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From 1940s Drawings to Real-Time Transmission Visibility
A Case Study in Turning Legacy Records into Faster Decisions and Stronger Field Readiness SUMMARY A large Pacific Northwest utility brought Tamazari in to support a major Transmission GIS modernization initiative focused on one urgent goal: making transmission asset information easier to find, trust, and use. The work transformed decades of legacy transmission line drawings, some dating back to the 1940s, into a standardized digital foundation connected across SAP, Smallworld
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Modernizing Legacy Systems
From 1940s Drawings to Real-Time Transmission Visibility
A Case Study in Turning Legacy Records into Faster Decisions and Stronger Field Readiness SUMMARY A large Pacific Northwest utility brought Tamazari in to support a major Transmission GIS modernization initiative focused on one urgent goal: making transmission asset information easier to find, trust, and use. The work transformed decades of legacy transmission line drawings, some dating back to the 1940s, into a standardized digital foundation connected across SAP, Smallworld
5 min read
From Military SATCOM to Utility IT: How Tim "Boss" Bagwell Delivers Mission-Critical Infrastructure
A Q&A with Tim Bagwell, far left, Senior Solutions Consultant, Tamazari Q: Tim, before we get into the consulting work, take us back to the start. What was your role in the Air Force? A: I spent roughly 1998 to 2005 in the Air Force as a satellite communications technician. By the end I was a Staff Sergeant running a small team. The shorthand is "SATCOM," but the practical reality was setting up and maintaining the data links that let dispersed units talk to each other and to
4 min read
Water Treatment SCADA with Ignition: Modernizing Plant Operations
Executive Summary A regional water treatment operator managing 12 drinking water plants and 8 wastewater treatment facilities across a 150-kilometer service area faced mounting challenges with its aging, fragmented SCADA infrastructure. Legacy systems from multiple vendors created data silos, manual reporting consumed hundreds of staff hours annually, and the lack of remote monitoring capabilities meant that operators had to physically travel to sites for routine checks, even
8 min read
Bills, Blackouts, and Broken Trust: The 5 Biggest Consumer Concerns About The Future of Energy.
Modernization Means Little if Bills Rise and Trust Falls Why Consumers are Losing Trust in the Future of Energy For years, the future of energy has been framed like a strategy deck. It was about modernization, decarbonization, grid transformation, and innovation roadmaps. But that's not how most consumers experience it day to day. They experience it through rate increases, a long outage, a confusing rebate page, or the creeping feeling that the system is getting more expensiv
5 min read
The Data-Driven Future of Utility Vegetation Management
A Case Study in Proactive Planning, Wildfire Mitigation, and Reliability SUMMARY A large Pacific Northwest utility needed a smarter way to manage vegetation risk across its transmission and distribution network. The goal was not simply to trim more trees. It was to make better decisions about where vegetation posed the highest wildfire risk, where budgets should be focused, and how the organization could turn field and system data into actionable planning. Tamazari supported
5 min read
From Help Desk to Enterprise ITSM: A Utility Transformation Story
How a Cherwell (Ivanti) Rollout at Tacoma Public Utilities Turned Skeptics into Advocates Across 100+ Users SUMMARY Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) needed an IT service management (ITSM) system that could keep pace with the reality of running three essential services—power, water, and rail—on shared technology. Tamazari led a phased rollout of Cherwell ITSM (Ivanti) for 100+ users, establishing practical Change, Asset, and Problem Management in addition to connecting SolarWinds
4 min read
Clean Energy Programs Are Stress-Testing Utility Billing Systems.
How Time-of-Use Rates, EV Tariffs, and Net Billing are Exposing CIS Limitations. The Silent Operational Risk Utilities Didn’t Plan For Clean energy is working—at least on the surface. Time-of-use rates are expanding. EV tariffs are filling up faster than forecasts predicted. Net billing has replaced simpler net metering in many regions. Not to mention, community solar subscriptions are scaling at record speed. From the outside, it looks like momentum. But behind the scenes, m
3 min read
Reliable Utilities Run on Reliable Records.
How one PNW utility eliminated document chaos and strengthened regulatory confidence. SUMMARY Tamazari partnered with a major PNW electric and natural gas utility to modernize how its Engineering Department managed critical infrastructure documentation. Leveraging deep experience in regulated utilities, we led the deployment of a centralized document imaging solution that replaced fragmented file storage with a single, trusted system of record. The initiative improved enginee
3 min read
When Customer Billing Can’t Keep Up, Clean Energy Can’t Scale.
Turning Complex Billing Into a Foundation for Energy Transition. SUMMARY As utilities navigate the energy transition, billing systems have become a critical—but often underestimated—lever for change. A major PNW utility partnered with Tamazari to modernize its complex billing capabilities, enabling time-varying rates, distributed energy resources (DERs), EV programs, and community solar initiatives. What began as a technical necessity evolved into a transformation of how the
3 min read
Fiber Optic GIS Database Development for Electric Utilities
Documenting 6,000+ Miles of Utility Fiber to Improve Reliability and Operations SUMMARY When fiber construction moves faster than documentation, utilities feel it everywhere—from provisioning delays to longer outages and frustrated crews. That’s exactly where KAMO Power and Tacoma Public Utilities found themselves until Tamazari came aboard. We led the development and long-term maintenance of comprehensive fiber optic GIS databases for both utilities. Together, these efforts
4 min read
Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Isn’t Legacy—It’s Mission-Critical
Why LMR remains essential in a modern operations stack SUMMARY When everything else fails—cell towers, fiber, power—voice radio is often the last system standing. For nearly two decades, Tamazari has helped utilities and public agencies make sure that system works when people’s safety, livelihoods, and communities depend on it. Across Alaska, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Washington, Tamazari has designed, deployed, and managed land mobile radio (LMR) systems that connect first res
5 min read
Modern SCADA and Telemetry for Water Utilities
Tacoma Water’s Path to Reliable Communications and AMI Integration SUMMARY Most people never think about the systems that keep clean water flowing—or what happens if operators lose visibility into them. Tacoma Water does. Tamazari partnered with the utility to modernize the microwave communications backbone that supports SCADA across its water system. The work strengthened reliability across 15+ remote sites, delivered four-nines availability, and ensured operators always hav
3 min read
Inside a $40M+ Utility Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Transformation
How a Major PNW Utility Rebuilt Its Financial Backbone OVERVIEW A major PNW utility took on a massive challenge: modernize a 20-year-old SAP ERP financial system while keeping the business running—and do it in time to meet FERC reporting requirements. That meant reworking core SAP Financial and Controlling modules, rolling out an enterprise-wide budgeting, planning, and consolidation platform (SAP BPC), and updating key integrations with PowerPlan and Trintech. Over four year
3 min read
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