In early summer 2003, FirstEnergy rolled out their enhanced Outage Management System throughout the enterprise. With this rollout, FirstEnergy required expert training services to bring all of their dispatch, support and technical staff up to speed on the new technology.

FirstEnergy selected Red Planet to provide training services throughout the summer 2003. Courses ranged from programming and enterprise system administration, to end-user dispatch instruction on Smallworld PowerOn. Dave Conway, Senior Consultant at Red Planet, completed the last of 12 weeks of training instruction at FirstEnergy on September 25th, providing their staff with the skills to become more efficient at supporting their OMS and handling outages.

"I wanted to pass along my appreciation and thanks for the training provided by Dave Conway on our Power On system. Dave completed the last course today and feedback has been positive...Please pass along our thanks on a job well done." -Roger Levesque, Business Integration Manager

Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc (SECO) has selected Red Planet Consulting to enhance their map products for Distribution Operations. Red Planet will be applying the latest in White Space Management technologies to facilitate the readability and utility of maps used by SECO's field crews for restoring power outages.

Tucson Electric Power Company (TEP) has selected Red Planet Consulting, Inc. to upgrade the company’s Smallworld PowerOn® Outage Management System to version 2.5.3. Deployment was completed in the late spring of 2003.

“When it comes to [Smallworld] PowerOn, few people have the breadth of knowledge and experience that Red Planet brings to our team”, said Scott Paulsen, OMS Project Manager. “[Smallworld] PowerOn plays a key role in our network management and reliability process, hence our keen attention to acceptance testing throughout the project. Red Planet’s commitment to rapid resolution of problems has helped operations management maintain a high level of confidence during the upgrade process”.
(Click here to read full press release.)

EMWD selected Red Planet Consulting to upgrade their enterprise GIS implementation to be compliant with Smallworld Core Spatial Technology™ version 3.3(0). This large scale upgrade shall include all of EMWD's spatial applications used to manage their facilities networks, including water distribution and wastewater.

Red Planet had already been working with EMWD to support their water facilities applications. Red Planet's expert technical knowledge, combined with a pre-existing successful relationship with the district, are the primary reasons why EMWD selected Red Planet to perform the upgrade. Red Planet will continue to provide expert support services to EMWD in 2004.

"I have been very impressed with the professional skills and competitive pricing offered by Red Planet. They have been a great help in objectively assessing our existing GIS needs and environment and recommending solutions that will be of greatest benefit to our users." - Joe Lewis, Director - Engineering Services.

Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc. has selected Red Planet Consulting to provide training services to their technical staff in support of SECO's enterprise GIS implementation. Specifically, Red Planet shall provide technical training on the use of plotting and data-integrity tools for SECO's electric distribution network data stored in a Smallworld Core Spatial Technology database.

Red Planet had previously performed onsite training and mentoring services for SECO's technical staff. It was the success of this training that inspired SECO to choose Red Planet again. "The success of our training experience with Red Planet was outstanding. The custom prepared course material and the caliber of instructor were excellent. Our end users enjoyed the energy the instructor brought to the course and were very impressed with his technical knowledge." - Barry Owens, Manager of Information Systems at SECO.

Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc. is one of the largest electric distribution cooperatives in the United States, serving 120,000 homes and businesses in Central Florida.

Dakota Electric Association is a customer-owned, nonprofit electric utility serving parts of Dakota County, Goodhue County, Rice County and Scott County, just south of the Twin Cities. Dakota Electric is the second-largest electric cooperative in Minnesota and is ranked among the top 20 electric distribution cooperatives nationally. Dakota Electric was in need of specific software training. Red Planet disseminated one of our expert consultants to perform a two week Smallworld Magik™ Training course. The intensive course was catered directly to Dakota Electric's specific needs.

"The implementation of [Smallworld] PowerOn 2.5 was completed on time and within budget. Red Planet’s leadership, professionalism, and thorough knowledge of [Smallworld] PowerOn were key to the project’s success. Xcel Energy can now take advantage of the latest features provided by [Smallworld] PowerOn version 2.5. We are also grateful to Red Planet for developing innovative tools that will allow us to improve our reporting of outage restoration statistics." - Pete Gomez, Xcel Energy, Inc.

"We needed expertise that could bridge the gap between the technology and the people who use it", said Mr. Keith Laub, AFN's GIS Applications Manager. "Red Planet's consultant met with our engineers, quickly assessed their needs, and applied the customizations that we needed to use PNI."

Ms. Leah Lafitte, Manager of Engineering Process Control at AFN Communications elaborated on the value of having Red Planet help with the implementation. "Red Planet's visit was, hands down, one of the most productive consulting sessions that I have ever experienced", said Ms. Laffite. "Their consultant was incredibly knowledgeable and an excellent communicator. It was just the momentum starter that we were looking for and the users are finally starting to take ownership of PNI".

Additional Red Planet customers: