Capitalize on Tomorrow’s Smart Grid Opportunities with a Future-Friendly Data Management Framework

By Frank Hoss

It would be relatively easy for a utility to approach data management either on the basis of the IT-enabling technologies currently available to it or its already-deployed electricity distribution network infrastructure. However, neither of these options will result in data management capabilities that allow the utility and its customers to realize the full potential benefits of Smart Grid. 

Data management  basics â€¦
Start with a Fully Baked Smart Grid Roadmap
7 Tips from the Trenches
Data Management Q&A Series: Experts Answer Your Questions
A Repeatable Framework for Smart Grid Data Management
Vendors See Huge Opportunities in All That Data
Warning:  The New Security Demands You Can't Ignore
Achieving High Performance in Smart Grid Data Management
MDM Trends and Technologies
Smart Grid Strategies

Instead, the approach to data management should start from the specific business the utility is in, the need to fulfill customers’ requirements, and the objectives and goals that have been set, both internally and through legislation and regulations. All these factors should drive the understanding of the data that is — and will be — needed to support the business processes associated with Smart Grid, and measure the corresponding outcomes. 

To plan and develop the right data management environment for Smart Grid, utilities will need to balance three views of their business:

·         A deep and comprehensive knowledge of today’s environment

·         A firm grasp on what is just around the corner

·         A frequent and methodical gaze into their crystal ball to assess what is likely to happen in the next 10 to 15 years

Each of these perspectives is critical to the creation of a data management architecture that both meets today’s needs, and is also scalable — ready for growth and to support future technologies. 

In addition to approaching data management from the perspective of the utility’s business models, there are several other key elements to consider in developing a future-friendly framework.  These include:

1.     Looking across the entire Smart Grid business environment when planning data management solutions -- not just Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) – to avoid stranded investments or capability impediment, and ensuring that any data source can support multiple outcomes to achieve best value from the electric distribution network infrastructure

2.     Knowing the overall and individual data requirements

3.     Looking to new tools such as complex event processing (CEP) to handle new classes of data processing problems

You’ll find a full discussion of these three elements in Smart Meter Data Management: 7 Tips from the Trenches.

A successful approach to data management starts with a detailed and forward looking end-to-end understanding of the utility’s business. That way, utilities will be able to develop the required holistic focus on data management — and will be able to take this understanding forward to design and develop a future-friendly framework. Such a framework will ensure that they can expand their data management capabilities over time in line with their fast developing business needs, and with new technologies as they come on stream.

Frank Hoss is an Accenture senior manager who for the last five years has focused on the development of advanced metering and distribution Smart Grid solutions.

Additional SGN resources …

Why Today's Utilities May Soon Be Obsolete (and What May Replace Them)

Video and Slides from the 'High Performance in Data Management' Webinar

Smart Grid Futures: Why Failing to Create a Shared Long-Term Vision Is Already Costing Us

A Repeatable Framework for Achieving High Performance in Smart Grid Data Management (pdf)   

Should Utilities Shift Rate Structures – and Customer Communications – to Meet Industry Changes Like Distributed Generation?

The Six Most Important Smart Grid Trends

IBM - Switching Perspectives (white paper/pdf)

Elsewhere on the Web …

Accenture: Smart Grid Data Management Solution to Reduce Risks and Costs of Smart Grid Deployments  // Achieving High Performance in Smart Grid Data Management

Globe-Net: The utility of the future? Think shopping mall

KEMA: Utility of the Future Leadership Guidebook Series

Metering.com/OSIsoft: Architecting AMI data management for now and the future

IBM: Plugging in the consumer: Innovating utility business models for the future

Insight Advisor: Remaking the Utility Business Model One Roof at a Time

Environmental Leader: How Customer Aggregation will Redefine the Utility of the Future

Itron: Meter Data Management – A Key to the Utility of the Future (white paper/pdf)

IDG: Building Scale for the Utility Company’s Future (white paper/pdf)

Michigan Green: Workforce of the Future