Gulf Power Company -- a subsidiary of Southern Company -- wanted to find an even quicker way to restore power to its customers. The utility, based in Pensacola, Fla., has one of the most reliable distribution systems in the Southeast. The average interruption time per customer served was 39 minutes in 1996. That’s down from 69 minutes in 1992.

But the utility wanted to do better. It knew that getting the proper information to its service crews in the field was a key. There had to be a more efficient way of providing field maps showing the location of the company’s equipment -- transformers, underground lines and primaries. Sybelle Fitzgerald, a power delivery system engineer for Gulf Power, found AA Scan Inc. on the Internet and requested our help.

Here’s what we did to help Gulf Power improve customer satisfaction -- a key to success in a competitive utility market. A team of scanning personnel from AA Scan traveled to Pensacola and scanned approximately 2,500 drawings and maps in three days. Once we had an image of all the data, the power company then put a laptop computer into 25 trucks with a copy of Myriad Viewing software on board.

Now the service workers are sent our to repair a power outage, they won’t have to work with maps in the dark and rain, & said Fitzgerald. & They can pull up the drawings they need on a lighted screen. & Steve Miller, a planner/scheduler who coordinates the work between the engineering department and line construction agreed.

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