Understand Spec Requirements for ADMS Integration

If the plan is to integrate one’s GIS with an Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), a detailed, high-fidelity spec catalog is required. It may be tempting to store as many ADMS fields as possible directly in the GIS, but doing so is not recommended. Storing so many ADMS fields in the GIS convolutes the data model and burdens designers and editors with maintaining complicated electrical attributes for all electric features. Such complexity might allow data inaccuracies to creep into the ADMS, which would render its functions less valuable and its analyses suspect.

Instead, the spec should maintain ADMS attributes, and the GIS should maintain attributes for spec matching (in addition to, of course, other utility-required attributes). A Geodatabase Region extract file contains the collection of specs that map to each extracted feature, which ADMS can then reference to populate necessary fields. Schneider Electric’s implementation team works with the customer to identify and map these crucial fields and provides tooling such as the Feature to Spec Mapping interface to track spec matches.

Building out a high-fidelity spec catalog does increase implementation time and resources spent, but placing the bulk of ADMS fields within the spec provides more accurate data, minimizes use of default values, and allows editors and designers to focus on the attributes they know best.