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Episode #157: 'Charting the Path to Utility Digitalization and the Future of Field Operations' with Danny Petrecca, Vice President of Business Development at Locusview [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast]

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With Distributech 2024 on the horizon, the conversation in this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast is a timely one, exploring the pressing challenges facing electric utilities and the imperative for digitalization in field operations. Specifically, Locusview's Vice President of Business Development, Danny Petrecca, joins the show to share insights into the strategies utilities need to be adopting today to prepare to modernize the grid tomorrow.

Tune in as Danny shares with podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester issues that plague stakeholders in the power sector, including recurring bottlenecks in non-digital systems, the catalysts driving the urgency for change, and more. Danny brings a wealth of experience and insight to the table, particularly regarding the urgency for digitalization in field operations and the need for innovative solutions such as digital construction management.

 

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Thanks to the sponsor of this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast: Locusview

 

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Danny Petrecca's Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/danny-petrecca-0/about 

Locusview on Energy Central: https://energycentral.com/o/locusview 

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TRANSCRIPT

Jason Price:

Welcome to the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast. This is the show that brings leading minds from the energy industry to discuss the challenges and trends that are transforming and modernizing our energy system. And a quick thank you to Locusview, our sponsor of today's show. Now, let's talk energy. I'm Jason Price, Energy Central podcast host and director with West Monroe, coming to you from New York City. And I'm joined once again by the producer of the show, Matt Chester, dialing in from Orlando, Florida. Matt, we're recording today's episode in the lead up to Distributech 2024 that's actually taking place in your backyard. So what is the Energy Central team looking for at the upcoming conference?

 

Matt Chester:

Yeah, you're right Jason. We're excited to be headed as an Energy Central team to Distributech. And we know that so many of our key partners and community members are likewise going to be in attendance. So it's always a fun time for us. And we have plenty of hands to shake, demonstrations to watch, talks that we're eager to sit in on. And more than anything, it's about taking it all in, seeing what are the years trends in the industry, what are the new innovations, the new technologies that are going to be taking shape. And really just trying to keep an ear to the ground as a way to look ahead. So that said, if any of our listeners are going to be there as well and they have a recommended session they want us to attend or just want to meet us in chat, then don't be shy. Feel free to reach out to us on energycentral.com to let us know.

 

Jason Price:

Thanks, Matt. That sounds exciting indeed. And I know I'm looking forward to reconnecting with peers at the conference as well as meet new ones as well. And today we have the privilege of hosting someone I'm sure we'll connect with at the conference floor. Currently serving as the vice president of business development at Locusview is Danny Petrecca. Try that again, Danny. Currently serving as the vice President of business development at Locusview is Danny Petrecca who brings a wealth of experience and insight to the table. His passion for innovation and driving positive change has led him through both times of growth and challenging transitions. Today, we'll explore the pressing market problems facing electric utilities, the urgency for digitalization and field operations, and the innovative solutions offered by Locusview, setting light on the pivotal role digital construction management plays in shaping the future of the industry. Danny and his colleagues have been active members of the Energy Central community for quite some time. So we'll surely link some of the key articles in the show notes for those who want to have a bit more background.

But now without further ado, let's welcome Danny Petrecca to the Energy Central Power Perspectives podcast.

 

Danny Petrecca:

Hey Jason, thanks for the welcome. Great to be here. And I'm excited to talk to you guys as we lead up to Distributech, one of my favorite conferences.

 

Jason Price:

Yeah, as it is ours and we're thrilled to have you on the show. So Danny, we mentioned that Locusview serves the field operations, but how about you give us a brief overview of the company and its overall mission?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Sure. I think it's pretty simple to talk about what our mission is and what we do here at field operations. But I think the term that makes people most quickly lock into what we do is as-builting, but we do as-builting but a whole lot more than that. Really when you look at the planning to construction to close out workflow for distribution construction, whether it's capital construction planned work, it's really about making that a digital process. So we work closely with all the personas in a utility that are participating in this workflow. And we propose an approach called DCM or Digital construction management, which really involves bringing all the personas of this complicated workflow together from the planning of the work, the optimization of the construction itself. And really it's about making every dollar within electric utilities go farther, because right now more than ever with the economy and the rate cases going on out there, they need every dollar to go farther and do more with less. So we're really about that digital construction workflow.

