Social Intelligence
Harnessing the true power of social media.
Customers expect their utilities to communicate as well as other service providers. This shouldn’t be considered a burden, but an opportunity.
Smart Grid
Community Renaissance
When one age ends, another begins.
Community microgrids raise questions about the role of the utility franchise, versus the free market.
Toward a 21st Century Grid
Producing value with advanced distribution management systems.
Changing demands from regulators, customers, and shareholders are driving utilities toward better operational technologies to manage an increasingly complex grid. Advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) promise nearly real-time operational insight for maintaining reliability, safety, and security.
Customer First
Is the current regulatory compact in anyone’s best interests?
Serving customers’ needs should be a top priority for power companies, irrespective of the regulatory construct and business model. Transformation doesn’t change this basic fact, but how do we break the model without breaking the system?
Results-Based Regulation
A more dynamic approach to grid modernization.
The utility’s role is changing, and regulation must change along with it – to spur innovation and respond to evolving customer needs. Modernizing the industry will require a dynamic approach.
Reinventing the Grid
How to find a future that works.
The traditional central-station grid is evolving toward a more distributed architecture, accommodating a variety of resources spread out across the network. An open and thoughtful planning approach will allow an orderly transition to an integrated system – while fostering innovation among a wider range of industry players.
Don't Get Netflixed
The tide is turning. Are we planning for it – or hoping to stop it?
The central station system is the most cost-effective way to provide utility service, but that's beside the point. Customers don't care about 'utility service.'
Correlation Processing
Big data at work – from plant performance to customer interaction.
Analytics technology isn’t just for customer service and distribution systems. Pattern recognition techniques are allowing utilities to wade through large reams of data and identify incipient equipment problems at power plants, avoiding costly failures and safety compromises.
The Innovator's Dilemma
Assessing the risks and rewards of distributed energy strategies.
To embrace change or fight it? The choice to either act or wait and see is fraught with complexity.
Modernization Foundation
Near-term vision for advanced distribution management.
Recent superstorms and other major events have raised the bar for utility reliability and grid planning. By bringing together various advanced systems in an integrated distribution management platform, utilities can make power systems more resilient – and provide better service for customers.