Intelligent Utility Jan-Feb 2013

leverage GIS. For example, in asset
management, utilities need to have a
clear vision of the role that each system
plays in the overall scheme of managing
millions or even billions of dollars
of assets in the field that keep the lights
on for millions of customers. The GIS
provides the locational data and in
some cases is the repository for the
asset data, while in other cases the asset
data resides in another system, like SAP
or Maximo. Factor in inventory store
and crew dispatch functionality and
the requirement for clean integration
becomes readily apparent. Here’s a new
driver to the asset management world:
the proliferation of sensors across the
grid creates more opportunities to
manage those assets predictively, and
with an integrated GIS, spatial analysis
of the repair-versus-replace decision
can identify trends and streamline
maintenance processes.
On the customer service and
engagement side of the utility, the
potential roles of GIS are too many
to list here, but, for example, spatial
analysis can be integrated with third-party demographic data for debt collection
and improvement. Or companies can integrate third-party demographic and
even income data to profile and target customers for energy efficiency or
demand response programs. Also, everybody who has a smart phone is a source
of customer intelligence with a utility’s ability to spatially analyze the unstructured
data from Twitter tweets for a variety of customer service applications,
like outage reporting and bill payment.
When I get someone with Bill’s experience and wisdom on the line, I always
like to throw out a crystal ball type of question, which in this case was about
what benefits might come out of the analytics era that we aren’t necessarily
thinking about right now. Bill didn’t miss a beat and jumped right on this: “I
think and am hoping that smart meter data will eliminate many of the bad
surprises that I have experienced over the years in utility operations. Especially
things blowing up—like when transformers overload and blow up. Smart meter
data will enable better monitoring of the system health and well-being of their
assets. Also, with the smart grid there will be more prediction of failure than actual
failure itself. This will also enable the system to run more effectively, and this
might even enable utility staff to learn more about the system that they never
knew. With more data available, patterns will emerge and intelligence will result.”
The analytics market continues to be a field rich in opportunity for improvement
of utility grid and customer operations, and GIS can and will be a key
piece of utilities realizing the full potential of their investments in analytics.
For more on GIS, see the feature “GIS evolves into backbone for cooperatives” on page 12
of this issue. Artwork courtesy of ESRI.
This article originally appeared in the Utility Analytics Weekly e-newsletter. To subscribe to
the newsletter, visit www.utilityanalytics.com. Mike Smith is a vice president with the Utility
Analytics Institute. He may be reached at msmith@energycentral.com.
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