Dick Simon, Rock Falls Electric Director, shown here with his GIS pulled up on the big screens for quick access to his electric distribution network.
Dick Simon is the Director of the Electric Department for the City of Rock Falls, IL. Here is a little bit of information about how Dick got to where he is at today and what GIS has done for him.
Dick has been with the City for 25 years, starting as an Apprentice Lineman and working his way up to his current position of Director of the Electric Department.
As part of his duties, Dick is responsible for the maintenance, repair, replacement, testing and capital improvements to the transmission, substation, distribution and metering systems. Other responsibilities include, design of electrical system improvements, capital improvement plans, inventory coordination, preventive maintenance, bidding and contract documents, coordination of updates and improvements with GIS, liaison between City and electrical contractors.
When asked how his agency has benefited from GIS, Dick says "GIS will give us the power to create maps, (Electric, Fiber, Water and Sewer Systems) integrate information by creating an inventory of each system. Visualize scenarios, an example; we color code our electric feeders so when we have an outage we know how many customer are off. Solve complicated problems, such as identifying the location of tie switches to restore power faster."
As a decision maker, Dick knows that GIS can be used for much more than just electric utilities. He says "GIS is a very powerful decision-making tool that has a massive range of applications, whatever your business – resource management, logistics, planning, transport, surveying, demographic studies, and environment, to name but a few."
Cloudpoint would like to thank Dick for his commitment to GIS technology and use of the Esri platform in helping his organization to succeed with providing quality electric service to the citizens of Rock Falls, IL. Because of Dick's insight, the city's utility networks are well on their way to streamlining operations through the use of GIS technology.