Case Study

RWE Gas: Determining Line Positions Online

Linking Spatial and Commercial Data in the Intranet and Internet

Contributed by GE Smallworld

RWE Gas

The times when the map base and asset data for cable or line positions were only available in central document departments are finally passi. Based on technology from GE Smallworld, RWE Gas AG is making it possible for authorized employees to have online access to all relevant spatial and commercial data in their Germany-wide cable and line network.

 Figure 1

RWE Gas AG, a leading company of the RWE Group, is a modern, service-oriented corporation in the European gas market. All of the gas activities of the RWE Group are centralized at RWE Gas AG, which annually sells natural gas with an energy volume of approximately 220 billion kilowatt hours and has natural gas stores of 1.3 billion m3 at its disposal. As a result, RWE Gas is the second largest energy supplier in Germany. The corporation''s direct transport pathways, made up of a pipeline system of 4,600 km and a supply network extending over 18,000 km, are also impressive. With such a massive distribution system, past efforts to determine the position of individual lines required extensive and time-consuming searches.

Find the Correct Line with the Click of Mouse

With GE Smallworld technology, RWE Gas now has an intuitive geo-information system that authorized employees can use at any time to get a precise picture via the intranet of where the company''s own lines are located. Hans-J|rgen Schocke, Information Manager for GIS and SAP Applications at RWE Gas describes the task, "We have digitized all of our map base and asset data so that we can use an intelligent IT system to input place and street names to navigate to precisely the place where the position or the existence of a natural gas line is supposed to be examined."

 Figure 2

Efficient Database Fed with Map Base and Asset Data

The project has been rolled out together with the IT service provider WGI GmbH. Thomas Wojaczek, senior consultant of WGI says: "GE Smallworld technology, consisting of an efficient spatial database, the applications for gas transmission and gas transport, and Internet Application Server, created the base for achieving RWE Gas'' ambitious goal. Authorized employees at RWE Gas can now access, via the intranet, all planned data and a variety of functions to obtain exact, case-specific information online about the entire pipeline network."

In the future, external users such as municipalities will be able to eliminate long waiting times and travel in the course of municipal planning for new projects by connecting to the Internet Application Server.

GE Smallworld technology offers RWE Gas the advantage of viewing a specific place or municipal area with associated gas lines and service points on a desktop via a convenient search function. As a result, the time-consuming data search associated with a concrete inquiry has been eliminated. Map base and asset data, along with all relevant information, is available with the click of a mouse. Extensive research that previously required hours-sometimes only to discover there was no line in a certain area-can now be completed in a few minutes.

RWE Gas: Determining Line Positions Online Continued…

Construction Firms Also Realize Savings

RWE Gas hopes that construction companies will profit as early as this year from GE Smallworld technology. They will be able to learn in a short period of time via the Internet where caution is required in excavation works. In turn, construction companies will get information in almost real time about pipe trenching with the aid of the Internet Application Server. One precaution is that users of the trend-setting technology will have to complete a registration form before they are allowed to access the system. "We would like to have an overview of those who are accessing our system. After all, information about the precise location of natural gas lines is quite sensitive. In addition, it is important that we know how often and why someone calls up our program so that we can expand the system in a user-oriented way," says Barbara Bergh|ser, a Project Manager in the Planning and Surveying Department at RWE Gas.

Seamless Connection to Commercial Applications

Mr. Schocke is aware that the GE Smallworld solution offers other useful functionality for RWE Gas, "In the course of the NEBIS (Network and Resource Information System) Project, we succeeded in combining the world of geography, that is, our map base and asset data, with our commercial systems using standard software."

Linking the GE Smallworld technology with the SAP R/3 commercial solution provides an enormous potential for savings for RWE Gas with respect to time and cost in terms of communications between employees in the field and internal commercial departments.

What does this look like in practice? At any time or location, including on a mobile basis, RWE Gas employees can input information into the NEBIS System about a new service point being installed such as type, scope, required material quantities, and position. Purchasing, bookkeeping, and other relevant departments receive direct access to this data. Rolf Petig, Department Manager of Planning and Surveying at RWE Gas explains, "In the next few months, it should be possible to call up the latest data on every connected household also in the planning information process."

Additional Areas of Use

In Kreuztal, a small town in Siegerland in the State of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), various mobile deployment teams are already working with the GE Smallworld solution in a pilot project; the experience gained so far has been altogether positive. With RWE Gas, Brandenburg March Natural Gas (Erdgas Mark Brandenburg) is using this innovative technology. It may be possible to offer associated municipal utilities comprehensive services on the basis of NEBIS and via the Internet Application Server. In any case, the in-house expertise required for such an undertaking is already in place at RWE Gas.

www.rwegas.de