The City of Ames' electric department secures substation asset data

The City of Ames modernizes maintenance with Cascade

The challenge: data silos expose operational inefficiencies

The Electric Department at the City of Ames, Iowa, is a mid-size utility. Like many others, the team had relied on paper records and disparate digital systems to collect and store critical substation and relay data.

With the planned decommissioning of a shared server, it became more important to have a single version of the truth. Ken Tiarks, Technical Services Supervisor for the City of Ames Electric Department, and his team had to decide what they were going to do with several years worth of asset maintenance, testing, and compliance data. The department decided to use this as an opportunity to proactively improve the accessibility of asset records stored across disconnected digital silos.

Finding a maintenance report or test result was cumbersome and unreliable. “You could find a transformer, but not its test results unless you searched somewhere else,” Ken recalls. “We wanted a system that brought everything together—test history, manuals, parts, repairs - all in one place.”

The solution: a secure, industry-informed SaaS system

To safeguard their infrastructure and modernize operations, the City of Ames went through a competitive bid process and ultimately chose Cascade for utility asset and maintenance management. Their goals were clear: secure critical data, make it searchable and accessible, and improve daily operations. The combination of cloud infrastructure and a built-forpurpose platform proved to be a winning combination.

The transformation began with implementation—an experience Ken describes as unexpectedly seamless. “We gave them unstructured data - just gobs of it - and they turned it into something usable,” he says. The implementation team’s domain knowledge made a key difference. “They knew exactly where information should go so our field teams could find it instantly. It was a smooth transition.”

Initially concerned about the cost of a SaaS solution, the city weighed it against the investment needed to train in-house staff for an on-premises alternative. The conclusion was clear: Cascade offered better cybersecurity, automated backups, and a lower total cost of ownership.

electric grid pylon worker

We now maintain equipment on a schedule and can see trends emerging before issues turn into outages. That’s a fundamental change in how we protect our infrastructure.

Ken Tiarks

Technical Services Supervisor

City of Ames

The impact: field efficiency, resilience, and proactive maintenance

Once Cascade was in production, the City of Ames saw immediate improvements in how their teams worked. The software’s built-in scheduling generates maintenance work orders automatically enabling technicians to independently access assignments without waiting to be directed.

“Our crews don’t need to chase down instructions anymore,” says Ken. “They can see what’s due, prioritize the work, and just get started even if someone’s out sick or on vacation. That flexibility has made a huge difference.” Each work order is accompanied by digital forms, test procedures, and previous test data all accessible in the field. “It’s all there: the documentation, the data, the instructions,” Ken explains. “We’ve cut down on unnecessary trips back to the office, which really boosts our efficiency.” The availability of historical data in the field also supports better, faster decision-making. “They can compare current results to past performance right on site. If something’s changed significantly, they catch it in real time.” Beyond operational improvements, the shift to digital asset management has enabled the city to move from reactive to proactive maintenance. “We now maintain equipment on a schedule and can see trends emerging before issues turn into outages. That’s a fundamental change in how we protect our infrastructure,” says Ken.

About the City of Ames

Ames, Iowa is a city of about 66,000 residents, home to Iowa State University. Its municipal electric utility operates two natural gasfired generation units, and 11 substations. The city is expanding its transmission network with a third 161 kV line and integrates renewable energy through a 22 MW solar array and 30 MW of purchased wind power. Ames also engages in power wheeling and is planning for future energy capacity and sustainability.

Profile

Customer name: City of Ames, Iowa
Web address: www.cityofames.org
Market: Municipal utility market, specifically within the public power sector
Product: Cascade

Brief account

Why choose Cascade?

Industry-specific design: Cascade is purpose-built for utilities and substation environments.
Domain expertise in implementation: The Cascade implementation team had deep industry experience.
Strong cybersecurity: Security was a major concern.
Lower total cost of ownership compared to on-premises: Initially skeptical of SaaS costs, Ames ultimately found that a cloud-based Cascade implementation was more cost-effective than building and maintaining an on-premises alternative.