“Information as Innovation” - Key enabler to decarbonize & stabilize power grid

This article is for CXO’s & strategy managers who are seriously working towards to transform their distribution/ transmission business to future DSO/TSO. Forward looking CEO’s/ CDO’s do not just leverage the “information” to achieve their objectives but make every attempt to “weaponize” it. It does not matter what your corporate or business strategy is, if you haven’t got hold of “Information” which is absolutely required to execute your strategy, and without it, your struggle will continue with board, stakeholders & meeting consumer expectations. Many utilities have well defined strategies & roadmap, but often the “execution strategy” is more theoretical than practical. If you wonder why, the simple answer is requirements of “right data & trusted information” is not well thought through and hence most of strategic plans will fall flat.

There are many examples when “best of class strategies” could not deliver results due to incomplete or misleading information. Case in point- here is the statement of leading utility in Australia “We would prolong the life of assets while replacing the assets based on condition and not age” BUT they only have one (major) challenge to achieve this objective which is “Lack of right data & trusted information”.

Measure, Manage & Monetize Framework

In order to realize the business benefits & deliver the savings to consumers & stakeholders, monetizing the information becomes critically important. Before we get into information framework discussion, few questions to consider for utilities-

• Do you treat information as an actual asset?
• Do you apply similar accounting & asset management principles for your information?
• Do you identify/ leverage indirect ways of monetizing your information?
• Have you determined the “value of information” yet?

Most of organization’s response would be “No” to above questions.

This framework (given below) provides utilities a methodology to measure, manage & monetize the information as “real tangible asset”. You can leverage this framework by having well defined information management plan, key data steward roles and designing Conceptual & Logical data models. Next step would be to measure the information- which can be done in different ways. You can evaluate the quality/ completeness of data, value it can provide to business (once they’ve access to it) and how does the economics stack up? Finally, you can identify indirect monetization strategies while leveraging the information already residing into IT/OT systems.

Almost every utility has small-mid range groups focusing on innovation, what’s coming next and emerging technologies & trends. It is however not sure, how those investments stack up as return to stakeholders/ shareholders or consumers. When promoting innovation in different parts of utilities business, framework given below can help to qualify for “Responsible Innovation to value-led innovation” use-cases.

How utilities can embed Information to their Innovation Initiatives?

When utilities embark on innovation agenda, they should start thinking beyond their own data to deliver larger & better benefits. It should be comprehensive approach where reverse engineering methodology is considered. For example, if utility would like to plan for their future networks expansion by being contextually aware of societies & communities’ preferences, they must think backwards, i.e. what all data/ information is needed to build or plan for the future networks such as, do we know about the preferences of microgrids, community networks, electric vehicles, batteries, behind the wall preferences etc. Once utilities gather right information, they can start modelling the outputs in logical & sequential ways. Another example could be around building the “new energy services” landscape, rather being doing business of moving electrons only. This again would go back to understanding list of all new “products or services” which customers are likely to buy, and not just buy, but buy it from their trusted energy delivery partners. Once you’ve got the list, advanced analytics & modelling experts can start constructing the personalized offerings algorithms. There are many examples, which can clearly demonstrate the value of data/ information which is an absolute requirement if utility executives were to be successful in their transformational journey.

Key “Information” traits

In many ways, information is unique such as “reusable” (no constraints on leveraging I, V, pf etc data to solve multiple use-cases), it can be “replicated” easily (to enable future DSO markets), it is not taxed and can be transferred to 3^rd party systems/ vendors who may build useful apps for consumers. The benefits from information modeling are exponential, if you have mastered to use it in right ways, in right systems and with right set of use-cases.

Utilities have most valuable asset (information) sitting inside their ecosystem, there is just simple massaging & nourishment is required to make it work wonders for your business. Once the information is trusted, complete and identified with value it can deliver, next steps would be to build advanced analytics/ self-learning models which are most likely to deliver better outcomes