 

Jason Price:

Yeah, it certainly sounds like a needed tool. So tell us how do you interact with the utility industry overall? And what types of projects are you and your team usually brought in for?

 

Danny Petrecca:

It's a great question. And it's kind of complicated because we coined the term DCM or Digital Construction Management. You don't see a Gartner study on DCM, you don't see market scopes for DCM. It's a new space within utilities. So our vector of touch points with utilities have been different. Initially it was all with the construction teams. Construction teams let's say from the gas or electric side had new mandates for their assets, whether through regulatory. So it's been through construction but as our solutions have grown through construction into more of the enterprise side, especially with electric utilities, we have to work with other people in the workflow like the design engineering, the work management system people from IT, and then on the back end the GIS and the enterprise resource management sides of the team.

So really when it comes to a utility who is feeling the uptake in construction, we'll talk about grid modernization later but construction is really uptaking within utilities. With the need to do grid mod that's more construction and then more of the stimulus from the government going into giving more money towards doing this construction. Construction is a really, really analog process. So any company who's spending money on grid modernization has to look at this paper-driven process in the field and say, "If I'm going to spend 50, 80, $100 million on let's say in ADMS, can I really in good conscience feed that with a paper-based close-out process for construction?" So when they realize that they say, I'm spending money on GIS, I'm spending money on ADMS and DERMS I have to look at my whole workflow and digitize the whole thing because I owe it to the utility to really digitize everything.

 

Jason Price:

Yeah, absolutely. We're talking about grid modernization, so it's all about capital builds, capital planning, capital construction, so on. So share with us what are some of these modernizations that are not happening that may be eye-opening that you could share. And share with us some of the bottlenecks you're seeing come up and time and time again that's not from a non-digital perspective. And why do you think that this lag exists?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Yeah, you could say at Locusview here we are fearless to the point that we are not afraid to tackle the hardest problem within utility. And the problem that we see of where digitization is not happening, is in the field during construction. You could talk to the most progressive utilities in the country or even in the world, they may have Flizzer and all these other quote-unquote, I hate to say it, I'll say it, "smart grid technologies" out there, whether it's DERMS or DER or what have you. But they could be receiving awards and accolades for being digital, but when you look at the construction side there's a massive amount of paper in the field. Now, paper is one thing but there's also a lot of use of, well, can't we just throw some of these other siloed solutions that are just good enough, staple them together and throw them out in the field like a mobile design solution or a mobile GIS solution or a mobile work management solution.

So what you end up with is where things are not happening is you get these digital bookends within electric utilities today. On the planning and engineering side is one bookend, so a lot of investment in digital work management, digital asset management, GIS and graphic work design, lots of software and digital systems out there. Skip over the field real quick, to the close outside of that you have the other digital bookend. You have ADMS, DERMS outage management, GIS systems, enterprise asset management, digital systems. But in the middle you've got this big juicy paper sandwich with these bookends on either side. So I talk to my family and peers about this a lot, you'd be surprised you actually get electrons out of the sockets in the wall when you understand how much paper is in the field,

 

Jason Price:

The relationship between electrons flowing and paper being processed. That's interesting. How about this, tell us why now, what is driving some of the adoption that you're seeing in the marketplace? Are they directors coming from policy? Is it just the availability of the technology or is there something else that's bringing more attention to this area?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Yeah, that's good because I think it's a convergence of a few things. First, just a little history of where we came from Locusview. We really proved out our DCM solution through the gas distribution industry, which was incented with a stick rather than a carrot through gas regulations for tracking traceability. So there was a mandate of sorts for gas utilities to do better about recording where they buried their pipes, who did it, were they qualified, what were the assets and materials. Now, we took that challenge and battled that historical lack of adoption of technology in the field and we perfected it. And what we saw also at the same time was a convergence of a couple of other waves in technology. Mobile computing has been perfected, cloud computing has been perfected. And a big part of our solution is being able to have a lay person capture survey, grade GPS data while they're doing their construction.

So I think us proving it out in the field helped. We have a lot of reference sites that other utilities can say, "Well, if they did it, we can do it." The technology supports it. And from the personnel standpoint, technology adoption is improving out in the field. Almost every human on the planet is much more smartphone or tablet savvy than they were one, two even five years ago. So there used to be this arm folding of utility field personnel saying, "I'm not using a computer, I'm not using a phone." And now if they want to keep in touch with anything in the world, they've got a phone or several devices in their pockets. And we're seeing resurgence in the utility workforce, a younger workforce coming in as well. So I think the wave of technology adoption and then other things we're doing to help some of the boundaries people are seeing in the field to make data capture by a construction crew very easy, rather than scribing 50 attributes in a paper form.

