power people - TransGrid

drivinG inFormAtion
teCHnoloGy FurtHer
TransGrid has continued to strengthen
its service delivery capability, through
enhancements to business solutions,
hardware platform innovations and
delivery of major capital projects.
some examples include:
> successful implementation of major
applications that support the business
activities of network performance
and operations and network services
to manage outages, HV preparation,
restoration instructions and
operators’ logs.
> achieved a 50 percent target file server
and data storage virtualisation level, to
reduce power and space consumption
and facilitate more cost-efficient
administration. The remainder of the
work is planned for 2009/10.
> installation of video conferencing
equipment for sydney cbd and sydney
West locations to reduce travel, thereby
saving staff time and transport costs.
> delivery of major infrastructure projects
to consolidate and reduce servers and
partial upgrade of the corporate data
network to reduce operating cost and
improve service.
> implementation of Voip (Voice over
internet protocol) for a more cost
effective and flexible telephony service.
The service is planned to be rolled out
to remaining TransGrid locations
during 2009/10.
mAins And eAsement
mAnAGement system (mems)
Mains and easement staff are now able
to view environmental and line information
and record their work in the field through
the new Mains and easement Management
system (MeMs).
The new system extracts information
from the Works Management system
(ellipse) and the Geographic information
system (TaMis) and presents it to staff on
a portable tablet pc. it provides field staff
with the transmission line and environmental
information required to undertake work in an
environmentally conscious manner.
The MeMs application enables employees
to have easement, equipment and property
owner/occupier information available to
record inspections and defects, as well as
have contact with property owners while in
the field.
The MeMs solution replaces a number of
local systems that are currently used within
TransGrid and is now the primary interface
to the corporate information systems for
mains and easement staff.
The MeMs system has largely been
developed within 2008/09 with final user
training and rollout planned for august 2009.
Artemis tool drives CAPitAl
works eFFiCienCy
To help deliver the upcoming capital
program, TransGrid has implemented a
program management system building
on the existing project management tool,
artemis. TransGrid has widened the use
of artemis throughout the organisation to
provide a view of the whole of TransGrid’s
work program so that longer term forecasts
are available.
The main benefit of using an integrated
system is to be able to view all projects
together and see how they interact. further
benefits are available with the day-to-day
allocation of skilled resources at the critical
commissioning stage of projects. as the
system develops, other parts of the business
will see benefits in forecasting their workload
and identifying when key business information
will become available from projects.
32 drivinG CHAnGe tHrouGH innovAtion > TransGrid annual reporT 2009
in ProFile
new e-recruitment Technology
during july 2009, TransGrid rolled out a brand
new electronic recruitment system to all employees.
The new system increases the efficiency of TransGrid’s recruitment process allowing
transactions to be performed in real time, reducing the cost of the process, the amount
of paper used and the time taken to identify appropriate candidates. The system provides
TransGrid with a 24/7 method of collecting resumes and acts as a centralised storage
point for all candidate information.
TransGrid has successfully used the system for several large scale campaigns including
apprentices, graduate engineers and accountants. any external applicants who have
joined TransGrid over the last six months have been applying via erecruitment.
The erecruitment system has proved to be very efficient, saving time and effort involved
in the recruitment process, particularly for high volume recruitment campaigns.
comprehensive training was provided to all hiring managers and staff to ensure an easy
transition to the new system.
To date, the project has standardised the
use of artemis within the capital program
delivery and network business units,
allowing the development of usage across
the business.
The system now contains over 80 live
capital projects.
enHAnCements to tHe HiGH
voltAGe PrePArAtion And
restorAtion instruCtions
APPliCAtion (HvPri)
TransGrid’s operations staff are exploring
the new features provided by the recent
enhancements to the HVpri application.
a key feature, which was commissioned in
august 2009, is a wizard which generates
High Voltage preparation and restoration
instructions (switching instructions) for
use by system operators and field staff.
Through innovative techniques, the HVpri
wizard analyses the switching requirements,
and with a few user inputs, generates
instructions to perform the outage.
efficiencies in business processes have
been achieved with the direct printing/faxing
of instructions to remote sites, coupled
with the ability to alter instructions without
impeding their execution.
in total, more than 40 enhancements were
made to the original application, some of
which include electronic pinning of high
voltage operating diagrams, improvements to
search functionality and an increased number
of tools to assist in coding instructions and
overall increased workflow efficiency.