Every year, utilities are faced with the critical decision of where to invest capital. These decisions are guided by several factors, such as regulatory requirements, market conditions and business strategies. Given their magnitude, decisions are not made hastily. Careful consideration is given to the financial and operational prudence of large capital projects, such as power … [Read more...]
The Smart Grid Maturity Model
The software industry has been using maturity models to define and measure software development capabilities for decades. These models have helped the industry create a shared vision for these capabilities. They also have driven individual software development organizations to set and pursue aggressive capabilities goals while allowing these groups to measure progress in … [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...]
Managing Communications Change
Change is being forced upon the utilities industry. Business drivers range from stakeholder pressure for greater efficiency to the changing technologies involved in operational energy networks. New technologies such as intelligent networks or smart grids, distribution automation or smart metering are being considered. The communications network is becoming the key enabler for … [Read more...]
Be a People Person
I have to admit it. Despite all the exciting new technologies out there, I am finding myself to be a people person when it comes to building smarter grids and more intelligent utilities. Granted, technology is rapidly developing and the utility industry is finding itself in the middle of more and more automation. However, people - from linemen to consumers - will remain … [Read more...]
The Technology Demonstration Center
When a utility undergoes a major transformation - such as adopting new technologies like advanced metering - the costs and time involved require that the changes are accepted and adopted by each of the three major stakeholder groups: regulators, customers and the utility's own employees. A technology demonstration center serves as an important tool for promoting acceptance and … [Read more...]
The Virtual Generator
Electric utility companies today constantly struggle to find a balance between generating sufficient power to satisfy their customers' dynamic load requirements and minimizing their capital and operating costs. They spend a great deal of time and effort attempting to optimize every element of their generation, transmission and distribution systems to achieve both their physical … [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...]
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...]
Con Edison
Consolidated Edison Co. of New York (Con Edison) is a regulated utility serving 3.2 million electric customers in New York City and Westchester County. The company recognized that it could realize significant cost savings if more customers would adopt electronic billing, where bills are delivered electronically without a paper version. Eliminating the printing, postage, labor … [Read more...]
Pepco Holdings, Inc.
The United States and the world are facing two preeminent energy challenges: the rising cost of energy and the impact of increasing energy use on the environment. As a regulated public utility and one of the largest energy delivery companies in the Mid-Atlantic region, Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) recognized that it was uniquely positioned to play a leadership role in helping meet … [Read more...]
Utility Mergers and Acquisitions: Beating the Odds
Merger and acquisition activity in the U.S. electric utility industry has increased following the 2005 repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA). A key question for the industry is not whether M&A will continue, but whether utility executives are prepared to manage effectively the complex regulatory challenges that have evolved. M&A activity is (and … [Read more...]