Tucson Electric Power Seeks to Elevate Engineering Efficiency by Augmenting Enterprise GIS Systems

Tucson Electric Power (TEP), the largest corporation headquartered in southern Arizona, are enhancing their engineering design capability by integrating best-in-breed network design software with their existing enterprise GIS. TEP is completing deployment of Bentley OpenUtilities to complement their Smallworld GIS with on-the-fly cost estimation and engineering workflow management.

TEP expects to save time with the ability to refine designs for cost savings more rapidly. Automatic compatible unit assignment and comprehensive unit data support in Bentley OpenUtilities will enable TEP to produce detailed labor and material cost breakdowns faster without time-consuming cycles between their GIS and enterprise work management system (WMS). This provides the ability to explore options quickly, find the least-cost design, and to submit designs within budget the first time.

TEP also expects to reduce project delays with the ability to better manage work requests from directly inside their GIS design environment. The configurable design workflow engine in Bentley OpenUtilities will work in concert with TEP’s WMS, enabling managers to assign, manage, and approve work orders. This will allow TEP to avoid open-loop processes with status notifications, approval requests, and e-mail integration as well as track project status and progress using dashboards and reports.

Jeff McConnell, GIS supervisor, Tucson Electric Power, stated, “The ability to integrate Bentley OpenUtilities with our existing enterprise GIS made it possible to upgrade key components of our engineering design process. We found the cost estimation and design workflow management capabilities in Bentley OpenUtilities designer to be best suited for our demanding environment and anticipate these capabilities will advance our design efficiency.”