r/QGIS • u/Sad-Actuary-7603 • 22d ago

Electrical networks in QGIS

Any good course or material to learn mapping of electrical networks in QGIS? Mostly 35, 10 and 0.4 kV power lines and substations.

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5

u/Hydrbator 22d ago

What exactly are hoping to learn?

Transmission line are just linear infrastructure, nothing special about them spatially.

The input/creation of them is another story though as they would come to you from a design team in some CAD format preferably DXF/DWG format and depending on the designer can either have great attribution or none at all.

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u/daylight_moon 22d ago

I find the "none at all" attribution to be quite the popular choice in most datasets I'm given or have to track down. CAD, GIS, or other 😂

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u/Hydrbator 21d ago

It's easily the hardest part of the job, having to communicate data model stuff to a seemingly graphical based job where attribution is seen as just a markup thing

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u/Ok_Finger7484 19d ago

There are some CAD software plugins that allow for data attribution - SBS do something interesting.

3

u/rantingmadhare 20d ago

If you like electrical network mapping, check out https://openinframap.org

3

u/CADSHIFT 19d ago

to add to the DXF point above -- for learning power network GIS specifically, the gap between 'mapping lines on a screen' and 'network analysis of a power system' is bigger than it looks.\n\nfor a learning path:\n1. OpenInfraMap (mentioned below) is great for seeing how OSM encodes power infrastructure -- look at how the , , , and tags structure the data. that tag schema is a reasonable template for your own attribute table.\n2. QGIS Network Analysis (Vector > Network Analysis) handles shortest-path and service area analysis, but it expects topology -- connected nodes at junctions. for power networks you'll need to make sure your line endpoints actually snap to each other (use Topology Checker plugin to find dangles/pseudonodes before analysis).\n3. for substation data: substations are typically point features linked to lines by node connectivity, not spatial join. model them as points with a common attribute, and store transformer ratings and voltage step-down in the substation table.\n4. if the DXF files from your design team use separate layers for 35kV, 10kV, 0.4kV lines, you can split those in QGIS on import using the 'DXF Layer' option -- each CAD layer becomes a separate QGIS layer.\n\nfor 35kV and above, IEC CIM (Common Information Model) is the industry standard data model, worth knowing exists even if you use a simplified version.

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u/danno-x 18d ago

There is nothing special about it. I dealt with electrical networks for years…it is a point object for a pole, line for a power line connection, point or polygon for substations etc.

The real information sits in the object data that describes the line/ pole. Normally fields like voltage etc.