Management Matters: Monthly Digest of Insights Shared by Your Peers in the Energy Central Utility Management Group – February 17, 2022

Welcome to the Utility Management Group roundup, Management Matters. As always, your fellow group members are paying close attention to utility management trends and sharing their insights. This month’s selection includes information about heat pumps as a tool for decarbonization, and industry predictions for 2022. Be sure to like and comment on your favorite posts. Happy reading!

Why Improving the Cold Weather Performance of Heat Pumps Can Help Achieve Decarbonization Goals

Samantha Gilman

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/o/EPRI/why-improving-cold-weather-performance-heat-pumps-can-help-achieve

Samantha Gilman, Communications Manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) explains in this piece that heat pumps are a uniquely powerful decarbonization tool. For that reason, their use is growing in the U.S. and around the world. Newer types perform better in cold temperatures, making this technology even more useful. However, costs must come down before it can enjoy more widespread deployment, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has launched initiatives to help develop it.

Accelerating Toward a Reliable and Resilient 2022

Stefan Zschiegner

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/o/itron/accelerating-toward-reliable-and-resilient-2022

No one can tell for certain what the coming year will bring, but Stefan Zschiegner, VP Product Management at Itron outlines several trends he predicts will shape the power industry in 2022. They include utilities investing more heavily in technology, EVs continuing to grow in popularity, renewable energy creating new opportunities to safeguard the grid, the acceleration of distributed intelligence, and AMI 2.0 becoming a necessity for managing the grid edge. This item is part of the Power Industry 2022 Trends & Predictions special issue.

Trend Watch: 2022 and Beyond Will See Maturation of Internal Control Programs

Kathryn Wagner

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/o/assurx-inc/trend-watch-2022-and-beyond-will-see-maturation-internal-control-programs

Developments in the energy industry this year and beyond are likely to be influenced by four primary factors: technology, politics, climate, and the pandemic. In this article, Kathryn Wagner, Vice President, Industry Solutions, Energy & Utilities at AssurX examines each of these conditions and its potential impacts. For example, to address the climate crisis, communities will likely strive for greater diversity in energy sources with built-in redundancy to ensure a reliable system that can respond to rapid changes in weather conditions. This item is part of the Power Industry 2022 Trends & Predictions special issue.

2022 Trend Predictions From the UDC Team

Tom Helmer

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/um/2022-trend-predictions-udc-team

In this post, Tom Helmer, Executive Solution Architect at UDC and other UDC team member share their industry trend predictions for this year. They include the growth of digital solutions like big data, analytics, and digital twins; improved equipment inspections using LiDAR, imagery, and AI; and an increased focus on process improvement. This item is part of the Power Industry 2022 Trends & Predictions special issue.

Thanks again for reading this edition of Management Matters! The authors listed above are eager to hear your thoughts and questions, so don’t hesitate to engage them. And if you want your content to be featured in this spot in future issues, be sure to publish your posts within the Utility Management Community.

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