Power Watch India: Cognizant’s Vice President of Energy and Utilities Says the Utility of Tomorrow will be a Major Force in Driving Environmental Leadership
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“Customers share a bittersweet relationship with Utilities,” writes Ganesh Kalyanaraman. “They all want the lights to come on at the flick of a switch, but often do not have a clear realization of what happens behind it,” Excerpts:
“Most customers tend to picture their Utility as a coal-devouring, smoke-spewing unit, indifferent to the environment and technology shifts. Contrast this with an organization that presents a picture of clean energy, optimal efficiency and rapid technology adoption. That’s how Utilities could surprise their customers in the future. Here are the five aces that Utilities have up their sleeve.
‘Things’ on the Grid: The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing rapidly and Utilities are one of the faster adopters. Many ‘things’, such as transmission and distribution line sensors, intelligent electronic devices (microprocessor-based controllers of power system equipment, such as circuit breakers, transformers, and capacitor banks), storage for bulk transmission wholesale services, and phasor measurement units (PMUs) reside at the edge of the grid, collect critical information, and transmit it back over advanced low latency wide area measurement systems (WAMS) for supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) to process.
Virtual Power Plants: Virtual power plants (VPP) are small distributed power stations that are aggregated through advanced sensor and communication technologies with a control and visualization platform at the control center, utilized to curtail peak loads. This, along with smart grid investments, is revolutionizing the way Utilities are thinking about distribution operations.
Alternative Generation: Utilities are experimenting with several exciting technologies to move away from overdependence on fossil fuels such as storing concentrated solar energy as molten salt and using the stored heat to create steam and generate electricity; tapping into the earth’s internal heat that can possibly generate 10 times as much power as conventional geothermal energy plants; or generating methane from bio waste with the help of microbes. Utilities are indeed spearheading the charge towards a cleaner and sustainable energy future.
Elevated Consumer Engagement: Expect Utilities to ride the consumer electronics wave (connected appliances, home automation solutions, smart home building technologies, and so on) to deliver consumer engagement levels typically associated with industries such as banking and retail.
New Business Models: Envision the ability to transact electricity at a community level with your neighbors, or the ability to use or lend your capacity to generate for greater grid optimization, get better ROI on investments with grid utility, and build a collaborative―as against a transactional―relationship with your Utility. Your Utility would make this possible and compensate you based on the true utility of your contribution to the larger grid operation.
The future would be significantly different, not just in the way we perceive Utilities, but also in the way we transact with them and consume their services. Utilities would be a major force in shaping a collaborative ecosystem and driving environmental leadership, becoming rightful exemplars of high safety standards and technology-enabled efficiencies.”
Click below to read the article, originally published in the September 2016 issue of Power Watch INDIA.