 

Jason Price:

Yeah, understood. So talk to us about the onboarding process. This is a new technology that has to be adopted. So there's a planning that goes into it along with the business case, but it's accepted now and now it's time to bring it on board. What does that look like? What does the technology look like? What the technology investment around that look like? And what are some pitfalls you may have seen utility leaders do when they don't think through the process, what you're trying to achieve here?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Yeah, that's great. I think you can't understand the idea of change management being important. Any medium to large IT effort within utility, you got to have change management there. This one is especially important because you're dealing a lot with the business side, that people are actually going to be using this application IN the field. They need to be invested, but the IT folks have to be invested as well because all the different systems involved, all the different enterprise integrations that might be entailed. And then whenever you're talking about people in the field working with utility data, there's the cybersecurity issues as well.

But I think the one thing I would say is a word of caution that we've definitely developed best practices from our domain expertise and expertise in the field, is for utilities to avoid the quote unquote, "one mobile app to rule them all" mentality. I think that's what we see a lot out there today is, if it's an IT driven effort within utility, they're going to want a just good enough solution with software they already own, shove that out in the field and then wonder six months later when no one's using it. I think what we have found is especially with construction crew technology, field adoption that we've perfected is done best when the technology is decoupled from the underlying enterprise systems. Now, that's a fancy word for saying, they like the way it works because it matches their workflow in the field. It's not a hammer looking for a nail, it's not a solution looking for a problem.

We built Locusview Build to match the construction workflow in the field. So I think DCM, the way we talk about it sometimes gets confused with short cycle inspection programs, or mobile GIS or a work management system out in the field or time sheets in the field. I think that's a pitfall. People say, "Well, can we just do a little bit with this over here, a little bit with that over here?" What we found for something specific like this where you're creating spatial assets with a construction crew to feed your systems of record, you really need to have a field adoption. And their app has been proven to do that in the field pretty well.

 

Jason Price:

Danny, you mentioned change management. I want to ask you about the human side of this and that is areas of resistance, concerns that this is going to create more work or just any of those behaviors that would need to get overcomed. Can you talk about that and how have you experienced it?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Yeah, it's good. I'll reiterate that, the ease of use has to dominate getting the human side solved. Otherwise, you just have a very expensive paper weight in the field. So I think it's very human to avoid change. You move someone's cheese, they get upset. So especially when you have people in the field who are experts at building electric and infrastructure, they don't want change. So we always get asked, "Well, is this going to add more time in the field? Is this going to add more paperwork or hopefully paperless work in the field?" And I think what we've seen is two things. One, we've perfected the ability to make the capture of very accurate high fidelity data in the field during construction easy through use of barcode scanning or markings on assets. Gas has an ASTM standard. We're actually working with IEEE and EPRI to create a marking standard for electric assets.

So just like you barcode a box of cereal at the store and the system at the store knows how to decipher that and price it. We are working with these companies and 30 utilities and these organizations like IEEE and EPRI to have a standard marking so that when you're installing a transformer or a length of cable or a recloser, instead of filling out a paper form with 50 attributes, you scan that thing and that barcode or that QR code or some other marking has an industry standard structure to it that says, "Yep, this is a GE 25 kVA transformer with these number of windings, these taps and this set of tracking and traceability information there." So that's a really cool thing that combats this. It's too hard to use. I don't want to write all these attributes down. And I think that's a huge, huge challenge that technology tends to get in the way of in the field. But we've solved that by making it really easy to use in the field.

 

Jason Price:

So you know that we have an audience full of utility and energy professionals and we all live by case studies. So if you're able or comfortable sharing names of any clients, could you take us through a case study and any metrics around the performance and results?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Yeah, happy to share some information about utility users of ours. I can't state a lot of their names. But you nailed it, technology is only as good as measurable value and we really pride ourselves on not just providing the value, but helping utilities map out what the DCM workflow is and where the KPI value can be found in this workflow. And a lot of times they don't realize the value that can be extracted until we work with them. But I'll go, One Utility. One Utility, they work in five states. They've got about 1200 crews using Locusview every day for distribution construction. If you just look at the GIS closeout time, they reduced the time from getting a finished job from the field into the GIS by 70%.

