On the one hand, according to the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (OE), the U.S. electric grid is an engineering marvel. There are more than 9,200 electric generating units having more than 1 million megawatts of generating capacity connected to more than 600,000 miles of transmission lines.
On the other hand, as the OE says, “our electric infrastructure is aging and it is being pushed to do more than it was originally designed to do.” The OE is leading national efforts to develop the next generation of technologies and tools to ensure the nation’s power grid can continue to do its job uninterrupted. Here’s how they’re working to modernize the grid, and the role analytics plays in the process.
Digitizing Utilities Prize
The Office of Electricity collaborates with many different groups to ensure it is working with the most cutting-edge technology. They are aware that new tools and data analytics are needed in the power sector to deal with the vast amounts of data generated on the grid, as well as the new demands on the system from electrification and renewable integration. Together with the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), OE instituted the American-Made Digitizing Utilities Prize.
The prize connects utilities with teams of software developers and data experts to transform energy sector digital systems through elements like data analytics and processing. The goal of the prize is to improve grid operations and accelerate the integration of technology in order to mitigate reliability, resilience, and security risks.
Examples of innovation
Many of the prizes are awarded to tools that result in utilities managing data and costs more effectively, and those that identify in real-time resilience or reliability issues that can inform responsive and cybersecure decision-making. Examples include:
- North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives is working with North Carolina State University to develop a predictive analytics tool that can forecast storm-based outages in advance of a weather event. Officials can use the information to make decisions about elements such as staffing and supplies.
- CenterPoint Energy is working with the University of Houston to develop a data-driven proactive cable replacement method. The impetus for this project is the load put onto cables from electric vehicles (EV). The model would work to project EV adoption rates and predict how much life is left in a cable to provide an estimate for when the cable should be replaced.
- A couple of other projects involve the more accessible delivery and sharing of data to companies so that they can make informed decisions or to make it easier to meet government regulations.
Small businesses can capitalize too
The Department of Energy also helps provide a bridge from the lab to the marketplace, working with small businesses to fund projects around clean energy. In early September, the DOE announced $142 million in grants to small businesses in 34 states. The funds will be provided to 123 projects the department deems of critical importance for the country, including clean energy and decarbonization, cybersecurity, and grid reliability.
Utilities do not have to rely on a prize from the government to get the most out of their data. Some of the same technology can be found in analytics solutions that are readily available. Data can be brought together from across the enterprise, no matter what their source, and be made available in real-time to be accessed by anyone who needs it. That includes maintenance workers in the field working to fix a problem. The data can be provided to any device at any time.
The best solutions are customizable to your organization, addressing common issues that all utilities companies face, but with the ability to be adjusted to give you the insights you need specific to your organization. The future of the grid lies in data and digitalization. Organizations that are not using data in their processes will be left behind.
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