Cloud computing, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, blockchain and cybersecurity are being deployed by utilities in their operations. These technologies are the big current and future investment avenues for utilities and they all have one thing in common: they generate a huge amount of data.
GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Big Data in Utilities – Thematic Research’, highlights how the data generated is growing each year as more and more smart devices and technologies are being deployed within the power systems infrastructure by both utilities and consumers.
Harshavardhan Reddy Nagatham, Senior Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Utilities’ infrastructure is being upgraded with smart devices that will continually generate data. Electric vehicles (EVs), smart home systems, grid management systems and many more subsystems will also interface with utilities and provide potentially valuable data.
Make this data useful
“The challenge for utilities is to make this data useful and generate actionable insights on aspects such as consumer behaviour and demand-supply balance, from it. Benefiting from large datasets is not straightforward and utilities need to deploy a range of new IT solutions that allow them to collect the data in consistent ways, as well as transport, secure, analyse and store it.”
Due to presumable reluctance, currently only a small number of utilities have adopted big data analytics actively worldwide. These are mostly large utilities and very few smaller companies. While some utilities have designated other companies to implement big data in their businesses, some have collaborated with technology firms through partnerships and joint ventures to build new products and services specific to the power sector that can be used in their business, and can also be sold to other utilities. (mfo)