That's a huge improvement to their closeout when it comes to just editing the GIS. So that's one. Now there is an electric utility that went live in December. They work in eight states. And they had some legacy technology and they replaced it with Locusview. And as a result, again, some of the value is still being documented with them. So I'll update you guys over time. But they removed paper from their system. They removed this timely data post-processing step that was taking them a long time to close out a job. And overall, so far now things look pretty good. We have improved the time for them to take a design that's been constructed and close it out in their systems. Another utility, they've got about seven or 800 users in the field. If you just look at the portion of closing out a construction job that's not GIS, that's not design, it's about material reconciliation.

So the financial and material side of a job, that used to be a full day process for them. We reduced it to 12 minutes by working with their build materials from their work management system. So everybody has different KPIs, but it's all about doing more than just updating the GIS because that's really just simple as building. DCM is about all the personas, saving time in the field, saving time with reducing the amount of rejections for an incomplete job packet, making the closeout faster because remember all these utilities you see at Distributech, they borrow money to fund their capital projects. I don't know if you've seen the news lately, but the price of money is pretty high right now. So they can't have these CWIP and AFUDC overhead charges sitting in a job for six months that closed out six months ago. They need that reconciliation of financial closeout so they can be better with their money. And I'm sure all the accountants and CFOs at utility will attest to that as well.

 

Jason Price:

Danny, we're putting this episode live right in the lead up to Distributech 2024, which I know you'll be at. And your booth is at 3251, as will myself and the Energy Central team. I'm curious, are there any trends you're eager to learn about at the conference and is there anything specific you're hoping to take away?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Yeah, like I said before, I love this conference because it gives you the tangible view of what's happening with utilities. You could see a bucket truck, you could see a transformer, or you could see the ones and zeros of an ADMS piece of software. So to me, Distributech is all about grid modernization and all that is defined as. And the benefit I've had for spending 23 years in the utility businesses, I've had a front row seat to see the drivers and the evolution of electric utilities from when it was financially driven, capital driven to design, to GIS to mobile and now more on the operational systems. I like the idea of seeing how grid modernization is defined by these different utilities and how they're going to continue to digitize. So really the question I have loaded and waited for every utility I'm going to talk to is... Oh, let me clear my throat.

It crept up on me a little there, sorry. Let me take that over again, so the question that I have for utilities is, this is a grid mod conference. You're here shopping for everything from transformers and bucket trucks to $100 million ADMS systems. The question is, if you're getting ready to spend that kind of money on these systems, you owe it to yourself to look at all the processes that feed these systems, specifically that construction process. If that's being fed with paper or a one app to rule them all that failed or a lot of siloed individual applications, I want them to come talk to Locusview and we'll see how we can provide a DCM solution to stitch that all together. And really get rid of that paper sandwich and make these digital bookends a digital bookshelf, if you'll.

 

Jason Price:

Yeah, more needed than ever given the current grid mod movement that we're in. So Danny, we're going to give you the last word, but we have now in our show, we've come to what we call the lightning round, which gives us an opportunity to learn a little bit more about you the person rather than you the professional. So we have a few questions we'd like to ask you. We ask you to keep your response to one word or phrase. So Danny, are you ready?

 

Danny Petrecca:

I am ready.

 

Jason Price:

All right, what books, movies, or music would you bring with you to a deserted island?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Oh, I like this one. Music is a huge part of my life. I was actually at a concert last night, so pardon my raspy voice. I have a pretty diverse... Sorry, you said a couple words, very diverse love of music. I like the hard stuff like Tool, Metallica. I like the classics like Led Zeppelin, but I got to bring Beethoven's ninth with me as well.

 

Jason Price:

All right, quick follow up. What did you see last night?

 

Danny Petrecca:

I saw Tool last night in Denver.

 

Jason Price:

Okay. Who are you inviting to your ideal dinner party of historical figures, living or dead?

 

Danny Petrecca:

Wow. It's probably a long list. What comes to mind is I'm kind of a science nerd as well. Carl Sagan, I'd love to sit down and talk with him. He had such a good way of making really technical science things digestible by the masses and that would be number one on the list.

 

Jason Price:

What was your first job?

