Regulatory compliance

The regulatory environment for Utilities is incredibly complex. Regulations differ between sectors and as a result Utilities must comply with different sets of rules. Multinational Utilities must also comply with a variety of regulations imposed by different countries around the world.

The importance of GI

Geographic Information (GI) is vital as it enables companies to understand compliance requirements for different locations. GI helps Utilities to understand how to respond to customers according to the rules that apply to their location and sector. Without it regulatory compliance becomes almost unmanageable and certainly much more costly for infrastructure organisations.

Utility companies are required to comply with:

• environmental regulations
• inspection directives
• street works programmes
• tax laws;
• and many other Regulatory mandates

Companies can leverage their databases with geographic information (GI) technology to meet the demands of these mandates and to provide regulatory agencies with compliance information.

Regulatory compliance mapping with GI offers:

• accurate calculations
• provides flexibility to adapt to regulatory changes;
• and streamlines compliance processes.

The Utility market is cyclical within pre-determined regulatory cycles and periods of profitability. Demand for services, however, tends to be stable. This means that Utilities need to be creative when identifying new markets, serving underdeveloped markets, and retaining existing customers. 

Mapping for new opportunities

GI such as OS MasterMap combined with organisational data, enables Utilities to profile potential and existing customers and perform predictive modelling to find new opportunities.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) map the results so you can see potential market areas much more easily than with a database view of columns and numbers.

Protecting critical infrastructure

One in five commercial businesses will experience a major business disruption each year, including:

• power outages
• internal flooding
• weather events
• fire
• terrorism
• crime;
• and transportation problems

As these types of event become more commonplace, planning for disruption becomes more important. Ensuring that critical infrastructure is better protected means real-time data on hand during an event but also much better early planning and analysis. This is where the power of GI can aid all organisations.

Planning for business continuity and contingency

GI is a powerful planning tool for business continuity and contingencies. OS MasterMap can assist with:

• facilities management
• employee notification
• regulatory returns
• vegetation impacts
• employee Lone worker status
• customer identification and billing
• incident mapping
• weather mapping
• office relocation
• evacuation;
• and asset Management.

GI underpins and enables the wider operational businesses and helps to answer logistical questions such as:

• Where are my company's assets located?
• How can we best model what-if scenarios?
• How can I plan new routes for my facilities?
• How vulnerable are my assets?
• How long do we need to recover from an interruption?
• Where are my customers in relation to my assets?
• Where are new customers?

Data integration and use

Ultimately, the infrastructure asset data collected, managed, and maintained by GIS and maintenance management systems should be integrated with the corporate financial management system. Together, these systems can provide the necessary infrastructure asset, maintenance, and financial data to help Utilities in their day-to-day operations and in compliance with regulations.

Any maintenance history data generated will be valuable for use in:

• determining budgets
• planning capital improvements;
• and developing preventive/predictive maintenance activities.

GIS facilitates the collection, retrieval, and maintenance of this information for analysis by identifying specific infrastructure assets, locations, or attributes.

Using GIS to improve practices

Once maintenance history and infrastructure asset inventory data is available through GIS, it can also be reviewed in conjunction with other data sets found in GIS. If companies want to use detailed financial information frequently as an integral management tool, they should consider an opportunity to develop both advanced technical solutions (i.e., geographic information systems and maintenance management systems) and improve infrastructure asset maintenance practices.

Usage of OS MasterMap

Infrastructure companies use OS MasterMap to:

• Identify areas of peak loss potential.
• Planning and analysis of development plans and impacts
• Map historic emergencies to understand the true spatial risk and develop prevention plans accordingly
• Identify high-risk or venerable users by geographic region.
• Field automation component for engineers – Real time data on devices
• Enable facilities and asset management – Accurate Location using GNSS
• Identify Vegetation impact assessments to target resource
• Track and locate lone workers in all environments
• Manage existing customers and identify new opportunities
• Develop and implement a comprehensive integrity management program for pipeline segments where a failure would have the greatest impact on the public or property.
• Common platform for communication and coordination (Digital National Framework and National Underground Assets Group)
• Managerial reports and information tied to a common source - location

There are many ways more Utilities can use location information for risk assessment and mitigation. In addition, the geographic component is critical to finding the delicate balance between risk, profitability, and fairness to customers.

The best solution for seamless integration

GIS is an end-to-end data management solution that coordinates all of your regulatory compliance activities. The best solution is designed to fully integrate all business units with a seamless backbone.

OS MasterMap helps you to meet all your compliance needs by putting the right information into the right hands. It reduces your total cost of system ownership by managing a diverse range of compliance activities. All this is available in a single easy-to-use and untapped operational expenditure environment.