Q&A with Ali Mohammed Q&A - "Technology and its implementation is my passion."

NYPA Senior Director of Digital Innovation & Transformation Ali Mohammed has worked on implementing leading edge digitization technologies in the energy industry for years. These include NYPA's AGILe Lab and the Digital Workforce initiative, among dozens of other projects across Research & Development and the Digital Transformation Office.

Capitalizing on VISION2020 to Achieve Processes Laid Out in VISION2030

In speaking with Ali, it is clear he views the utility industry and NYPA through a long-range lens.

He comments, "The main components of VISION2020, NYPA’s earlier Strategic Plan, were Customer Success (meeting customer needs along with decarbonization), Cost Leadership (managing the cost of electricity in New York State), and Innovation (testing and implementing emerging technologies).

Now, VISION2030, NYPA’s new 10-year strategy, capitalizes on the work NYPA has already done while moving it forward, adding connectivity, analytics, and high-tech infrastructure to optimize NYPA's assets, both physical and digital."

He adds, "The digitization process goes back as far as 2014 and includes Workforce Planning, Knowledge Management, Process Excellence, Asset Management, Smart Generation, transmission infrastructure investments, and Customer Enablement. These ideas were the catalysts for digitization and for looking at NYPA from end to end. They include every department across the enterprise and explore how efficiency can be streamlined."

Continuing even further, Ali discusses the importance of data. "Data quality and governance is vital to digitization and VISION2030. At NYPA, we are data custodians and data stewards. We must constantly ask ourselves: ‘is our data good, is it useful, can it be applied toward analytics and be useful to customers?’"

He goes on, "Flexibility, operational productivity and efficiency, customer enablement, and next generation digital security are NYPA's future, and they are all rooted in data."

"This digital transformation clearly cannot be done alone. NYPA works with external stakeholders: out-of-state entities, contractors and consultants, to Partner, Innovate and Enable, what we call PIE. In sharing what we are developing in digitization, in New York State and beyond, everyone can win."

What is NYPA Trying to Achieve?

Ali listens to the question and after a few seconds responds. "NYPA is looking to invest in artificial intelligence and machine learning. This is to help boost operational efficiency, of course, and make working with NYPA a smooth, seamless, efficient process for our customers. And we also look internally at our business units to promote efficiency, providing tools and new apps to help that process along."

Continuing, Ali gets specific and describes the systems he has helped build since his arrival at NYPA in 2012.

"As a result of the 2017 Refresh, major digitization hubs were identified, many of which are now complete or close to completion:

·??????NYEM, the New York Energy Manager, a digital customer service to support New York State's mandates (EO88 and EO166) in the reduction of greenhouse gases by 50% in state buildings as well as cutting their electricity consumption by 50%.

·??????iSOC, Integrated Smart Operations Center, uses predictive analytics and data collection to assist in increasing operating efficiency.

·??????NYPA's Communications Backbone - NYPA owned and maintained fiber optic communications infrastructure utilized by our transmission and generation crews, also used by other state agencies.

·??????AGILe - The Advanced Grid Innovation Laboratory for Energy?- a digital simulation of New York State's electric grid that creates a variety of different scenarios for testing.

·??????Customer Digital Experience (CDEx) - customers can access all their info (bills, projects, previews of info) online digitally.

·??????Digital Workforce - provides digital communications technologies to make work easier for staff in the field. Includes new software applications for Asset and Enterprise Management staff.

·??????Account Center - includes almost all NYPA customers and was completed to go online December 2020, overcoming COVID-19 and the complex challenges it presented.”

Clearly Ali and his team have been very hard at work, with more innovation coming at a rapid speed.?