Dive Summary:

• According to "Utilities and Big Data: Accelerating the Drive to Value," a second-annual study by Oracle, utilities collect a ton of big data but aren't doing much with it.
• The study—which used interviews with 151 senior-level executives at utilitiest in North America—found that 62% of utilities have big data skills gaps, only 17% report being "fully prepared" for the incoming smart meter data tsunami, and less than half of utilities are using that information to spot theft, plan maintenance or improve customer service.
• Oracle isn't alone in its smart meter data initiatives—IBM and Sap have programs of their own in the works.

From the article:

... "Human resources are clearly a big issue for utilities," said Guerry Waters, a VP of utility industry strategy at Oracle, in an interview with InformationWeek. "When we asked whether they have the data scientists they need to do deep analytics, they clearly said no."

There are many opportunities for utilities to put data to use. One category of keen interest is "revenue protection," which is a euphemism for theft detection. Using combinations of smart-meter data, network sensor data and operational voltage load SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) data, utilities can spot meter tampering and instances when consumption goes to zero when it clearly shouldn't. ...