Electric Light & Power - January/February 2016

T&D Operations
Jan|Feb|2016 ELECTRICLIGHT&POWER | 25

F
Questar Gas Creates
As-built Gas Delivery Maps
With Improved Accuracy and Enterprise Integration

For its entire 87-year history, Questar Gas has focused on building accurate, up-to-date asset maps to serve as the foundation to help ensure the safe and efficient delivery of natural gas. The Salt Lake City-based energy company invests significant resources into maintaining a digital GIS map database that surpasses industry standards and exceeds government regulations.

“Our philosophy with regards to assets has always
been install it once, map it once, find it forever,” said Darrin
Zesiger, project foreman-inspection for Questar Gas. “We
always want to know where an asset is located.”
Questar has further enhanced its as-built mapping
capabilities over the past two years by rolling out a GPS-
based mobile-mapping and data-collection solution to all
inspectors working on gas-delivery installations. The process
of mapping and collecting details related to a gas main and
service installs and then updating the enterprise GIS used to
take as long as eight weeks. Now it takes about one day.

“As a result, our as-built data is more accurate and integrated with asset-management workflows,” said Zesiger, “and our inspectors have more time to spend on their primary duty, which is to make sure the installations are done safely and correctly.”

Traceable, Verifiable and Complete

Questar has pipeline assets in Utah,
Wyoming and Idaho. Many of the
company’s one million retail gas customers live and work in
the rapidly growing Salt Lake City area. Since the rollout of
the GPS as-built mapping solution, Questar’s 79 inspectors
have mapped features and collected pipeline details for more
than 53,000 new services and 8.85 million feet of gas main.

The gas utility worked closely with CartoPac International Inc., a provider of integrated mobile mapping and enterprise asset management technologies, to develop the solution. Based in Colorado, CartoPac began its relationship with Questar Gas designing a GPS technique to locate structures in the utility’s pipeline corridors. At the time, the utility’s operations department was also looking at GPS as a means of improving as-built mapping activities. CartoPac was asked to lend its expertise to that project as well.

“We offered a high-accuracy mobile mapping and
inventory software that we were expanding to integrate
with asset management,” said Glenn Vlass, CartoPac Vice
President. “Map accuracy and workflow integration were
exactly what Questar Gas was looking for so we partnered
with them to build a solution that integrated with legacy
systems and offered advance workflows.”
Vlass explained that utilities and other organizations
with federally regulated infrastructure are now under
increased pressure to go beyond simply knowing where all
of their assets are located. The ongoing trend is for operators
to ensure the installation, maintenance and repair of their
distribution system is traceable, verifiable and complete.

To make lifecycle asset management possible, CartoPac upgraded its software to link the field mapping element directly to the GIS as well as back-office systems such as document management, work order management and contractor payment. With continuous input and feedback from Questar, CartoPac customized the GPS as-built mapping solution that gave personnel across the enterprise instant access to the location, status and history of newly installed assets through the GIS.