Who turned the power off? 5 factors impacting today’s utility sector

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If you’re like me, when you think about utilities it is when you’re paying bills and you think about cost first and foremost. But have you ever thought about what it would be like if you didn’t have power? In the US, Australia and New Zealand, a new TV show, Revolution, explores that premise with a futuristic twist. And it isn’t very pretty.

Do you think about your power consumption much at all? About its reliability?  You flip on the switch and you expect there to be power. Your appliances, electronic and mobile devices all need to be powered up – but what if there is in fact ‘no power’? While consumers have become savvier about smart meters, most people don’t think much about the supply side – how utilities deliver power to their homes and businesses.

Maybe we shouldn’t take it for granted – and certainly the utilities do not. Today’s utility firms face numerous challenges - from rising energy prices to environmental concerns to evolving consumer expectations. Similar to other industries, utilities are caught in the middle – working to deliver reliable services while safeguarding the security of their infrastructures, coping with aging assets and struggling to deliver  shareholder returns in an ever-changing regulatory environment.

I recently read an article titled, “The top five trends impacting the modern  utility industry,” as part of HP’s Industry Edge ezine focused on Utilities.  In it, five factors are called out that describe what’s driving transformation of the utilities industry:

1. Smart grid is expanding to include distribution automation.
2. Security will be an enterprise-wide practice as security of the electric grid is a critical priority. Economies are so dependent upon electricity that if the power should fail, most of modern life would grind to a halt.
3. Demand for renewable energy sources will drive new distributed generation technologies and business models.
4. Utility enterprise frameworks will require next generation information management and analytic capabilities.
5. The consumerization of energy technology changes the game.

So why write about all this here? Of course it’s because technology has a role to play in all of this. Technology can help improve and secure the infrastructure of utilities, bend the cost curve, empower consumers, and speed innovation. In addition, technology will help manage and create business and consumer value from the massive amounts of data that will result from new smart meters and smart grid systems. Read the full article to learn more about how the 5 factors will transform the utilties world – and keep the ‘power on’.

Additional resources:

• HP Industry Edge Utilities ezine
• HP in Utilities
• HP and Centrica video  (Video)
• Harnessing Big Data for the informed utility
• The Secured Utility of the 21st Century

Be on the lookout for our up and coming blogs on the energy industry including innovations from harnessing big data for utilities, implementing cloud, managing the smart meter process, securing the modern utility and other key topics designed to help you be successful in the utilities industry.  

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Nancy,  great insight into the transformation that the Energy industry is going through.  From a technology perspective, here are my insights on how Cloud Computing solutions are emerging across industries -- energy being no exception.

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