Between the Poles

ASCE projects annual funding gap of $11 billion by 2020 for electric power in US

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in its latest Failure to Act Report on electric power in the US is projecting that current trends will lead to funding gaps in electric generation, transmission, and distribution that will reach $11 billion per year and a toal accumulated gap of $107 billion by 2020.  In 2020, 88% of the investment gap will be in distribution and transmission infrastructure while about 11% of the gap will be in generation infrastructure.

The result of the investment gap wil be more frequent electricity outages including blackouts and brownouts. The ost of the investment gap is projected to cost US households $6 billion in 2012 and reach $71 billion per year by 2020. The cost to business is setimated at $10 billion in 2012 and reach $126 billion by 2020.  The total cost ot the economy is projected to average $20 billion through 2020.

Open geo data in the Netherlands since January 2012

Some time ago I blogged about freely available government geospatial data in various parts of the world, but mentioned that in the Netherlands only some data was freely avaiilable.  At the recent Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam, Melanie Schulz van Haegen-Maas Geesteranus, Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment said that in January the government of the Netherlands announced that all government geo data is available to the public (with some exceptions) and that the Netherlands topographic database was made open and free instead of costing €50 000. According to EPSIplatform in October of last year the Dutch government announced it would release core geo data sets to the public free of charge for re-use, starting January 1st 2012 under a Creative Commons By Attribution license.  On January 1st, the Dutch OpenStreetMap community filed a request to obtain the geo data of the Dutch Cadastre (Kadastre).  The Kadastre granted the request on 3 January, and provided some 5 Gigabytes of data to OpenStreetMap.  The Dutch Cadastre (parcels) is available on Google Map.  The Dutch government released the Dutch national road data set in December.  Postcodes have also been released without conditions for re-use.  The most important geo data sets in the Netherlands are now available for all types of re-use free of charge.

The first time I had come across a government planning to use a Creative Commons license for sharing geospatial data was at an Spatial Sceinces Institute (SSI) conference in Hobart, Tasmania in 2007 where two people from the government of Queenland proposed this as a way of sharing geospatial data within the government of Queensland.  Of course OpenStreetMap used a Creative Commons license for years until April of this year, when it was replaced by a license specifically tailored for geo data.

Geospatial World Forum: Dutch 3D standard integrates CityGML/GeoBIM and large scale geography

At the Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam, Jantien Stoter of the Delft Univeristy of Technology and an advisor to Geonovum, gave an overview of the ongoing work on the Dutch 3D standard, which is being piloted by about 100 organizations in the Netherlands.  Geonovum is the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) executive committee in the Netherlands. Its goal is to provide better access to geo-information in the public sector and is responisble for developing and maintaining the standards for geospatial information that are necessary to achieve this goal.

The Dutch 3D standard integrates CityGML and the Dutch IMGeo standard. 

• CityGML is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard for 3D information (geometry and semantics) about cities, external to buildings. GeoBIM is a CityGML Application Domain Extension (ADE) intended to extend CityGML to include detailed, semantic information about the inside of buildings.  GeoBIM was initiated in 2009. The last official update was completed in 2010.
• IMGeo is the Dutch standard for the exchange of large scale geography such as roads, tunnels, water bodies, land use, and so on.  IMGeo is intended to be a scale-independent object model providing a uniform nationwide coverage.  IMGeo 2.0 contains a mandatory part, the Basisregistratie Grootschalige Topografie (BGT). which has legal status in the Netherlands, plus additonal data. IMGeo is 2D, but is extensible to 2.5D and ultimately to 3D.  Like CityGML, IMGeo recognizes levels of detail (LOD).

There are six work groups involved in the Dutch 3D standard effort. For example, one is responsible for compiling killer applications using the 3D standard.

Relationship to IFC

One of the work groups could have broad implications, potentially beyond the borders of the Netherlands, This work group is responsible for aligning the CityGML ADE GeoBIM standard and the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) BIM standard maintained by BuildingSmart.  IFC is intended to enable the exchange of BIM data between applications developed by different software vendors in a vendor-neutral way.  The objective of the work group is to define a standard, semantically meaningful mapping between IFC and GeoBIM.

