Dive Brief:
- Consulting firm Accenture and infrastructure powerhouse Siemens have finalized the formation of the Omnetric Group.
- The joint venture will provide utilities with "solutions and services focused on data management and systems integration," according to a press release.
- The group's solutions "will integrate operational technologies – such as distribution management and real-time grid operations – with IT systems, such as meter data management to support smart metering, demand response to manage energy consumption and virtual power plants to enable load management," Omnetric said.
Dive Insight:
IT/OT convergence has been near the top of utilities' priority lists, and for good reason. An increasing amount of big data is available to utilities, but it's only valuable if they know what to do with it.
"We will have the engineering skills of Siemens together with the IT skills of Accenture," said just-named Omnetric CEO Maikel van Verseveld. "We can, of course, do a smart meter rollout, but if you need to balance the grid as more solar power comes online or want to deliver microgrids in the U.S. or virtual power stations in Germany, that's when you need to call us."
Integrating IT/OT should go a long way towards providing with a more complete view of their operations.