snerts50, I think the belief that utilities are doing fine in terms of maintaining equipment is a bit naive. In some cases it is probably true, but in many I think it is false. There is the large difference between the maintenance of mechanical equipment (circuit reclosers, transformers...
By saying that you have the "locations poles, switches and equipment of some MV network", are you saying that you have the GPS coordinates in a table format?
If so, you can add the data directly within ArcGIS by clicking on FILE > Add Data > Add XY Data. From there it will walk you through a...