Geospatial World Forum: How GDF Suez built a gas distribution asset management system in 10 months

At the Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam, Radu Negoita, GIS Manager at GDF Suez Energy Romania, gave a fascinating overview of how GDF Suez has built a location aware asset management system in 10 months.  Natural gas is a rapidly growing source of energy that is cleaner from an emissions perspective than traditional energy sources such as coal.

GDF SUEZ Energy România has over 1.3 million customers and is a leader in the gas distribution and delivery market.  Its main buiness is the distribution of gas to consumers. The total gas distribution network managed by GDF Suez  is 16,000 km.  Natural gas distribution is a regulated activity to ensure the safe operation of the network which is comprised of  pipes, residential connections, regulator stations, sensors/measurement systems, and other types of assets.

Data acquisition

In 2007 GDF Suez initiated a data acquisition project to capture information including location about all their network assets.  It is an ongoing effort using using internal resources.  GDF Suez relies on GPS and total stations to capture accurate locations for their assets.

Asset management system

The objective of the asset management system is to improve the productivity of gas distribution operations by automating manual asset management processes.  The core is an asset management system that manages the assets in a centralized database (Oracle Spatial) and provides desktop (AutoCAD Map 3D) and web based tools (Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server) for optimizing data quality and providing secure access to the information across the organization. The core database relies on data versioning (long transactions) to manage asset updates safely in a production environment.  It relies on an open architecture to enable integration with SAP plant maintenance, SynerGEE network analysis, and other enterprise systems.  It supports design sketches and redlining of design drawings and provides multi-criteria analysis for investment planning.

Project development

The project lifetime was ten months which, based on my experience with similar asset management systems in a range of utilities, I find quite remarkable in terms of how fast the production system was delivered.  This involved a full project lifecycle including business requirements analysis, development of the hardware and software architecture, installation of Oracle Spatial database and configuring the gas network model, configuration and installation of the application, data migration and testing and training.  The solution was deployed and in production in 2010 and currently supports 600 active users.

The system provides automated data capture from field measurement systems, multi-user editing of asset location and properties, creation and editing of network topology, generation of job estimates, tabular and graphical reporting, and provides an operations dashboard for monitoring progress and the status of the network.

The desktop client is used for field data acquisition, creation of the new assets; geometry, attribute and topology editing and network state analysis.

The web client, which is used by the majority of the users, provides a viewer for attributes and geometry of the network; navigation and searching of maps, and report generation.

Plant maintenance

Plant maintenance is based on a maintenance plan for all assets of the network including pipes, residential connections, valves, regulator stations, and so on.  The master system which manages the assets is the geospatial asset management system. SAP- PM manages maintenance network assets in terms of preventive and corrective maintenance.  It also handles exceptions and other operations events on the network.

Future developoment

GDF Suez' future development plans include integration of the asset management system with the SCADA, SAP asset accounting, and workforce management enterprise systems.  They also intend to develop a crew routing and dispatch module and a mobile client for field staff.

Geospatial World Forum: What is the role of government in the geospatial sector ?

At the Geospatial World Forum (GWF) in Amsterdam, Paul Cheung of the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) voiced the concern about their role that many national mapping agencies and other government organizations with responsibility for geospatial information have had since the advent of Google Map/Earth, private data companies like Digital Globe, Geoeye, TeleAtlas and Navteq, crowd-sourced geospatial data like OpenStreetMap, and open data policies adopted by many governments around the world.

Some of the key questions that Paul posed that reflect what a lot of national mapping agencies are asking

• Could the private sector be the sole producer of geospatial data ?
• What is the role and responsibility of government ?
• What is the relationship between the private sector and government ?  As regulator ? As competitor ?
• Do we need a collective voice among governments ?
• How do we work together in a join effort to build a global geospatial information system and a community of practice.?

