Sempra Energy Gets Highest Marks in New Smart Grid Rankings

San Diego's Sempra Energy took top honors in the inaugural UtiliQ ranking of the top 25 intelligent utilities in the U.S. The evaluations and rankings were conducted by IDC Energy Insights and Intelligent Utility Magazine. The ranking was conceived largely because of the multitude of challenges and issues that face electric utilities in this era of lightning-speed changes in the industry.

Sempra, a Fortune 500 company, is among three California utilities to make the top five in the UtiliQ rankings. Southern California Edison was listed in third place and Pacific Gas and Electric Company in fifth. The other two utilities in the top five are both in Texas: Austin Energy and Oncor, based in Dallas.

IDC, a market research and consulting firm, looked at the top 100 utilities in the country before developing their list of the top 25. The rankings are based on company performance in five "quantifiable intelligence metrics," according to IDC. The criteria are taken directly from the IDC announcement:

·         Productivity: An intelligent utility is an efficient utility (measured by revenue per employee).

·         Renewable energy: An intelligent utility has a commitment to renewable energy as part of its resource portfolio (measured by renewable energy sales, renewable energy customers and renewable capacity).

·         Smart initiatives: An intelligent utility makes investments in developing smarter grids (measured by smart meter deployments and other smart grid projects).

·         Demand response/energy efficiency (DR/EE): An intelligent utility allows consumers to manage their energy usage and costs (measured by the availability of energy efficiency, demand response and load management programs).

·         IT investment: An intelligent utility invests in information technology to enable business process improvement (measured by IT spending as a percent of revenue and on a per employee basis).

Click the links below for the complete IDC list of the top 25 utilities.

   Quick Take: Considering the challenges the electric utility industry faces on multiple fronts—moving away from fossil fuels and an old and unreliable infrastructure and accommodating and incorporating renewable energy sources, among them—the IDC rankings are an excellent yardstick for illustrating the progress utilities are making toward a reliable, environmentally sound and feasible Smart Grid. It's much more than a pat on the back, though we acknowledge that probably doesn't hurt.

   IDC top 25 rankings

   SGN utility profiles