Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Friday, March 29, 2024

GIS Professionals to Fill Growing Role in Smart Grid Implementation 

As we push to bring our power grid into the twenty-first century with sensors and analytics tools, geographic information systems (GIS) are filling a growing role in the industry. But as the demand GIS grows, so too does the demand for professionals with GIS experience who can monitor electrical distribution systems, analyze power usage and adjust to the needs of communities.

"Professionals with an understanding of the spatial analysis and visualization aspects of GIS are capable of creating and improving smart grid implementation strategies," says Stephen McElroy, GIS program chair at American Sentinel University. "The ability to organize data and to manage infrastructure assets within an enterprise GIS framework is a fundamental aspect of a well-conceived smart grid system."

Our current electrical grid is built upon systems that are over a century old, which has driven the push for use information and analytics to modernize it into what we refer to today as the “smart grid.”

One benefit of the upgrade would be the presentation of infrastructure data in a way that’s more meaningful and intuitive than a spreadsheet format through the use of maps, which in turn increases GIS demand. “A well-made map can be read and digested quickly by a variety of users such as utility managers, utility field crew members and the general public,” says McElroy.

In addition, smart grids can help utilities to alert customers to outages through mobile-enabled web portals.

By integrating GIS throughout a utility company, McElroy says “Enterprise GIS offers a single authoritative data source for tasks such as data creation, editing, visualization, analysis and output.”

And as power sources diversify to include solar panels, wind turbines, and micro-geothermal plants, GIS helps to manage each unit to keep operations optimized for efficiency. To do so, the system geotags relevant data and combines it with real-time grid information to identify inefficiencies and peak power usage times to develop a strategy that ultimately reduces greenhouse gas production while keeping bills to a minimum.

American Sentinel University is now offering an online GIS bachelor’s degree program to keep up with demand in this high growth sector.

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