 

Danny Petrecca:

I used to work in a grocery store at the produce department. So I got to know what kale was before it became popular. But really my first career job was environmental consulting at an environmental engineering firm, where funny enough I worked on the other side of utilities helping work on their sites that may have environmental issues. So that's my job history.

 

Jason Price:

Who were your role models growing up?

 

Danny Petrecca:

I got to look to my family. They're really the ones who taught me the value of hard work and taking chances. A lot of my family came over from Italy in the '60s and did the best they could and really provided a lot for me, and I really respect them for that.

 

Jason Price:

What motivates you?

 

Danny Petrecca:

It's something I tell my kids a lot, no matter what you want to be or do either in your career or personal, always seek to add value to what you're doing. Whether it's an interaction or a dinner party or a job interview or a meeting, always add value. So that's what motivates me. I don't want to be the person who's just talking to talk, add value to something or somebody in your life.

 

Jason Price:

Sure. Thanks for sharing this. So we want to give you the final word and remembering that our audience listening today include the decision makers across the utility landscape. What would be one of the pieces of advice you hope they retain and take with them from today's discussion?

 

Danny Petrecca:

That's a big one. They're lots of decision makers, I think the main thing I would ask them is take a deep look at your construction process. And while you may have people working for you that think everything's just fine, you really have to look at the efficiencies that lie within this process and that are sort of latent. They're not really apparent until you dig into them. We can help you dig into that. We can help you solve the problem of making every capital construction dollar do more for you in this time where Gridmon and federal stimulus is creating more and more construction than ever before. And you're not taking any risks with Locusview who were a field proven solution that's been adopted, 30 utilities in 5,000 crews throughout the country on a daily basis. So come see us and ask us the hard questions because we are fearless.

 

Jason Price:

Yeah, no doubt. It's certainly a solution that's needed in this day and age. So Danny, this was a great conversation and want to thank you for joining us today. And I know our community will be active in the comments section of this podcast, so we'll look out for that. So we'll look out for any questions that may come through and hope you are able to respond to them. But until then, we just want to thank you for sharing your insights on today's episode.

 

Danny Petrecca:

My pleasure. It was great. Very interactive and great to talk to you guys.

 

Jason Price:

You can always reach Danny through the Energy Central Community where he welcomes your questions and comments. And if our listeners have a question they want to have answered in a future episode of the podcast and even hear their own voice on an upcoming episode, we've started this year offering that opportunity. Listeners can head to the SpeakPipe link, we'll leave the link in the show notes and you can leave us a recorded message including a question you're eager to have answered on a future podcast. We'll listen through them, pick out the right guest in the upcoming episode in the lineup, and maybe you'll hear yourself as part of the conversation. We also want to give a shout out of thanks to the podcast sponsors that made today's episode possible. Thanks to Locusview. Locusview's Digital Construction Management, DCM platform that enables utilities to automate data capture during construction and streamline the closeout process. To learn about Locusview, visit their website at locusview.com. And be sure to visit Booth 3251 if you are heading to Distributech in Orlando.

And once again, I'm your host Jason Price. Plug in and stay fully charged in the discussion by hopping into the community at energycentral.com. And we'll see you next time at the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast.

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About Energy Central Podcasts

The ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast’ features conversations with thought leaders in the utility sector. At least twice monthly, we connect with an Energy Central Power Industry Network community member to discuss compelling topics that impact professionals who work in the power industry. Some podcasts may be a continuation of thought-provoking posts or discussions started in the community or with an industry leader that is interested in sharing their expertise and doing a deeper dive into hot topics or issues relevant to the industry.

The ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast’ is the premiere podcast series from Energy Central, a Power Industry Network of Communities built specifically for professionals in the electric power industry and a place where professionals can share, learn, and connect in a collaborative environment. Supported by leading industry organizations, our mission is to help global power industry professionals work better. Since 1995, we’ve been a trusted news and information source for professionals working in the power industry, and today our managed communities are a place for lively discussions, debates, and analysis to take place. If you’re not yet a member, visit www.EnergyCentral.com to register for free and join over 200,000 of your peers working in the power industry.

The Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast is hosted by Jason Price, Community Ambassador of Energy Central. Jason is a Business Development Executive at West Monroe, working in the East Coast Energy and Utilities Group. Jason is joined in the podcast booth by the producer of the podcast, Matt Chester, who is also the Community Manager of Energy Central and energy analyst/independent consultant in energy policy, markets, and technology.  

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