Paul suggested that some of the reasons that governments have lost their leading role in managing national geospatial information are

• No clear direction, coordination, ownerhsip, policy or institutional arrangements
• The value of reliable, credible, and authoritative geospatial information not realized by many governments
• Geospatial capabilities have evolved in a fragmented and inconsistent manner, and with duplication of effort
• Governments are struggling to deal with privately sourced information - credibility, accuracy legitimacy, status

Paul's argument is that governments need to be involved in national geospatial information because governments, not the private sector, have the mandate and accountability to maintain and deliver the base national geospatial information and that government needs to work in partnership with the private sector to fullfil its role and advance the geospatial industry.

The objective of the GGIM initiative is to help government fit into the new world of Google Map/Earth and the rest of the private geospatial industry.  Based on the assumption that neither the private sector nor government can do it all, the GGIM has a process in place to define the role of government in managing national geospatial information.  It has asked geospatial practitioners around the world to provide guidance on where they see the geospatial industry headed and their views on the roles of government and the private sector. 

At the GWF, Vanessa Lawrence of the Ordnance Survey chaired a session attended by about 40 people from private, government and academic organizations to review these findings. 

The ultimate goal is a white paper in about a year's time that would help define the role of government in the new geospatial world.

Geospatial World Forum: Land administration in Germany to include 3D cadastre by 2013

At the Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam, Peter Creuzer, Director State Survey of Lower Saxony, gave a very interesting introduction to land management in Germany and some of the things that are on the horizon. 

Germany has about 82 million citizens, or about 229 people per km², and the population has been declining since 2003. It has about 64.5 million parcels (land properties) valued at about €9 trillion.  About 48% of households own land.  The land administration system handles about a million transactions per year. 

Germany has the same problem that other jurisdictions have, urbanization, but it has limited land resources.  It loses about 77 hectares/day to urban sprawl.

Land administration in Germany is comprised of two parts, a land register and the cadastre.The land register includes information about owners, land use, encumbrances, and other legal obligations.  The cadastre includes the land parcel geometry, owneship, buildings and public restrictions.  The objectives of the land administration system are security of tenure, some revenue for the government, and support for a transparent planning process.

There are some interesting future goals, one of the most important of which is enabling sustainable development.  This includes land consolidation and revitalization of older cities.

Another major initiative is revision of the land taxation system which is expected to be completed by 2014.  The alternatives that are being considered are taxation based on market value (which is what is used in Ontario), a fixed tax, and a combined system.

There is also a new data model underway based on ISO and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards referred to by the abbreviation AAA, which stands for AFIS (uniform geodetic reference), ALKIS (uniform cadastre), and ATKIS (uniform topography).  By 2013 the data model will include support for a 3D cadastre and will include the CityGML standard.  It will be accessible via OGC web services; WMS, WFS, and others.

Germany is also working on being compliant with the EU INSPIRE directive.  There is a pilot in progess involving the Netherlands, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine Westphalia.

Geospatial World Forum: Creating a land registry system in Rwanda in less than five years

At the Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam today Didier Sagashya, Deputy Director General of Lands and Mapping Department in the government of Rwanda gave a fascinating presentation about creating a land adminstration system in Rwanda.

The Organic Law of 2005 defined a new land tenure system based on security of tenure and that land administration is mandatory. There are an estimated 10 million parcels in Rwanda which has one of the highest national population densities in the world, about 400 people per km². 

Starting in 2009 Rwanda set out to create a land registry.  One of the  most interesting aspects of the Rwandan approach is that it is not based on a traditionally-surveyed cadastre.  Instead it relies on nation-wide high resolution (25 cm) photo imagery and a process that involves consulting with local people and drawing boundaries on the high resolution imagery.  At this point about 2.7 million parcels have been defined and adjudicated and land registry titles printed.  It is expected that registration of all of the 10 million parcels will be completed by 2013, which is a remarkable achievement, especially in less than five years.

