Modernizing Utility Mapping with Eos Skadi & NISC iVUE

For modern electric utilities, maintaining highly accurate spatial data for physical assets is a core necessity rather than an optional upgrade. Precision mapping is indispensable for grid resilience, public safety, and accelerating service restoration during outages. By combining NISC’s iVUE AppSuite software with the Eos Skadi GNSS receiver and Skadi Smart Handle, utility companies are successfully addressing two critical field obstacles: rebuilding after major storm events and precisely pinpointing underground infrastructure.

Part 1: Enhancing Grid Resilience at Lee County Electric Cooperative

For more than 85 years, Southwest Florida’s Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) has focused on delivering dependable power to its members. As a non-profit distribution cooperative, LCEC relies on its nine-member System Graphics team to maintain an accurate map of its widespread electric grid. Although LCEC integrated the NISC Enterprise System (built on Esri’s ArcGIS®) back in 2018, outdated field hardware eventually created an operational bottleneck.

The Bottleneck: Overcoming Low-Accuracy Data

As rapid community expansion enlarged LCEC’s service area, their legacy GPS equipment struggled to keep pace. The older hardware failed to capture vertical elevation data and provided insufficient horizontal accuracy. When severe weather damaged or relocated utility poles, the lack of precise coordinates delayed recovery efforts. Additionally, without reliable height measurements, field crews could not properly evaluate flood risks to key electrical assets.

The Solution: A Lightweight, One-Handed Mapping Workflow

To address this, LCEC adopted Eos Skadi 300™ RTK GNSS receivers coupled with the Skadi Smart Handle. GIS Specialist Gus Otero configured these devices to interface seamlessly with NISC’s iVUE AppSuite, which offers native support for Eos Skadi hardware. This integration allowed field workers to comfortably hold both the iPad® and the receiver in a single hand, removing the need for heavy survey poles. Utilizing free RTK corrections, they began capturing centimeter-level horizontal and vertical coordinates on the go.

The Impact: Rapid Restoration and Clean Data

This streamlined approach lets crews record spatial data while moving, significantly reducing time spent in the field on major installations. The high-fidelity data resolved long-standing mapping discrepancies, such as correcting records that mistakenly showed outdoor meters as being inside buildings.

“With this improved workflow, we save time collecting GPS data, help our linemen return to their work faster, locate assets more easily during restoration or damage claims, and restore power more quickly.”

— Leah Maldonado, Supervisor of System Graphics, LCEC

Part 2: Navigating the Invisible: Mapping Underground Infrastructure with Precision

While LCEC’s experience showcases how high-accuracy GNSS improves overhead asset management, mapping buried utility lines presents a different set of hurdles. Once trenches are filled or new subdivisions are paved over, all visual cues disappear.

Field Validation of the New Workflow

During a recent field test on an active job site, an operator put the Eos and NISC integration through its paces using the NISC iVUE® mobile app. The technician recorded two precise high-accuracy endpoints and drafted a utility span between them in the app. The iVUE software then automatically computed and subdivided the line, establishing highly accurate, repeatable coordinates along the entire segment.

The Practical Benefit: No More Post-Burial Guesswork

In fast-moving residential developments and underground distribution webs, site conditions change overnight. Soil grading, fresh pavement, and new construction quickly cover up temporary surface markers. Defining utility spans during the installation phase using sub-inch GNSS data in tandem with NISC iVUE® gives crews a permanent digital “x-ray” of the subsurface assets. When technicians return months or years down the road, they can navigate straight to the exact buried line or junction box, avoiding costly exploratory digging or secondary utility locates.

Conclusion: Operational Benefits of High-Precision Location

Whether managing overhead equipment during hurricane recovery or locating buried cables in a fresh housing development, the integration of high-precision Eos Skadi GNSS hardware with NISC’s iVUE AppSuite creates a reliable, single source of truth. By streamlining field data capture, utilities keep their crews safer, optimize operational speed, and provide superior service reliability to their customers.

See the Workflow in Action

To explore the original case study and find detailed equipment specifications, read the original Eos Positioning Systems article.