The U.S. utility industry - particularly the electric-producing branch of it, there also are natural gas and water utilities - has found itself in a new, and very uncomfortable, position. Throughout the first quarter of 2009 it was front and center in the political arena. Politics has been involved in the U.S. electric generation and distribution industry since its founding in … [Read more...]
Managing the Plant Data Lifecycle
Intelligent Plant Lifecycle Management (iPLM) is the process of managing a generation facility's data and information throughout its lifetime - from initial design through to decommissioning. This paper will look at results from the application of this process in other industries such as shipbuilding, and show how those results are directly applicable to the design, … [Read more...]
Surviving the Turmoil
With the new administration talking about a trillion dollars of infrastructure investment, the time for the intelligent utility of the future is now. Political pressure and climate change are going to drive massive investments in renewable and clean energy and smart grid technology. These investments will empower customers through the launch and adoption of demand response and … [Read more...]
Business Process Improvement
In the past, the utility industry could consider itself exempt from market drivers like those listed above. However, today's utilities are immersed in a sea of change. Customers demand reliable power in unlimited supply, generated in environmentally friendly ways without increased cost. All the while regulators are telling consumers to "change the way they are using energy or … [Read more...]
Future of Learning
The nuclear power industry is facing significant employee turnover, which may be exacerbated by the need to staff new nuclear units. To maintain a highly skilled workforce to safely operate U.S. nuclear plants, the industry must find ways to expedite training and qualification, enhance knowledge transfer to the next generation of workers, and develop leadership talent to … [Read more...]
Modeling Distribution Demand Reduction
In the past, distribution demand reduction was a technique used only in emergency situations a few times a year - if that. It was an all-or-nothing capability that you turned on, and hoped for the best until the emergency was over. Few utilities could measure the effectiveness, let alone the potential of any solutions that were devised. Now, demand reduction is evolving to … [Read more...]
Measuring Smart Metering’s Progress
Smart or advanced electricity metering, using a fixed network communications path, has been with us since pioneering installations in the US Midwest in the mid-1980s. That's 25 years ago, during which time we have seen incredible advancements in information and communication technologies. Remember the technologies of 1985? The very first mobile phones were just being … [Read more...]
Customer Service in the Brave New World of Today’s Utilities
A NEW GENERATION OF CUSTOMER Today's utility customers are energy dependant, information driven, technologically advanced, willing to change and environmentally friendly. Their grandparents prompted utilities to develop and offer levelized billing, and their parents created the need for online bill presentment and credit card payment. This new generation of customer is about to … [Read more...]
Plugging in the Consumer
Thanks to new technologies and the spirit of independence and empowerment fostered by the digital age, consumers are taking on broader and more active roles in an increasing number of industries. Not only are consumers increasingly vocal and decisive about what they will or will not buy, they are in many cases becoming designers, producers, marketers and distributors of the … [Read more...]
Achieving Decentralized Coordination In the Electric Power Industry
For the past century, the dominant business and regulatory paradigms in the electric power industry have been centralized economic and physical control. The ideas presented here and in my forthcoming book, Deregulation, Innovation, and Market Liberalization: Electricity Restructuring in a Constantly Evolving Environment (Routledge, 2008), comprise a different paradigm - … [Read more...]
How Intelligent Is Your Grid?
Many people in the utility industry see the intelligent grid — an electric transmission and distribution network that uses information technology to predict and adjust to network changes — as a long-term goal that utilities are still far from achieving. Energy Insights research, however, indicates that today's grid is more intelligent than people think. In fact, utilities can … [Read more...]
Leveraging the Data Deluge: Integrated Intelligent Utility Network
If you define a machine as a series of interconnected parts serving a unified purpose, the electric power grid is arguably the world's largest machine. The next-generation version of the electric power grid - called the intelligent utility network (IUN), the smart grid or the intelligent grid, depending on your nationality or information source - provides utilities with … [Read more...]
Business Intelligence: The ‘Better Light Bulb’ for Improved Decision Making
Although some utilities have improved organizational agility by providing high-level executives with real-time visibility into operations, if they're to be truly effective, these businesses must do more than simply implement CEO-level dashboards. They must provide this kind of visibility to every employee who needs it. To achieve this, utilities need to be able to collect data … [Read more...]
Improving Call Center Performance Through Process Enhancements
The great American philosopher Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you're going, chances are you will end up somewhere else." Yet many utilities possess only a limited understanding of their call center operations, which can prevent them from reaching the ultimate goal: improving performance and customer satisfaction, and reducing costs. Utilities face three key … [Read more...]
The Smart Grid: A Balanced View
Energy systems in both mature and developing economies around the world are undergoing fundamental changes. There are early signs of a physical transition from the current centralized energy generation infrastructure toward a distributed generation model, where active network management throughout the system creates a responsive and manageable alignment of supply and demand. At … [Read more...]