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As part of efforts by the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) to implement a spatial data infrastructure, GET Ltd. (an OpenGeo partner) developed the RAE Geospatial Map using the OpenGeo Suite and other open source technologies. This web application represents one of the first efforts in the public sector to comply with the INSPIRE Directive and Greek law No.3882/2010 to make information accessible to the Greek public.

Figure 1. The RAE Geospatial Map enables users to search, visualize and retrieve information from RAE’s resources.

Problem Statement

The Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) is an independent administrative authority in Greece whose main duties include monitoring the operations of the various sectors that comprise the energy market, including: electricity, natural gas, oil products, renewable energy sources, electricity cogeneration, heat and others. RAE collects and processes information from private utilities in the energy sector while respecting the confidentiality of those in the energy industry. Under pressure to comply with Greek law No.3882/2010, RAE began researching ways to make their data more accessible.

RAE sought to share geospatial information related to their wide-ranging responsibilities, which include: interconnection capacity, the time taken by Transmission System Operators (TSO) and Distribution System Operators (DSO) for connections between users, repairs to the network, the publication of all appropriate information by TSOs and the DSOs, the terms and tariffs for third-party access, the unbundling of accounts, the level of transparency and competition in the energy market and the security of supply.

The Open Source Solution

The RAE Geospatial Map provides user-friendly tools for navigating, querying, searching, measuring and selecting areas of interest. Using the map, RAE’s customers can be informed about the status of their energy facilities and can search, visualize and retrieve information from RAE’s resources.

Figure 2. Layers and base map are chosen with the left hand menu. Screenshot is of actual Greek utility data on the live site.

But the RAE Geospatial Map is not just a GIS web application, it also provides for consuming data and metadata into third-party spatial data infrastructures. Using OGC standards (WMS, WFS, CSW), developers can pull data from RAE directly into their own web-enabled geospatial software projects. The RAE Geospatial Map provides public access to geospatial data using many open source technologies, including:

• GET SDI Portal, created and distributed by GET Ltd.
• OpenGeo Suite
• GeoNetwork OpenSource

Features

Basic features include:

• Data visualization

Data discovery based on:

• Spatial criteria
• RAE's business logic

Data and service discovery using:

• RAE's Catalogue
• Third party catalogues

Client-side technologies:

• OpenLayers
• ExtJS
• GeoEXT
• Proj4JS

Server-side technologies:

• OpenGeo Suite
• Geonetwork OpenSource