Intelligent Map

2013 Best Intelligent Map

Spatial Electric Load Forecast - Winning Entry from ADWEA

Spatial Electric Load Forecast
The methodology for a spatial forecast links consumer and usage growth patterns based on available resources to demand. The strength of this technique lies in the granularity of the geographic projections. Spatial forecast is extremely useful for distribution and transmission system planners who are concerned about load growth at this level because of the facilities that they will recommend to serve it. For sound utility planning, a spatial forecast can be calibrated to the long-range forecast for the entire system. The combination of these two forecasts gives a more robust understanding of load growth to allow planners for both T&D assets, financial staff and management to make sound planning decisions regarding the most capital intensive assets on their systems This map presents an overview of the past and current practice in network planning & demand forecasting. It introduces methods, which consists of some traditional methods and other new ways of looking at the network with a Spatial element using Geographic Information System (GIS) utilizing ArcMap, 3D Analyst and ArcGlobe.