Alectra Utilities is the second largest municipally owned electric utility company in North America. It serves more than 1 million customers across 17 communities and nearly 2,000 square kilometers (about 742 square miles) in the Greater Toronto area.
The company was formed from the merger of Enersource, Horizon Utilities, PowerStream and Brampton Hydro and inherited four separate GIS-based utility network management solutions, as well as other legacy enterprise systems. Following the amalgamation, the company decided to combine its data and systems to avoid disjointed business practices, inefficiencies and inconsistent data.
The importance of implementing a quick and user-friendly solution was evident, so the company adopted a guiding principle of “consolidation first and optimization second.” Since three of the four companies from the merger were already using HxGN NetWorks, Hexagon’s geospatial asset management system, Alectra leveraged this solution to simplify project implementation, reduce risk and minimize scope creep.
“We thought HxGN NetWorks was an excellent solution; we thought all the way around it was the best option for us. It gave us a lot of advantages.”
– Jim Butler, P. Eng., MBA, vice president of centralized operations at Alectra Utilities
