Venezuelan electric company goes for Autodesk GIS

Autodesk today announced that Enelven, one of the largest electric utility companies in Venezuela, has purchased a suite of Autodesk enterprise Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software

Autodesk today announced that Enelven, one of the largest electric utility companies in Venezuela, has purchased a suite of Autodesk enterprise Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software and services to support its performance in the newly deregulated electric market and to establish itself as a technology leader in the region.

Enelven will deploy AutoCAD Map 2000 for drawing and data creation, Autodesk Powerline for Intranet visualisation, and VISION* and VISION*Electric on top of an Oracle database to operate the electric network.

Enelven is an electric utility company serving approximately 500,000 customers across a 50,000 square kilometre area in Zulia State, in the western part of Venezuela.

Enelven's extensive customer base includes many economically vital industries such as petroleum, petrochemical, manufacturing, and breweries.

"Our customers and much of the economy generated in western Venezuela rely on the quality of service we provide," said Robinson J.

Villasmil, BDI (AM/FM) project leader at Enelven.

"Having a complete and robust enterprise GIS solution from Autodesk gives us the technological leadership and confidence we need to improve electrical service to our customers and compete in this newly deregulated environment".

"The mix of Autodesk enterprise GIS solutions that Enelven selected gives the company competitive advantages over other electric utility companies.

The power to provide quick and easy access to mission-critical data enables Enelven to react more nimbly to power outages, and be more opportunistic in identifying ways to increase its service area and better serve existing customers," said Juan Plaza, GIS manager, Latin America and Caribbean, Autodesk.

Competing in a Newly Deregulated Environment The new Electric Law, enacted by the Venezuelan National Government in September 1999, imposes radical changes in the structure and operation of the Venezuelan electric sector, converting a regulated market into a new competitive and open deregulated environment.

The new organisation of the Electric National Sector mandates a complete transformation of electric utilities, requiring them to separate operating areas into Strategic Business Units that offer services in the areas of generation, transmission, and distribution.

To comply with the new legislation, Enelven has already begun the technological changes required for the new market.

Autodesk Software Selected Enelven selected Autodesk's enterprise GIS software based on its ability to address several critical requirements.

* VISION* Release 5.2 offers seamless integration with the Oracle database platform in place at Enelven.

* The Autodesk Enterprise GIS Software suite provides direct access to the VISION* server from the worldwide preferred solution for precision mapping and GIS analysis, AutoCAD Map 2000-Enelven's standard software solution for map and drawing creation.

* Autodesk PowerLine provides a centralised, map-based user interface for web access to vital customer service information.

Enelven is implementing a new corporate AM/FM solution using Autodesk's VISION* 5.2 and VISION*Electric 2.1 on top of Oracle software.

This solution contains the transmission and distribution electric network repository that will be the core system for information sharing across the company.

VISION* 5.2 enables Enelven to integrate data with its existing computer systems such as the Work Management System by SAP, SCADA Sinaut Spectrum by Siemens, and Planning and Engineering Analysis System-CADPAD by ABB.

It also supports other corporate and operational databases, including Outage ManagementSystem/Trouble Call Analysis, Energy Balance, Customer Information System, and Transformer Load Management.

VISION* software is the market-leading Oracle-based AM/FM/GIS solution used by large enterprises in the telecom, utilities, and local government sectors to store, maintain, and use data about their physical assets and infrastructure across the enterprise.

In addition, VISION* 5.2 provides strong analytic and comparative design capabilities to facilitate enterprise decision making and information sharing.

Multiple concurrent users at Enelven can access the VISION* 5.2 solution to gain an up-to-date and comprehensive view into every aspect of their business operations based on the full integration of AM/FM/GIS information with other business data.

AutoCAD Map 2000 simplifies the process of creating and maintaining maps and increases the value of users' geographic information by making it easy to share that data among co-workers.

In addition to offering leading edge, precision-mapping functionality, AutoCAD Map 2000 software has a unique ability to merge the power of GIS with existing CAD installations throughout Enelven.

In this way, it bridges the communication gap between technical engineers, who create and maintain infrastructure maps, and GIS professionals, who use maps and geographic data for analysis and planning.

Enelven is also using Autodesk PowerLine 1.0, a web-based enterprise portal solution that ties the applications of the Venezuelan electric utility company together using a centralised, map-based user interface for web access to customer service.

Based on the Autodesk MapGuide platform, PowerLine web-integrates Enelven's database and mapping information for easy, enterprisewide access.

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