A timely new report published by the World Economic Forum in April 2014 titled “Strategic Infrastructure Steps to Operate and Maintain Infrastructure Efficiently and Effectively” addresses an important area for necessary investment globally: infrastructure. The current focus in the US is on energy infrastructure – whether this concerns the need to build out the petroleum… Keep reading →
Big data isn’t much use if you don’t know what to do with it. Utilities are collecting unprecedented amounts of information from millions of smart meters installed in recent years, but the capacity to collect data seems largely to have overwhelmed companies and regulators. Processes designed for a world run on paper billing and planned… Keep reading →
Ben Franklin famously said, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” This saying certainly holds true for smart grid deployment plans, which can cost utilities several hundred million dollars. Given these high stakes, good planning is essential. Many utilities have installed smart grids. Currently, 25% of U.S. electricity customers have smart meters, a key component of… Keep reading →
After many years of essentially never worrying about power delivery, the past decade has brought an accelerating number of service interruptions to the citizens of the United States and steadily raised concerns about the sources of their energy alongside renewed interest in details of the system’s functioning. Those of us who have been working in… Keep reading →
