Utilities Tech Outlook Weekly Brief
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Utility leaders can meet these challenges through digital transformation.
FREMONT, CA: Digital transformation is more than a term; it's a strategic approach to enhancing a company's procedures, business offerings, and culture to achieve market supremacy. Almost every industry, including banking, insurance, and transportation, has embraced a digital transformation plan.
Financial institutions have undergone a significant transformation. Banks have abandoned in-person services and automated teller machines in favor of internet banking and digital wallets. P2P payments and tap-to-pay applications have grown commonplace. Advanced cybersecurity and fraud prevention solutions enable banks to enhance network security and decrease risk.
Using AI, insurance companies customize policies for individuals who do not meet conventional insurance coverage criteria. They can build reward programs for consumers who maintain good health and safe driving records through advanced analytics.
Shipping businesses and last-mile delivery services have been at the forefront of data collecting and notifications' transformation. These companies provide near-real-time confirmation of the successful delivery of packages, frequently accompanied by photographic evidence.
The current workforce's technology usage demonstrates that high-fidelity data may be obtained in the field in real time. Despite the rise of digital transformation, the construction industry needs to catch up, particularly in developing utility infrastructure.
WHY UTILITIES LAG IN TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
Utility leaders are interested in adopting new technologies. According to the Global Industry 4.0 Survey by Deloitte, 95 percent of energy leaders feel digital transformation must be a key priority. At the same time, cumbersome procedures, a retiring workforce, and old infrastructures make digital transformation a struggle to implement.
Paper-based operations impede efficiency.
Typical utility construction workflows involve manual processes, such as collecting as-built data on paper and making phone calls between the field and back office to confirm design changes. This might generate inaccuracies and missing or inconsistent data, leading to massive backlogs, increased expenses, and safety problems.
As this manual method is firmly engrained in the everyday actions of utility personnel, any divergence from these norms necessitates time-consuming and resource-intensive change management initiatives.
Existing employees are retiring.
As the present construction workforce retires, taking decades of knowledge with them, utilities must recruit the following generation of workers. Typically, younger employees have grown up in a digital environment surrounded by technology. Expecting these tech-savvy employees to use manual data collection methods will elicit a puzzled expression and a demand for automated digital solutions. This will decrease interest in a job in the utility industry even further.
Future energy demands necessitate innovative technologies now.
Energy executives are preparing their networks to enable Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS) applications to update outdated infrastructures. These advanced technologies demand data of the highest quality. Existing solutions cannot support them because they frequently contain low data quality, are wasteful, and need more requisite data for existing utility systems.
