NW Natural is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and delivers natural gas to customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. NW Natural builds, maintains and operates the local natural gas distribution system, and in recent years their growth rate has exceeded the national average for local utility distribution companies.

1. Smart Grid Solutions
NW Natural
Getting the most impact for GIS technology investments
PROJECT AT A GLANCE
Project Type
Operational utility solutions
Location
Portland, Oregon
Applications
Serves as the foundation for an intelligent
network infrastructure that improves
efficiencies, increases safety and enables
smarter business decisions
Software Implemented
ArcFM™ Enterprise GIS
NW Natural is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and delivers natural gas
CUSTOMER BENEFITS to customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. NW Natural builds,
maintains and operates the local natural gas distribution system, and in
• Increased accuracy of information
recent years their growth rate has exceeded the national average for local
• Highly configurable and easily adapted for utility distribution companies.
multiple uses
Challenges
NW Natural began utilizing GIS technology in 1983. Since then, NW
Natural has internally designed its own data model and generated custom
programs and tools to handle day-to-day processes. However, because of
the customized platform it took a lot of time and resources to operate and
maintain the system.
Make the most of your energy SM

2. Smart Grid Solutions NW Natural
“I’ve been quite impressed with the out-of-the-box configurations
and custom programming that allows us to make better use of our
data models,”
David Blan, GIS supervisor at NW Natural
“It got to the point where our IT support was devoting valuable resources to custom-designing
using 90 percent of their time maintaining all of programs for each and every step in our GIS
our custom-built programs and tool sets,” said system.”
David Blan, GIS supervisor at NW Natural.
By using ArcFM GIS, it takes less time and
“We needed to start thinking about using industry resources to maintain and manage utility data.
standard tools that could be implemented out of “One of the benefits in part of our implementation
the box to do the same work more efficiently, and was moving to a standard data model from the
require less IT support.” homegrown data model we had before.”
Solution NW Natural is currently testing the full range of
Schneider Electric partnered with NW Natural functions available with the ArcFM GIS solution
to integrate ArcFM™ Enterprise GIS into its including troubleshooting, engineering analysis,
operations smoothly and efficiently — ensuring planning and reporting. These additional features
that proper solutions deployed to optimal scale will help increase efficiencies in other areas of
and functionality — giving NW Natural the most operations.
impact for its GIS technology investments.
“We are already seeing positive results in some
With its open architecture, the ArcFM GIS system of the testing that we’re doing with the ArcFM
is highly configurable and easily adapted for GIS solution, which we are planning to use as
multiple uses, and can be paired with existing an easier function with a more efficient response
GIS technology. “I’ve been quite impressed with time for a number of our operations,” noted Blan.
the out-of-the-box configurations and custom
programming that allows us to make better use of ArcFM GIS is just one component in the
our data models,” said Blan. Schneider Electric Smart Grid Solutions Suite,
a comprehensive toolset created to help clients
efficiently plan, design and reliably operate the
The Bottom Line
grid. With capabilities that include data collection
ArcFM GIS serves as the foundation for an
and monitoring, grid analytics, rules-based
intelligent network infrastructure that improves
economic decision making tools, and the ability
efficiencies, increases safety and enables smarter
to integrate with traditional business software,
business decisions for all types of utilities.
the Schneider Electric Smart Grid Solutions Suite
can help utilities transition into a next-generation
“ArcFM GIS has allowed our IT department to
energy provider.
focus their time on enhancements for the system
©2012 Schneider Electric. All rights reserved.
instead of spending the vast majority of their time
simply maintaining custom programs. We are
now able to move forward in making our data
models a better tool for the entire company,”
Blan explained. “It also allowed us to work more
creatively and focus on configuration instead of
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www.schneider-electric.com
June 2012