For US Utilities serving 3,000-100,000 meters and for operations team, billing team and utility managers. For Heads of Billing who own collections accuracy and revenue leakage.
The Esri Utility Network is the data model and set of tools in ArcGIS for modeling electric, gas, water, stormwater, wastewater, and telecom networks, including how every pipe, cable, valve, and device connects and how resources flow through them. It replaces the older geometric network, which ArcGIS Pro does not support, and ArcMap itself was retired on March 1, 2026, so most utilities on the geometric network now face a migration. The part most plans underestimate is not the GIS work itself but cleaning the data and keeping it matched to the customer, meter, asset, and work order records that run daily operations.
Esri describes the utility network as the main component used to manage utility and telecom networks in ArcGIS, "providing a comprehensive framework of functionality for the modeling of utility systems" (Esri documentation). In practical terms, it is a structured way to store not only where assets are, but how they connect: which service line feeds which meter, which valve isolates which section of main, which transformer serves which customers.
That connectivity is what makes the utility network useful. With it, a GIS team can:
Esri supports it for electric, gas, water, stormwater, wastewater, and telecommunications networks. It runs in ArcGIS Pro, with ArcGIS Enterprise providing the services-based, multiuser deployment that most utilities of meaningful size use.
The utility network is a map of the physical system. It is not where a utility keeps customer accounts, bills, meter reads, or the history of work done on each asset. Those live in operational systems, and a utility's asset management platform is where asset condition, maintenance, and cost are tracked. The migration succeeds when the two stay matched, which is the theme the rest of this guide returns to.
For years, many utilities ran their network models on the geometric network in ArcMap. That option has ended. Esri retired ArcMap on March 1, 2026, after a period of mature support and deprecation (Esri Support). ArcGIS Pro, the replacement desktop application, does not support the geometric network.
Esri provides two destinations for geometric network data (Esri documentation):
For a water, electric, or gas utility, the utility network is the expected path.
Many electric and gas utilities also run ArcFM, the Schneider Electric extension used for utility editing and design on top of Esri. Its current generation, the ArcFM XI series, is built on the utility network (Esri partner listing), so an ArcFM to utility network migration is usually one project, planned with both vendors.
The two models solve the same basic problem, knowing how a network connects, but they are built for different eras of GIS.
The practical consequence of the "connectivity" row is the one that matters for planning. The utility network enforces rules about what can connect to what. Data that a geometric network tolerated, such as a service line that does not quite touch its main, or a device with no clear parent, fails those rules and has to be corrected.
The utility network uses a common framework across industries, but each domain has its own structure. Esri publishes industry configurations, often called asset packages, as starting points, and most utilities adapt one rather than design a model from scratch.
In every domain, the value of the model depends on how well its features match the asset records the utility maintains elsewhere. A transformer in the GIS and the same transformer in the asset system should carry the same identifier, the same install date, and the same condition history. Our guide to electric utility asset management software covers how electric utilities keep those asset records current on the operational side.
Data preparation is the largest part of most migrations. Esri provides tools to migrate existing data into a utility network (Esri documentation), but the tools move data that is ready. Preparing it follows a consistent sequence.
Water utilities often find step four the hardest, because meter and service line records have been maintained by billing staff for years while the GIS was maintained separately. Our guide to water utility asset management software covers keeping the operational side of those records in order.
The challenges are consistent across utilities, and most are about data and people rather than software.
None of these is a reason to delay indefinitely, since ArcGIS Pro does not support the geometric network. They are reasons to scope the project around data cleanup rather than around software installation.
Most utility network plans are written by and for the GIS team. They cover the data model, the configuration, the migration tooling, and the editing cutover. What they often leave out is the connection between the network model and the operational systems that use it.
A trace that shows which customers a main break affects is only useful if those customers can be matched to accounts, notified, and tracked through a work order. An asset record in the GIS is only useful for planning if its condition and maintenance history can be read from the system where that work is recorded. If the GIS and the operational systems do not share identifiers, the utility network produces an accurate map that nobody can act on.
When the utility network finds the customers affected by a main break, can your customer system match them to accounts automatically?
When a crew replaces a valve, does the GIS feature and the asset record both update, or only one of them?
Do meters and service points carry the same identifier in the GIS, the billing system, and the work order system?
SMART360 is not a GIS and does not replace ArcGIS. Its role in a utility network migration is on the operational side:
For a utility on the geometric network, the question is less whether to migrate than how to scope the project so its benefits cover its cost. With ArcMap retired, not migrating means running unsupported software, which carries its own security and staffing risk.
The benefits are real when the project is scoped well, and the costs sit mostly in data preparation and staff time rather than in software:
A realistic cost-benefit analysis compares these costs with the hours already spent working around bad network data. Gas utilities in particular tend to find the isolation and pressure-system tracing worth the effort, and our guide to gas utility asset management software covers the asset records that sit alongside that network model.
It is Esri's data model and toolset in ArcGIS for modeling utility and telecom networks, including electric, gas, water, stormwater, wastewater, and telecommunications. It stores how assets connect as well as where they are, which supports upstream and downstream tracing, subnetworks, and network diagrams. It runs in ArcGIS Pro, with ArcGIS Enterprise providing the services-based, multiuser deployment.
In practice, yes, if you want to stay on supported Esri software. ArcGIS Pro does not support the geometric network, and ArcMap was retired on March 1, 2026. Esri directs utilities and telecoms to the utility network, and non-utility organizations with simpler needs to the trace network.
Both are Esri replacements for the geometric network in ArcGIS Pro. The utility network is the full model built for utilities and telecom, with rules, associations, subnetworks, and network diagrams. The trace network is a simpler option for organizations that only need basic network tracing and are not utilities.
ArcFM is Schneider Electric's utility editing and design extension for Esri, widely used by electric and gas utilities. Its current ArcFM XI series is built on the Esri Utility Network, so utilities running ArcFM usually plan the ArcFM and utility network migrations as a single project with both vendors.
It depends mostly on data quality, the number of domains being migrated, and the size of the network. Data preparation, especially fixing connectivity and reconciling identifiers with operational systems, usually takes longer than configuring the model or running the migration tools. Scoping the data cleanup first gives the most reliable estimate.
The utility network maps how your system connects. SMART360 keeps the operational record that map depends on: assets, accounts, meter reads, and work orders in one database, integrated with Esri ArcGIS and QGIS. That gives your utility network migration one clean set of identifiers to reconcile against.
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