Business Intelligence for utilities: Five planning strategies

By Chris Lewis

Guest Blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets

March 28, 2012

Business Intelligence is not a new concept to utilities, as the analysis of data is as entrenched in every utility as the concept of providing safe, reliable and affordable power. However, the unique challenge facing utilities today is that there is exponentially more data, from more advanced sources, and dispersed to many more functional areas of the organization.

Utilities are operating in a new smart grid environment where they must start examining Business Intelligence and Analytics as a core competency. Careful planning and strategies need to be put in place to ensure data quality, manage and support system integrations, and ultimately determine the level of engagement of the customer.

Cognera conducted research in this area and surveyed investor-owned utilities, co-operatives, and municipally owned and operated utilities, and found some interesting facts:

• Almost 70% of respondents with advanced metering infrastructure installations planned to use the data for purposes other than billing and specifically for a Business Intelligence application.

• The most preferred single source for Business Intelligence software was within the actual provider of the AMI system themselves (50%), followed by a desire to see meter data management systems (25%) and customer information systems (15%) provide the Business Intelligence function.

• 70% of respondents said that they are currently unsure or would be using a combination of systems to provide the analytics and reporting required.