The major benefit of a national land registry system is that it enables land to participate in the national economy.  For example, land can be used as collateral in applying for bank loans.  One of the interesting statistics that Didier mentioned was that last year the number of bank loan applications involving land as a collateral was about 10,000 for the entire year.  In the first quarter of 1012, the number of bank loan applications is already 6000, which suggest people are already beginning to take advantage of the new land registry system.

The other major impact that Didier mentioned that a national land registry system can have is that it can lead to sustainable land management, less erosion, for example, because presumeably if you own something you take better care of it.  This effect tends to be long-term, and Didier did not have statistics to show that this is happening, but this is one of the outcomes they are monitoring, in addition to bank loans.

India turns on Asia's largest solar power park

India is projected to become the world's 5th largest economy by 2020.  To achieve that will require a lot more power generation.

India's energy demand has grown an average of 3.6% per annum over the past 30 years.  In December 2010, the installed power generation capacity of India stood at 165 GW. 

India is putting a lot of effort into nuclear and renewable energy.  For example, it has announced plans to build an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) designed to use thorium as fuel.  India has very little uranium which was the initial motivation to develop a thorium reactor.  The reactor will operate with a power of 300 MW using a mix of thorium and uranium-233. About 75% of the power will come from the thorium. Construction of a pilot AHWR is planned to start soon.

India is moving quickly to ramp up power generation, but the biggest challenges are land acquisition and the availability of fuel.  Another problem is a shortage of domestic supply of skilled manpower.

A major problem is that up to 30% of India's power generation that is lost to "aggregate technical and commercial" (AT&C) losses. Smart grid is seen as a way of reduing these losses and in May 2010, the national government created the India Smart Grid Task Force, chaired by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister.

Last week the Chief Minister of Gujarat dedicated a 600 MW solar power park in the Patan district of Gujarat.  The Gujarat Solar Park will contribute 214 MW of photovoltaic solar capacity.  The solar power park is spread across 3,000 acres of desert and represents two thirds of India's total solar capacity 900 MW.  According to the Gujarat government, the solar park will reduce the state's carbon dioxide emissions and save 900,000 tonnes of natural gas annually.  The Gujarat Solar Park is an innovative public private project in which the state government allocated developed land to the project developers with the entire infrastructure required for the project including transmission, roads and water put on a fast track.

Earth's surface temperature anomalies for 2011

Temperature anomalies in 2011 showing how much warmer or cooler each region was in 2011 compared with an averaged base period from 1951–1980. The global average temperature for 2011 was 0.51 Celsius (0.92 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 1951-1980 baseline. NASA Earth Observatory 2012

Three standards proposed for NIST/SGIP smart grid Catalog of Standards

Six standards have been approved for the Catalog of Standards (CoS) managed by the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP).   SGIP was set up by NIST to drive a consensus-based standards recommendation process for the smart grid.  FERC has decided against mandating these standards for US electric power utilities, so these standards are recommended, not mandatory.

The first six entries in the Catalog of Standards include

1. internet protocol standards, which will allow grid devices to exchange information;
2. energy usage information standards, which will permit consumers to know the cost of energy used at a given time
3. standards for vehicle charging stations, necessary for ensuring electric vehicles can be connected to power outlets
4. use cases for communication between plug-in vehicles and the grid, to help ensure that the vehicles–which will draw heavy power loads–will not place undue strain on the grid
5. requirements for upgrading smart meters, which will replace household electric meters
6. guidelines for assessing standards for wireless communication devices, which will be needed for grid communication

Three additional standards are currently being voted on among the SGIP membership for inclusion in the Catalog of Standards.

IEC 61850

This is relevant to substation automation systems. It defines the communication between intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in the substation and the related system requirements.  Substation automation is of core relevance for smart grid.

IEEE C37.239-2010

Defines a standard for common format for event data exchange (COMFEDE) for power systems, specifically a common format for data files used for the interchange of various types of event data collected from electrical power systems or power system models.

OASIS Energy Interop

Energy Interop defines the interaction between smart grids and their end nodes, including smart buildings, enterprises, industry, homes, and vehicles, specifically the interoperable and standard exchange of signals for dynamic pricing, reliability, and emergencies.