Building the agile utility

It’s a brave new world for utility companies. Known previously as dependable, slow-footed and steadfast, today, utilities are being swept into the future where change, cooperation, compliance, cost management and competition require agility—not steel-toed boots.

Smart metering and unbundling have stimulated new technical and commercial possibilities for utilities and unlocked innovation for household use. Utilities can now compete for consumers' business just like other retailers; and consumers can switch companies, mix and match power sources, and monitor consumption in real time.

When their homes are equipped with smart meters, consumers will be more aware of consumption costs and techniques to offset usage as well as tariff incentives designed to influence usage behavior.  Consumers will even have the capability to sell back surplus energy generated from their own decentralized power sources-like solar panels or wind turbines. Homeowners can use their heating system to generate energy and command their battery-powered cars to charge only during off-peak hours. Many believe home automation and tariff incentives designed to manage and reduce power consumption will significantly change consumers' energy use patterns, slow the rate of energy-demand growth, round off the peaks, and even reduce the need for additional generation capacity.

Diving into the digital age

In the drive to create a sustainable energy system, new market models and technologies demand agility from utility companies.  Ironically, utility systems were built a long time ago for reliability, scalability and availability-not agility and data integration. Nevertheless, they must adapt to compete in a changing marketplace. 

The chief difference between then and now, is the degree of "actionable" information made possible by smart metering. Using meter data to segment their customer base, special tariffs can be offered to specific customers groups to encourage power consumption during certain hours of the day or night.   In addition to better oversight of power consumption overall, the potential to innovate and act upon customer information will stimulate new programs designed to set apart the supplier and create loyalty in the heart and mind of the customer.

It's a whole new ballgame for agile utilities

Liberalization of power has transformed slow-footed utilities into fast-acting commercial players. Though still subject to mandates defining-

• Supplier changes,
• Energy consumption information,
• Service quality monitoring,
• Build-out of intelligent networks to improve efficiency and reliability in energy distribution, and
• Better optimization in allocation of resources and utilization of assets,

-liberalization offers new opportunities to innovate and win market share.

Approximately 39.2 million smart meters have been installed in homes across Europe, and 96.3 million are slated for installation by the year 2014. But smart metering is just one component of the bigger plan to create a sustainable energy system. Utilities must integrate and analyze an onslaught of digital information to manage fuel measurement and load, workflows, fault analysis, energy balancing, multi-vendor reporting and real-time, personal energy data. In short, the utility must run-not walk-into the digital age.

How does the utility adapt to rapid change when it isn't built to adapt? 

Utilities are losing millions of dollars because of their fragmented approach to Smart Metering.   Utility organizations must treat the transition to smart meters with a long view and an end-to-end approach-seeking ways to monitor, analyze and automate processes wherever possible. 

The agile utility must prepare for change-without always knowing what changes are imminent or their impact on the organization.  Regardless of the specifics, the ability to adapt quickly to high volume data exchanges with many market participants requires control, speed in re-engineering business processes and a holistic approach to business process management.

Wearing the right shoes to the race

The pressure to keep up with change and reduce operational costs is extreme.  It's a brand new game for utilities-and many are not prepared to automate new data collection and reporting.  With no time to lose, utilities are turning to business orchestration partners like Powel ASA for turnkey information technology solutions to automate metering and business processes.

Powel ASA, a leading software supplier in Scandinavia in the field of smart metering (currently managing more than one million smart meters throughout the region) has pooled expertise with Cordys, a business process management software innovator, to create an integrated all-in-one solution. The Powel Smart Metering Suite is an open platform solution with a highly scalable database that offers a comprehensive set of business processes, including:

• Meter Management
• Meter Data Management and Processes
• Dashboards
• Application integration capabilities for CRM, ERP and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

The Powel business operations platform integrates with legacy systems to give the utility full control over new meter infrastructure.  It records every event and allows users to filter and categorize information, automate and measure processes, and uncover faults, quality-of-supply and fraud. With this platform, the agile utility has built-in revenue protection such as functionality to alert energy providers about aberrant energy usage patterns, slow meters, stopped or reversed meters, meter tampering or improper installation.

Business platform operators can sort out which events require manual response and which can be automated to save time and money. The suite gives utilities oversight of process, regulatory framework, rollout and meter infrastructure as well as a view of other market participants.

Conclusion

Liberalization has radically changed the face of the European energy industry. Utilities that have long been monopolies must now undergo transformation to become agile providers of consumer services in an increasingly competitive marketplace.  And to get from here to there is as much about smart metering as it is about information technology.

Smart meters produce a wealth of information that must be stored, managed and exchanged securely amongst the market participants. Flexible and future-proof smart metering solutions will help the agile utility manage change as it comes and remain competitive well into the future.

Hendrik Jan van Roest is a business development professional whose specialty is new product, services and technologies introduction and rollout. Trained in business economics in Nijmegen, Mr. van Roest served in various roles at IBM for seven years then joined Nuon, a leading energy company in The Netherlands, to eventually serve as controller of the Operations division. At Nuon, he helped to merge four unique entities in the creation of a new organization.  In 2002, van Roest was appointed director of Customer Care at Nuon, where he oversaw customer relations, billing and collections and metering operations. In 2007, he directed operations at Founter BV (a division of Volker Wessels) where he prepared the organization for large-scale smart meter deployment. Van Roest leads business development for Powel ASA in Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

About Powel

Powel is a worldwide supplier of business-critical systems for power generation, transmission and distribution utilities, along with solutions for municipal water and wastewater services. The company is based in Norway where it is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and has international offices in the US, Canada and Sweden with a total of 270 employees. Operating revenues in 2008 were € 28 million, with smart metering related products accounting for 23 percent. Powel offers a suite of smart metering solutions including the Powel ELIN data collection system, the Powel MDMS meter data management system and the new Powel Smart Grid Portal. The Powel ELIN system automatically collects data from virtually any utility meter, supporting a wide range of protocols and communication technologies. Powel MDMS is a standalone application that includes the features and functionalities needed for the meter-to-bill process, as well as settlement, forecasting and web presentation to end-users. Powel Smart Grid Portal presents metering data, structural information, events and process information which are registered in the ELIN and MDMS systems. The complete Powel Smart Metering Suite can be embedded with Cordys, enabling advanced business process management based on SOA principles. Having supplied smart metering solutions to among others Vattenfall, E.ON Sweden, Fortum and major regional utilities in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Powel ranks as the leading player in its field on the advanced Nordic market. The company is also looking to increase its presence in the rest of Europe and has established a network of partners in Denmark, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.