resources, it was decided that initial development would concentrate on modifications to the Editor application. Other outside resources would be utilized to modify the other applications where practical with map production being a high priority behind the Editor.

One of the most important objectives was to produce a system that would be easy to maintain and extend. To accomplish this, it was decided that the rules controlling placement of different features would be stored in a table in the relational data base. This table, in addition to describing how a specific feature is placed, snapped, and rotated also identifies what database fields are used for annotation, on what level they are placed, and how they are placed relative to the feature. Taking this approach has already proven beneficial by allowing additional features to be easily added and to quickly change the placement characteristics of previously defined features.

In order to support the development effort, a number of intermediate releases of the application were provided to the user. While this required additional time and effort of the development group to produce several releases, it allowed the operating companies to work with the software and identify problem areas during coding. It also had the benefit of identifying programming bugs well before the scheduled final release so that resolution and retesting of the problems could be completed sooner.

Implementation Planning -

For the development management at Alabama Power, seven key areas were identified as part of the plan: Each key area makes up a section of the plan which was then consolidated into a single three ring binder. Each section is updated at least annually during the Company budget cycle, providing for a working reference. A description of each section follows:

History -

A historical narrative of the project is the initial section of the plan and provides important information. Major dates, milestones and strategic decisions are recorded and updated annually. This serves to document important information and key decisions. As new personnel are assigned to the project, this can provide them or new management a good historical perspective.

Applications -

Although the data is the heart of the system, it is the applications that drive the benefits. The Feasibility study identified numerous applications that may be supported by the AM/FM system. Examples of these are Work Order, Facilities Maintenance, and Map Production. The application development portion is used to identify application priority, required resources, and development timeframes. During each annual cycle, a priority review is made. Using average resource costs, annual costs for application development are estimated for the next budget year and the following four years. A spreadsheet is used to roll the costs into a single line item for applications. In Alabama's plan, a distinction must be made between Company and 3rd party personnel, since respective funding comes from different sources.

Hardware/Base Software -

A spreadsheet is used to identify the number of workstations that will be required at each Company location, by year. In the current plan, there are 64 specific work locations. The amount and types of equipment are tailored to the individual location. Added to these work station numbers are the number of estimated servers and an estimated number of supporting PCs, printers and plotters. Once these hardware numbers are established, the number of ArcInfo licenses, relational database licenses, and maintenance fees are included. Using estimated average hardware costs, all costs are rolled into line items for Hardware/Base Software.

Personnel -

From the project standpoint, the cost of personnel is considered an imbedded cost. However, the number of personnel assigned to the project, as Full Time Equivalents, is identified by function. The functions required for the project are: Experience will be the best method to determine exact requirements, but an estimate of current requirements and projected needs based on buildout are determined on an annual basis.

Data Conversion -

This section consists of a narrative explaining conversion philosophies, organization and objectives. The landbase at Alabama Power is to be developed and managed by Corporate Real Estate Department and provided to Power Delivery. Using the provided landbase, Power Delivery will then be responsible for the facilities. The current plan calls for conversion management on a District basis, and outlines a District priority based on facility density and other factors. An estimated conversion expenditure for each District is provided and spread on an annual basis according to the priority. These costs are then tabulated under a Data Conversion line item.

Project Schedule -

A current project schedule is maintained using project management software and updated approximately four times a year. This schedule is published to all project individuals and management in order to assist project communication.

Budget -

Attached is a sample copy of the cost projection sheet, with fictitious figures, that is used at Alabama Power. Line items described above for Hardware, Software, Conversion and other items are detailed in the spreadsheet and rolled up into the required Accounting items in the lower section. Each year, as development continues and tasks change, the plan is modified, and adjustments are made to the individual sections and bottom line costs.

Summary -

Like many other similar developments, AM/FM development at Alabama Power has taken much effort due to custom development, joint cooperation between Companies, and conversion from many non-standard sources. Like any complex effort, a plan for implementation must be developed and maintained as the project progresses. The implementation plan, similar to a business plan, should provide the organization a path for its objectives. Figure 1

Thomas P. Newdome
Alabama Power Company
600 North 18th Street
Birmingham, AL 35226
Telephone: (205) 250-4268
Fax: (205) 250-4327

Charles Davis
Southern Company Services
64 Perimeter Center East
Atlanta, GA 30346
Telephone: (404) 668-2957