More utilities are implementing smart grid technology, but that also means that technical issues are increasing, according to results from The Microsoft/OSIsoft Worldwide Utility Industry Survey 2012.Microsoft, said during the webinar.
The third annual survey, which is a collaboration between Microsoft Corp. and OSIsoft LLC, polled 216 professionals within the electric, gas and water utility industries around the world, and the results highlight the challenges utilities face as they move from planning to actual smart grid implementation.
Technical issues were the biggest roadblock to moving forward with smart grid implementation, followed by a lack of a comprehensive plan. The previous survey indicated that planning and organization were the biggest barriers to smart grid deployment.
In particular, utilities seem to be struggling with interoperability and integration issues, Arnold explained.
"As more utilities get into the implementation of the smart grid, the technical side of it jumped to the top of the heap," he said. "As we go further into the smart grid, we get further into the details of implementation, and the technical issues surface more."
When asked about the importance of certain attributes of implementing smart grid technologies, 71% of respondents indicated that smart metering was "important but not critical," followed by the integration of renewables onto the grid, with 43%.
Consumer energy-management solutions and distribution-management systems each ranked as "very important" by 53% of respondents.
"The consumer energy-management solutions, which were ranked fairly low in the past, jumped to the top," said Arnold. "That's been a tough nut to crack. We've worked on that over the years with Microsoft Hohm and other initiatives … but I think a lot of people are still looking at consumers [representing] this unlocked value and how to address that. Looking at the future, lots of companies feel that's going to continue to be something to work on."
A majority of respondents - 63% - expect smart grid budgets to increase over the next two to three years. Although Arnold said this is encouraging, the number is down from last year's 72%.
"You probably have to look at the global economic condition maybe [tamping] just a little bit of the investment, but overall, it's still great news as we look at our crystal ball and go forward," he said.
Fifty-two percent of respondents said they are considering enterprise-wide information and technology architecture to structure current and future smart grid deployments - a finding Arnold said is surprising.
"I'm always a little stunned at this," he said. "Certainly, the smart grid is a complex beast - and you see things like technical obstacles showing up as hindrances to the implementation of the smart grid - and I think that if you had an architecture in place…that would certainly help greatly in easing some of these pains."
Arnold added that putting standardized architecture in place now can accommodate existing legacy technologies as well as future technologies.
The smart grid is expected to result in a "tsunami" of data for utilities. When asked how data challenges are currently being addressed, 23% of respondents said dedicated business intelligence solutions for end users and business users are being employed, followed closely by data warehousing (22%).
After the data has been collected, the challenge is to glean actionable information from it. Survey respondents indicated that challenges that utilities might face with their current infrastructure include speed of analysis, volume, real-time analysis and a lack of tools, techniques or infrastructure to handle the data.
"If you can't get at that data and analyze it in a timely fashion, it's not going to be of much use," said Jon Peterson, vice president of marketing at OSIsoft.
The number of utilities that have implemented smart grid technology jumped 25% in 2011 over the previous year, according to survey results. However, challenges to full-scale adoption remain, industry experts said during a recent webinar.
Although 28% of the companies surveyed are in the planning phase of smart grid implementation, 24% have not yet begun adopting this type of technology, according to the survey.
"There is still a significant number of players sitting out there, waiting to really jump into the smart grid fray," Jon C. Arnold.
The third annual survey, which is a collaboration between Microsoft Corp. and OSIsoft LLC, polled 216 professionals within the electric, gas and water utility industries around the world, and the results highlight the challenges utilities face as they move from planning to actual smart grid implementation.
Technical issues were the biggest roadblock to moving forward with smart grid implementation, followed by a lack of a comprehensive plan. The previous survey indicated that planning and organization were the biggest barriers to smart grid deployment.
In particular, utilities seem to be struggling with interoperability and integration issues, Arnold explained.
"As more utilities get into the implementation of the smart grid, the technical side of it jumped to the top of the heap," he said. "As we go further into the smart grid, we get further into the details of implementation, and the technical issues surface more."
When asked about the importance of certain attributes of implementing smart grid technologies, 71% of respondents indicated that smart metering was "important but not critical," followed by the integration of renewables onto the grid, with 43%.
Consumer energy-management solutions and distribution-management systems each ranked as "very important" by 53% of respondents.
"The consumer energy-management solutions, which were ranked fairly low in the past, jumped to the top," said Arnold. "That's been a tough nut to crack. We've worked on that over the years with Microsoft Hohm and other initiatives … but I think a lot of people are still looking at consumers [representing] this unlocked value and how to address that. Looking at the future, lots of companies feel that's going to continue to be something to work on."
A majority of respondents - 63% - expect smart grid budgets to increase over the next two to three years. Although Arnold said this is encouraging, the number is down from last year's 72%.
"You probably have to look at the global economic condition maybe [tamping] just a little bit of the investment, but overall, it's still great news as we look at our crystal ball and go forward," he said.
Fifty-two percent of respondents said they are considering enterprise-wide information and technology architecture to structure current and future smart grid deployments - a finding Arnold said is surprising.
"I'm always a little stunned at this," he said. "Certainly, the smart grid is a complex beast - and you see things like technical obstacles showing up as hindrances to the implementation of the smart grid - and I think that if you had an architecture in place…that would certainly help greatly in easing some of these pains."
Arnold added that putting standardized architecture in place now can accommodate existing legacy technologies as well as future technologies.
The smart grid is expected to result in a "tsunami" of data for utilities. When asked how data challenges are currently being addressed, 23% of respondents said dedicated business intelligence solutions for end users and business users are being employed, followed closely by data warehousing (22%).
After the data has been collected, the challenge is to glean actionable information from it. Survey respondents indicated that challenges that utilities might face with their current infrastructure include speed of analysis, volume, real-time analysis and a lack of tools, techniques or infrastructure to handle the data.
"If you can't get at that data and analyze it in a timely fashion, it's not going to be of much use," said Jon Peterson, vice president of marketing at OSIsoft.
The number of utilities that have implemented smart grid technology jumped 25% in 2011 over the previous year, according to survey results. However, challenges to full-scale adoption remain, industry experts said during a recent webinar.
Although 28% of the companies surveyed are in the planning phase of smart grid implementation, 24% have not yet begun adopting this type of technology, according to the survey.
"There is still a significant number of players sitting out there, waiting to really jump into the smart grid fray," Jon C. Arnold.
No comments:
Post a Comment