Intelligently connecting your customer and business

By Julien Groues, VP EMEA Sales, Oracle Utilities

Europe has reasserted its international leadership in the fight against global warming by saying that it will slash its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 per cent by 2050, and by 20 percent by 2020. Although it seems a long time before these targets need to be met, governments around the world have already introduced new regulations to make these ambitious goals a reality, such as the Carbon Reduction Commitments in the UK.

One of the biggest contributors to CO² emissions is the electric utility industry, which accounts for 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, the largest share amongst all industries.^[1] Therefore, it is critical that the industry and utilities in general, take immediate action to reduce their carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency.

That begs the can question, how can this be achieved. One of the most important steps towards reducing energy use is to have accurate utility data and usage control; this can be achieved through technologies such as Smart Grids, Smart Meters and advanced metering.

Smart Grids deliver substantial benefits which help in the reduction of carbon emissions. They allow utilities to manage their distribution grids more efficiently, which means less power needs to be generated, creating fewer emissions and reducing the frequency and duration of outages. Smart Meters on the other hand help consumers and utilities manage energy use more effectively by being able to better understand energy consumption patterns and detect and report outages and power restorations.

Understanding your Energy Consumption

For customers, Smart Grids begin with Smart Meters as they provide access to comprehensive, real-time view of energy usage across an entire business or home – a view that helps consumers understand how much they are using and how much it is costing them at any given moment. Therefore, it helps customers reduce overall energy use and better respond to price incentives.

The benefits delivered through Smart Metering to utility providers are also significant. It gives them the ability to deliver better services. For instance, it enables utilities to obtain off-cycle, "final" meter reads for customers moving or leaving the area. In such a situation, the utility is able to couple these real-time final meter reads with online or credit-card bill payments that enable utilities to collect bills immediately that would otherwise have taken weeks or months to reach the relocated customer.

Furthermore, utilities are given access to remote-disconnect meters which reduce the cost of sending field crews to the premises of customers who have either requested a disconnect or who are being disconnected for not paying a bill. Another valuable benefit is the accuracy in bills - with Smart Metering, utilities can ensure that almost all bills are based on actual meter reads rather than on estimates; this reduces calls to the contact centre and improves customer satisfaction.

Finally Smart Metering allows for the widespread of conservation programmes where energy companies can provide incentives to consumers to reduce their consumption at specific period of times resulting in greater production and grid efficiencies.

Tackling Data Overload

One of the challenges associated with the move towards Smart Metering is the inevitable increase in the amount of meter data utilities must handle. To address this utilities can implement a meter data management (MDM) application specifically designed to gather large volumes of data from multiple meter types, store it, and process it according to specific utility needs.

Alternatively, utilities can implement Smart Metering without MDM by channeling data directly to the billing/customer information system (CIS). However, this approach isn't ideal as few CIS applications in the market can handle huge data volumes and having additional processing in the CIS system create risks for its main functions. MDM in contrast can assign equal priority to all data recipients and can also perform preliminary processing for each recipient. When combined with meter data warehouse, MDM can manage real-time, transactional processing and the meter data warehouse can handle data extraction, reporting and analytical processing.

Moving Beyond the Measurement of Energy Consumption

Tied to smart meters are the Smart Grids which include an intelligent monitoring system that keep track of all electricity flowing into the system and incorporate the use of superconductive transmission lines for less power loss. Smart Grids help utilities respond to a variety of emerging customer and community needs. However, many utilities are missing out on the many benefits delivered by the Smart Grid, viewing it simply as a step towards measuring energy consumption and grid monitoring.

In fact, the Smart Grid is an information revolution that is able to deliver a multitude of benefits for every utility department and function, as well as every customer. Utilities that allow just one or two departments to control Smart Grid design often find that their projects fail to deliver optimal return on investment.

The Intelligence of the Smart Grid

Smart Grids use computer hardware and software, sensors, controls, and telecommunications equipment and services to link customers to information that helps them manage consumption and use energy wisely. To make the most of the Smart Grid and ensure projects are rolled out successfully, utilities need to have strategic executive leadership in place and involve all of their departments in the implementation process. Otherwise, they face the risk of revenue loss, less-than-optimal service delivery and long-term excessive IT costs that can be detrimental to both their business and customer relationships.

The technology can be used to drive efficiencies in transmission, distribution and consumption, which means utilities are able to serve customers' power needs with fewer generating plants, fewer transmission and distribution assets.

Smart Grids also deliver a number of additional benefits for example; customers don't have to worry about their utility bills due to the accuracy of Smart Meters and responsibility lies with the utility provider. In addition, utilities can minimise the duration of overloads, bottlenecks and outages. From the utility's perspective, they are provided with information that improves performance and control costs, and can also improve business processes through applications such as mobile workforce and asset management. These applications can improve customer service and ease burden on field and service staff as their time can be used more efficiently.

Strengthening Ties with the Customer

This is further strengthened by Smart Grid software which uses sensors to detect outages and pinpoints this to the exact location, allowing utilities to ensure problems are resolved at every meter location. Additionally, the technology ensures utilities are made aware of the size of the actual outage; they can dispatch the correct team with the required skills to the site to fix the problem. Furthermore, utilities are able to identify and resolve potential outages before they take place.

The benefits go a step further by enabling utilities to identify illegal attempts to reconnect meters or to use electricity in vacant premises. Thefts can also be detected by being able to compare flows through delivery assets with billed consumption.

In addition, customers with unusually high energy usage can be identified and contacted before they receive a bill. This means utility providers can suggest techniques that might help their customers limit their energy consumption and can even help customers identify alternative methods of paying bills. By offering these services, customer relations can be improved immensely and utilities can put customer priorities first by helping limit the size bills for those that might struggle to pay them.

However, Smart Grid success depends on the successful handling of two major IT issues: integration and data handling. Both aspects are components of what some refer to as enterprise information management (EIM). EIM is an important discipline for structuring, describing and governing information assets, regardless of organisational and technological boundaries. It improves operational efficiency, promotes transparency and enables business insight.

Taking Leadership

The mission of utility companies needs to change from being focused on solely delivering reasonably priced energy and water, to ensuring sustainable energy use and environmental improvement. Innovative technologies such as Smart Grids and Smart Meters can play a key role in helping utilities meet this mission.

However, in order to fully achieve this, utilities need to consider the technologies they can implement across their organisation in the form of new hardware, software, business process development and staff training, and how these can be harnessed to provide the platform for delivering such technologies. By doing so, utilities will be able to ensure their customers are reaping the full benefits of the technology. Investment in the Smart Grid and Smart Meters can also ease cost difficulties for both utilities and their consumers, and deliver a more flexible, reliable and responsive electricity grid. Justifying its implementation however, require an understanding of the full benefits – benefits that can help not only the customer and utility, but also society to address issues like energy security and climate change, while minimising costs and maximising customer convenience.

 

Reference:
[1] Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Electric Utilities Report 2009