Established in 1865, Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) is a public utility owned by the City of Jacksonville, Florida. The JEA electric system currently serves more than 417,000 electric customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent counties. JEA owns and operates an electric system with three generating plants and a fourth in the planning stages, and all transmission and distribution facilities including approximately 730 miles of transmission lines and 6,000 miles of distribution lines.

1. Smart Grid Solutions
Jacksonville Electric Authority
Implementing a complete enterprise GIS utility solution
PROJECT AT A GLANCE
Project Type
Operational utility solutions
Location
Jacksonville, Florida
Number of Customers
417,000
Applications
Provide a graphical view of a utility’s
infrastructure and tools that support cost
reduction through simplified planning, analysis
and operational response times
Established in 1865, Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) is a public utility owned
Software Implemented
by the City of Jacksonville, Florida. The JEA electric system currently serves
ArcFM™ Enterprise GIS more than 417,000 electric customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent
counties.
CUSTOMER BENEFITS
• Less time and resources to maintain JEA owns and operates an electric system with three generating plants and
• Reduced trucks rolls per outage incident a fourth in the planning stages, and all transmission and distribution facilities
including approximately 730 miles of transmission lines and 6,000 miles of
• Increased accuracy of information
distribution lines.
Challenges
Throughout the years, crews responsible for the operations and maintenance of
electric utilities relied on construction as-built hard copy drawings and schematics
to reference the electric transmission and distribution grid.
Make the most of your energy SM

2. Smart Grid Solutions Jacksonville Electric Authority
“I’d say we’ve had a very good working relationship with
Schneider Electric, and I definitely look forward to using their
smart grid solutions to help address our customer needs.”
Keith Joiner, GIS business analyst for JEA
In the early 1990’s the utility purchased and graphical, data-rich environment, delivering the
implemented early CAD information systems to information it needs for maximum reliability
digitize all existing drawings, and to and efficiency.
comprehensively model the electric infrastructure
in a computer system. The Bottom Line
With better data quality managed by a single
In 1997, the City of Jacksonville Department of geodatabase, JEA was able to save on time and
Public Utilities, Water and Sewer Operations merged labor by avoiding the need to reenter information into
into JEA. At that time, no digital mapping system multiple databases across multiple facilities.
existed that modeled the water and sewer systems.
As with early electric infrastructure operations “ArcGIS provides many of the tools and functionality
and maintenance, crews had to rely on hard copy needed to maintain the integrity of the geodatabase
drawings to reference the water and sewer systems. intrinsically, however, ArcFM packages the necessary
tools and functionality in easy to use interfaces
JEA faced a major decision – integrate the water and available via additional toolbars and menus in ArcMap
sewer into the existing GIS system, or migrate to and ArcCatalog,” said Keith Joiner, GIS business
another mapping and analytical system. analyst for JEA.
Solution One of the biggest benefits from the utility
After extensive research and needs analysis, it was implementing ArcFM technology was the ability of
decided that a geographic information system (GIS) employees to graphically pinpoint problem areas,
would be deployed that would provide extensive based on customer calls when power is down.
mapping, analysis, tracing, integration and reporting
functionality based on open architecture, database “When customers call in to report an electric outage,
and development tools. JEA personnel can see the exact location of the call,
and can then use the network model to discern what
JEA selected Schneider Electric as the vendor, and asset may be at fault,” Joiner said. “GIS personnel
chose to deploy their ArcFM™ Enterprise GIS, which were able to leverage the tools in ArcFM to analyze,
provides a complete enterprise utility solution geared research, and subsequently reconfigure certain parts
to the needs of utility end users. of the electric distribution network model so that the
majority of meters are now connected. The result is
ArcFM is based on Esri’s ArcGIS® technology and is less trucks rolled out per outage incident, thereby
specifically designed for the utility industry, enabling reducing the cost of restoration efforts.”
energy companies to model, design and manage
critical infrastructure. By integrating utility data and With the integration of ArcFM GIS, utilities have
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advanced geographical maps, ArcFM provides a a single version of the truth reliably informing a
graphical view of a utility’s infrastructure and tools that variety of critical functions, such as dispatching,
support cost reduction through simplified planning, troubleshooting, engineering analysis, planning,
analysis and operational response times. reporting, and customer service.
Schneider Electric worked closely with JEA
professionals to consolidate and convert its previous
data into the ArcFM GIS system to produce a
Schneider Electric USA, Inc. 4701 Royal Vista Circle, Fort Collins, CO 80528 Telephone: 1-866-537-1091 Fax: 1-970-223-5577 www.schneider-electric.com/us
June 2012