Ready or not, the digital transformation is here

Mike Ballard explores the role of cross-departmental collaboration, grid intelligence and smart cities in achieving the imperative of digital transformation in utilities.

Digital technologies have transformed the way many companies transact and engage with their customers, and business models across a number of major industries are adapting to this reality. Consider how the smartphone and access to customer data have changed the retail experience, for example.

With the smart meter roll-out underway and customers becoming increasingly engaged in their energy use, utilities are also recognizing the need to be part of this transformation.

This shift will require that customer and network data is not only collected, but also compiled across the business and analysed in ways that generate valuable insights. According to Accenture, more than 90 per cent of energy providers admit data analytics technologies are among the most important assets in preparing for smart grids. And yet, many utility companies remain unprepared to capitalise on modern analytics.

Cross-departmental pollination

Just as the rise of the smart grid marks the digital transformation of energy networks, the transition to a more open, in-depth approach to meter data analysis represents the evolution of utility business models.

Sharing data across the business will be crucial. While the intelligence gathered from smart meters will open up new ways of engaging positively with customers, the only way to maximise these benefits is for departments across the business – from those monitoring the grid to field workers to customer-facing teams – to be able to access and use this information.

For example, providing both dispatch teams and field workers real-time access to network and customer data makes asset management and troubleshooting activities more efficient, and ultimately helps utilities provide a better service to customers.

With a real-time view of network conditions and the status of mobile workers displayed in front of them, dispatchers can ensure the right teams are deployed to the right jobs with the right tools as quickly as possible. At the same time, with access to network asset data directly on their mobile phones, field workers will be better placed to resolve any issue they come across.

By applying geospatial tools to data analysis, utilities can also include proactive customer input into their network response. When a consumer sends in photos of a hazard, a fallen tree for example, the associated location and time stamp information can instantly be processed and projected onto a spatial grid, allowing the work and asset team to dispatch an appropriate response to the problem area straight away. Just as importantly, they can update customers on the status of repairs in real-time.

Managing a more complex grid

In addition to the need for retailers to modernise the customer experience, distributors are under extreme scrutiny from consumers and regulators alike to use modern digital technologies to make grid reliability and outage response more effective and transparent. The complexity and dynamic nature of smart grids presents unique economic, engineering and safety challenges that these organisations must be able to address.

A more intricate, interconnected network and constantly changing load dynamics demand that distributors make more decisions regarding asset deployment and network topology at a faster pace. Furthermore, understanding the impact of any changes to the grid requires a much more sophisticated analysis than is required when assessing traditional energy networks.

Data from smart meters enables utilities to process information from millions of new points across the grid to better visualize how voltage is being distributed throughout their networks, and more importantly why. This provides them with a rich variety of historic, real-time and even predictive data that will help them make smarter decisions: for example, it could help distributors predict how individual transformers may fail in different scenarios based on their type, age, and network load, so that they can adjust their operations accordingly.

The smart city – catalyst for the data-centric utility?

The effect of digital transformation on utilities extends beyond the walls of an individual organisation. The smart grid will soon represent just one element of a fully interconnected smart city in which data is shared among utilities and all the service providers consumers interact.

In this environment a utility’s digital infrastructure will be as foundational as its physical infrastructure. However, it’s worth noting that while an open exchange of data will underpin the city of tomorrow, there remain today a number of barriers that must be removed before this becomes a reality.

For one, energy distributors still do not have the visibility into consumption patterns that retail suppliers do, nor do they have a direct relationships with end customers, putting them at a disadvantage. At the same time, the seamless flow of data remains hampered by a lack of standardisation between different businesses and industries, as well as by the sheer volume of information that is now being generated.

Technology platforms will need to be open standards-based and agnostic of specific vendors to help governments and utilities overcome this challenge. Also, players across the board will need to modernize their data analytics capabilities to effectively process the mountains of information at their disposal.

Finally, it’s worth noting that concerns and legislation around data privacy raise questions as to how data sharing is to be approached. The only tenable solution is for data sharing to be led by willing customers rather than being centrally mandated, which means utilities need to start working today to build trust with their customers if they want to foster stronger customer relationships down the line.