intelligentutility 02/18/2010
Getting smarter every day
Last year, Sierra Energy Group, a division of Energy Central, surveyed utilities about very basic business intelligence and the results were informative. Investor-owned utilities (IOUs), municipals and co-operatives were asked: how close is your utility to being able to provide real-time, collated information about the operation of the grid and the enterprise to the executive suite? On a scale from one to five, with five representing the highest, the results were: 2.6 for IOUs, 2.3 for municipals, and 1.8 for co-operatives. So IOUs, municipals and co-operatives each recognized that they have a long way to go before they can offer real-time information about the operation of the grid to their executive suite -- much less their customers.
It doesn’t get any better when we look at general business intelligence. The same IOUs, municipals and co-operatives were asked: how effectively does your utility use business intelligence to make informed business decisions? On a scale from one to five, the results were: 2.8 for IOUs, 2.4 for municipals, and 2.6 for co-operatives. When it comes to using intelligence about their own business to make informed decisions, respondents recognized that they have a long way to go in this area as well. These results, of course, leave us wondering what information they do use to make decisions about their business.
But, enterprise-wide business intelligence is clearly becoming more important to utilities. The same survey mentioned above also asked respondents about their plans related to development of an intelligent utility enterprise. About 80 percent of IOUs and co-operatives and 65 percent of municipals indicated that they had such a plan. Additionally, nearly all of the CIOs we talk with are engaged in some manner with projects that will help improve enterprise intelligence, which indicates that the intelligent utility enterprise plan includes increased business intelligence.
Progress, of a sort
by John Cooper on Thursday February 18, 2010
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