Smart grid experts flocked to GridWeek 2012 in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to exchange stories and insights about technology rollouts. Moderator David DuCharme, vice president of smart energy services at Capgemini, asked panelists to go a step farther, however, and speculate about what smart meters and big data will mean for utilities in the future.
At least three key themes emerged with some consensus at the panel, "The Journey Continues – Smart Meters to Distribution Automation." Participants from Oncor, Pepco Holdings, Snohomish County PUD, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Pike Research all weighed in and offered up these three themes to watch as the utility industry evolves:
THE CONVERGENCE OF IT AND OT
“The ice is thawing,” said Bob Lockhart, a senior research analyst specializing in smart utilities practice at Pike Research. He assessed that both sides of the industry are beginning to realize that they have something to offer each other as internal technology interacts more and more with grid tech operating out in the wild.
Donny Helm, a director in technology, strategy and architecture at Oncor, agreed. His company is currently in the final stages of a smart meter rollout of 3.2 million units in Texas, and he acknowledged the challenge that lies ahead as in-home load controls become a part of the larger system and decisions have to be made about who commands them. That issue connected with a larger point at the panel about the services utilities will ultimately end up providing to their customers.
UTILITIES BECOMING ENERGY ADVISORS
As technology in homes continues to provide utilities with more and more data about customers, a fundamental shift could take place as electric companies gain the necessary information to advise customers about actions they can take to save money on energy or cut back on energy use during peak load times.
"That is a different relationship," Pepco Holdings Vice President, Customer Care, Charles Dickerson said. Dickerson envisions a future where customers could come to their utilities for answers when they are faced with window, insulation and solar panel salesmen claiming to offer energy savings solutions.
Pepco has already experimented with dynamic pricing events where Dickerson says customers recognized connections between their behavior and energy costs. He hopes to see more segmentation on a granular level in the future so that electricity providers can identify which consumers are willing to interact with their usage data and alter behavior.
To get to that point, though, companies are going to need to get a better handle on what data means and how they present it.
IDENTIFYING THE VALUE OF DATA
If utilities turn into news types of businesses, they will require news types of business analysts, and as PG&E Director, Demand Side Systems, Michael Glass pointed out at the panel, that someone should be asking what business analysts will look like in the utility industry in five years.
"How do we do it and keep it pure?" Glass asked, characterizing his perspective on managing customer data.
PG&E has already implemented a plan in the early stages that is allowing customers to connect their data to a PIN and share it with developers, who in turn can provide them with applications to evaluate their energy habits. Opening the question of what data means up to the creativity of third parties like this may be one answer as the grid enters a new era.
Such programs are bringing new players into the industry, which DuCharme called "exciting." As the relationships that result from these transactions develop, utilities will have to adapt. The guests at DuCharme's panel all seemed to understand that implication, as well as the two commodities that will be important going forward.
“We’re not only delivering energy," Helm noted. "We’re delivering information as well.”
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