Dive Summary:
- According a new report from the Newton-Evans Research Company, North American utilities are lagging behind their international counterparts when it comes to implementing standards and best practices.
- While approximately 67% of international utilities wanted to use Common Information Model standards for model maintenance related to distribution circuit design transfers from Geographical Information Systems to Distribution Management Systems (DMS), only 19% of North American utilities felt the same way.
- The survey highlighted that 71% of international utilities either use or plan to use asset analytics by2015 compared to only 37% of North American utilities; similarly, 59% of international utilities use or plan to use DMS analytics by 2015 as opposed to 42% of North American utilities.
From the press release:
"... Rationale for Increased Spending on Control Systems: A number of factors were cited by participants as the basis to support the increased levels of systems augmentation, upgrades and replacements over the next 36 months including the need for new applications to improve operator visualization and situational awareness; adding redundancy to communications pathing; improving cyber defenses; complying with new regulatory mandates; and in some instances, a desire to combine two or more systems onto common platforms. ..."