Transforming the energy industry through data

The utility sector faces major challenges. As an industry it is central to efforts to move to Net Zero, both in its operations and the energy it provides, all while having to ensure affordability for customers as it meets their changing requirements.

The spotlight is shining firmly on utilities, with regulators, government, shareholders, and the public, all demanding more of electricity, gas, and water companies. Meeting the three interlinked objectives of decarbonization, ensuring security of supply, and guaranteeing affordability will require fundamental, and rapid, changes in how utilities operate.

Change will require transformation and digitization. The shift must be powered by data, and particularly by data democratization – making data accessible and easy to use by all, inside and outside the organization, irrespective of their technical skills.

In this newsletter, discover the benefits of data democratization in the utility sector with specific use cases examples! If you want to learn more, download our new guide!

How can utilities successfully use data to meet current and future challenges?

Data is the essential fuel for this more agile, digital and collaborative approach across the utility ecosystem. However, often this data is siloed within different parts of the organization, available solely to specific teams or departments. It does not circulate across the business or externally with partners, or citizens, and cannot be accessed or reused by others.?

?? Rather than this data being kept separate, utilities need to democratize data access and how it is used to meet their challenges.

? Become more efficient and effective?

Use of data enables utilities to become more digital and automated, removing inefficient paper-based or manual processes and replacing them with seamless digital operations. At a more advanced level, accurate, comprehensive data is central to being able to apply artificial intelligence to model and predict more complex markets and ecosystems.

?? Showing how this brings value, industrial IoT company Birdz by Veolia has launched new services based on the data its sensors generate.

When customers subscribe to these services, they have access to a complete management tool that allows them to increase their operational efficiency by monitoring usage data and instantly detecting points of failure and leaks in their pipeline networks.

?? On the reporting side, every year GRDF creates reports that allow municipalities to monitor the gas distribution activities they have contracted to the company.

To provide these authorities with more information on the handling of incidents and the investments made, the company has automated report production, making them dynamic and easy to access online.?

?? Learn more about data-driven energy efficiency in our utility guide!?

? Delivering on sustainability efforts?

Measuring progress towards Net Zero and other environmental targets relies on accurate, trustworthy data. Being able to monitor areas such as emissions and bringing these readings together provides an up-to-date picture of operational risk, and shows where new projects have delivered sustainability benefits.

?? UK Power Networks (UKPN) has established a single portal for its data, enabling its community to develop new services that support the transition to an intelligent grid. For example, OnGen has utilized UKPN’s open data portal to access and understand data relevant to installing renewable technologies on the grid, essentially helping its clients better plan where to site new generation capacity where it will not be constrained by network issues.?

?? Learn more about UK Power Networks?by downloading our Success Story!

? Delivering a seamless digital experience to customers?

Knowing customers and their needs is essential to delivering the services they require. Analyzing usage data, especially from smart meters, enables utilities to optimize the services they provide to customers, ensuring they meet their specific requirements. Sharing key data on their energy use enables consumers to be more efficient, bringing down their bills and increasing sustainability.

?? Elia is focusing on open data sharing, to meet regulatory requirements, support the growth of a data-driven European economy and to meet the needs of its stakeholders. It started to work with open data as part of its transversal shift to data centricity, and wanted to ensure it offered stakeholders accessible, usable, and discoverable data.

Currently Elia publishes 65 datasets via its OpenDataElia platform, covering areas such as load balancing, transmission, power generation, and congestion management.

? Find out more about Elia by watching a replay of our webinar!?

? Meeting requirements around increased transparency?

Being able to proactively share data externally with customers and consumers begins the process of rebuilding trust. Utilities can explain what they are doing through open data portals and visualizations, with electricity companies showing information on power cuts, time to restore electricity and plans for future network capacity. In the water sector utilities can use data to address sensitive topics such as sewage discharge into rivers, helping to rebuild trust with stakeholders.

?? French distribution system operator Enedis has created a page on its open data portal displaying residential thermosensitivity, showing where temperature variations impact energy usage and thus helping to identify regions where large numbers of homes require work to meet energy efficiency targets.

?? Check out our ebook to know more about Enedis' project!

? Data-driven innovation to drive change?

Sharing data with other utilities helps create new solutions to major, common challenges. This collaboration is essential to the industry delivering a joined-up approach, accelerating innovation and the roll-out of new advances. And it isn’t just data that should be shared, but best practices and ways of working too.

?? To encourage co-innovation Schneider Electric has made it simple to reuse data from its Exchange data marketplace. Any dataset can be easily accessed through asset catalogs, while the “Facility Expert KPI” option allows any partner to access the API’s technical documentation. This all encourages reuse and sharing across the partner ecosystem.

?? Learn more about Schneider Electric data marketplace?by downloading our Success Story!

?? Energias de Portugal (EDP) has built a community dedicated to finding solutions to real-world energy problems, with datasets made available to universities, researchers and startups. This allows them to develop the assets and analytical tools of the future. Data is also used as the basis of hackathons and competitions, with entrants further incentivized by prizes for the most innovative entries.

Competitions have covered areas as diverse as analyzing wind turbine data to create predictive maintenance algorithms and creating new uses for smart meters, based on the data they produce.

Conclusion

The utility sector is in a unique position and needs to transform, becoming more efficient, collaborative, and innovative if it is to meet current and future challenges.

Data democratization is the essential fuel for the utility of tomorrow. Becoming data-driven enables faster, more informed decision-making, greater efficiency and agility, encourages innovation and underpins wider collaboration. Putting in place a data culture and the technology to encourage sharing and the use of data across the ecosystem may appear challenging, but it provides the vital foundations for future success.

Based on our work with both utilities and organizations in other sectors, we have identified what holds back data sharing and the best practices that contribute to successful data democratization programs.

?? Click here to download our ebook and gain access to these insights.

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