How will our world change in the next five years? Will we see sensors on more devices, and more operations-related information? Almost certainly. Will customer demands on utilities grow? Very likely. Will your utility survive if it doesn't innovate? Don't bet on it.
In infrastructure-based industries like utilities, upstarts are beginning to write the story of the next decade. Renewable energy and distributed-generation companies are changing the way the grid operates. Telecoms are investing in networks to support autonomous transportation and manage billions of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), all of them generating data that can be converted into insight.
Many infrastructure-focused companies will struggle to survive against the upstarts. Data, along with the intelligence it provides, may be their salvation, but only if they know how to synthesize it.
The Importance of Operational Intelligence
For infrastructure-dependent industries, today's technologies deliver more data than operations managers can possibly handle at once.
Even the short list of supporting technologies is long: AVL, ADMS, AMI, DCS, MES, PLC, SCADA, WFM. And because companies often have systems that originate from different vendors and use disparate proprietary data models, integration is difficult. Point-to-point data integration is complex, costly, and time-consuming and often doesn't happen—leaving operations personnel with a fragmented picture of business operations.
Most executives have seen this in practice. The operations manager sits in front of a bunch of monitors, each with a different view of the business. On one screen, a feed from the automated vehicle location (AVL) system pinpoints the location of remote workers. On another screen is the local weather forecast. To the side are the day's work orders, and above that is a SCADA display. The desk is filled with paper reports from the field, detailing work that needs to be scheduled.
The manager must synthesize that information into three kinds of insight:
- What is happening
- Where it is happening
- What should be done about it
Five Steps to Operational Intelligence
Many organizations struggle on the path to operational intelligence. And yet, throughout my career, I've seen companies improve their decision-making by building a better picture of what events are occurring in their service territory—and where.
Having seen the impact that location analytics can have on operations, I've developed an approach to help organizations improve operational intelligence:
- Map Your Assets
A digital map is the baseline of a true common operating picture. When operations personnel understand the lay of the land, they enjoy a unified picture of everything inside and outside the operation. That becomes the foundation for making decisions that lower costs, improve service, and promote safety.
Also, drones can be used to perform mobile inspections. They take images of transmission towers, distribution poles, and even wind turbines. The pilot transmits this data so engineers can see a high-resolution image of the tower and schedule repair crews as needed. By tapping on the asset's location on a map, staff see photos and notes. Moreover, inspection data can be stored and made accessible for regulatory compliance reports.
- Connect Data across the Organization
A company looking to extract value from operational information must first bridge the gaps among data sources. Location intelligence, via a geographic information system (GIS), can be a valuable bridge for an infrastructure-based company, since GIS pulls data from all operational systems: SCADA, AVL, IoT-based sensors in the field, and more. GIS technology arranges that data on a map and makes the relationships among operational activities vividly apparent to managers and executives.
- Define Operating Rules
Not all operational information must be regularly monitored, and much of it must be refined before it can be useful. With location-based technology in place, a company can implement rules that filter noncritical data. Information that should be monitored monthly, for instance, won't be displayed on a real-time dashboard, and conditions that indicate failure will appear in the operating picture only when they cross predefined thresholds.
- Share Intelligence
Decisions are made at regular and irregular intervals throughout an organization. Executives and managers must ensure that those decisions are based on consistent, reliable, and up-to-date information. That means dismantling the information silos that plague many organizations and opening data to create a broader view of the operating picture. Here, too, location-based technology such as GIS plays a central role, distributing information and insight to decision-makers when they need them.
Location technology also helps predict where a network will fail. Powerful search tools identify network elements that have characteristics similar to those known to cause faults. GIS highlights these at-risk assets and uses historic data to forecast the reoccurrence of a problem. You can create a map of at-risk infrastructure, organized by risk level from low to high-probability. To prioritize upgrades and new construction projects, you can compare the predicted demand levels with the capabilities of the utility's current infrastructure.
- Optimize Fieldwork
The final step in creating true operational intelligence is to optimize field operations by eliminating duplicate work and operational blind spots. Through a location analytics-driven information platform like GIS, fieldworkers can see their assignments on any device, get turn-by-turn directions to work locations, and collect data about the work they perform—all of which feed into the operations center for real-time monitoring.
Location Intelligence in the Field
This five-step approach is helping utilities become more efficient, provide better experiences for their customers, and protect and expand revenue streams. I've seen the improvements time and again:
- By using GIS to understand the location and status of assets, Tennessee's White House Utility District saves $1 million annually through early leak detection and more efficient use of personnel.
- Seattle City Light, the tenth-largest public power system in the United States, feeds social media information into its location intelligence platform to better predict and respond to storms, boosting customer satisfaction.
- A New Jersey utility has become one of the first agencies in the world to combine augmented reality with location technology for more efficient fieldwork.
No one can say for sure what the world will look like in 2022. But one thing we can say is that utility companies that synthesize information more effectively will make better operational decisions—and increase their chances of thriving in the next five years.
Bill Meehan heads the worldwide utility industry solutions practice for Esri. An author of several books on utility performance, Meehan is also a registered professional engineer.