Big Data in the Utilities Industry

Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data

MarketLine Case Study

Report Code: MLCS0001-021

Published: March 2020
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

1. Overview

1.1. Catalyst
Big data analysis has emerged in response to the exponential growth in data, which is itself the result of a combination of
technology trends, including (but not limited to) the ubiquity of mobile devices (including smartphones and tablets),
widespread use of social media, and the rise of the IoT. Data analysis can be useful for utilities companies for a number of
reasons allowing utilities to observe trends in market consumption, business efficiency and help businesses formulate
strategies based on physical evidence. The extensive growth in deployment of smart devices (including smart meters) in the
utility industry has increased the urgency of finding ways of managing and exploiting the large volume of data collected
across the system. The sheer volume of data that will be created by IoT devices is likely to profoundly impact IT systems used
in the utility industry, which need to evolve rapidly in response to this challenge.

1.2. Summary

Big data analytics has the potential to address and improve several issues in the power sector – operational, strategic, and
financial, among others. Much of the utilities’ infrastructure is becoming smart – meaning that it has built-in processing,
connectivity, and sensing capabilities. Electric vehicles (EVs), smart home systems, grid management systems, and many
more subsystems are likely to interface with utilities and provide them with potentially valuable data.
Currently only a small number of utilities have adopted big data analytics actively. It is mostly the largest utility companies in
the world and very few smaller companies that have embraced the technology. While some of these have designated other
companies to implement big data in their businesses, some have collaborated with technology companies through
partnerships and joint ventures to build new products and services specific to the power sector that can be sold on to other
utilities.

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

1
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

Table of Contents
1. OVERVIEW 1

1.1. Catalyst 1

1.2. Summary 1

2. UTILITY COMPANIES CONTINUE EXPLOITATION OF BIG DATA SYSTEMS TO OPTIMIZE BUSINESS

FUNCTIONALITY 1

2.1. Big Data analytics help power companies avert turbine failures 1
2.1.1. Schneider’s PRiSM identifies equipment issues days before failure 1

2.1.2. Enel uses GE’s Predix platform to draw insights from big data analytics 1

2.2. Big data plays a large role in Utilities consumption management 2

2.2.1. EDF systems help consumers pay less through measures taken based on this smart meter
data. 3

2.2.2. National Grid partnered with demand response and software company Open Energi 3

2.3. Big data is being used to optimize electric vehicle charging 4

2.4. Edge computing is gaining momentum among utilities 4

2.5. Strategic partnerships are the most common technique used to adopt big data technology
4

2.6. Some utilities design their own business units responsible for big data development 5

3. APPENDIX 6

3.1. Abbreviations and acronyms 6

3.2. Sources 6

3.3. Further reading 6

4. ASK THE ANALYST 6

5. ABOUT MARKETLINE 6

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

1
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

List of Figures

Figure 1: GE’s Predix system 2

Figure 2: Smart Meters, Global, Market Volume (Million Units), 2013–2018 3

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

2
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

List of Tables
No table of figures entries found.

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

3
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

2. Utility companies continue exploitation of big

data systems to optimize business functionality
Big data combines traditional data management technologies with new forms of data processing that are better suited to
modern data formats. The extensive growth in deployment of smart devices (including smart meters) in the utility industry
has increased the urgency of finding ways of managing and exploiting the large volume of data collected across the system.
There are several avenues of the power sector where big data analytics can be used to improve aspects of the business such
as process optimization, predictive maintenance, consumption management and dynamic retailing.

2.1. Big Data analytics help power companies avert turbine failures
By utilizing predictive models companies can offer detailed understanding of various factors causing turbine failures, enabling
technicians to perform maintenance action accordingly and curb significant failures, leading to huge maintenance cost
savings.
Using big data for predictive analytics boosts the capability of wide-area monitoring systems (WAMS) to evaluate and
examine power transmission systems across large geographic regions. Smart grid software via its data-monitoring capabilities
can avert the power grid from collapsing by identifying slight grid oscillations which can be taken as early warning indications.
With the implementation of predictive analytics for interpreting data like these grid oscillations, utilities can initiate proactive
course of action to avert issues such as a grid collapse. The integration of WAMS with asset health data on a real-time basis
can offer further insight required to locate risk points and assess grid disturbances.

2.1.1. Schneider’s PRiSM identifies equipment issues days before failure

PRiSM is a big data software solution developed by Schneider Electric - a French multinational corporation specializing in
electrical equipment. The system is used by Southern Company one of Americas largest power utilities. Schneider’s PRiSM
solution provides early warning notification and diagnosis of equipment issues, days, weeks or months before failure. This
helps asset-intensive organizations such as utilities to reduce equipment downtime, increase reliability, and improve
performance while reducing operations and maintenance expenditures.
PRiSM is a part of the Avantis portfolio, which offers a variety of asset management solutions, including Asset Performance
Management (APM). This portfolio focuses on enabling utilities and other business customers to improve asset performance,
availability and reliability. Southern Co has used Schneider Electric’s Avantis PRiSM technology to continuously examine
several gas and biomass power plants. This helped the utility save money in performance efficiencies by decreasing
unexpected maintenance and maintaining maximum data quality reliability.

2.1.2. Enel uses GE’s Predix platform to draw insights from big data analytics

Enel utilizes GE’s Predix platform to improve power plant reliability using big data analytics. GE uses its advanced predictive
analytics to monitor large datasets. Patterns from these datasets are used to detect equipment and process related
problems. Based on these diagnoses, processes are improved and maintenance activities are scheduled to help decrease
equipment downtime.
Enel owns over 80 GW of power capacity and these assets are placed in several countries. So applying an analytics platform
to its entire portfolio is a huge exercise. Hence the company started off by applying the Predix platform to 14 of its power
plants as a learning exercise and plans to eventually use the platform for more power plants. Enel envisages achieving four

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

1
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

goals through the big data analytics provided by the Predix platform - increased performance, increased reliability, optimized
output, and reduced costs.

Figure 1: GE’s Predix system

© MarketLine
Source: ge.com

2.2. Big data plays a large role in Utilities consumption

management
Utilities and electricity retailers have been trying to enter the automated home market the same way telecom and cable
companies have done leveraging their large existing customer base. Utilities and electric retailers have already tested the
waters by supplying their customers with Energy Management Systems (EMS) and smart thermostats. This equipment is
connected to the utility and is integrated into the smart meters in order to use the thermostats in the most optimal manner
and maximize energy savings.
Utilities use demand response as a strategy to shift energy consumption from peak hours of the day and spread that
consumption over other parts of the day when demand is lower. Manufacturers of smart thermostats and home automation
systems collaborate with utilities and together, provide an option for the utility to control customers’ home devices such as
washing machines, dishwashers, and robotic cleaners. Retaining such control however, comes only with the consent of the
customer. Using this feature, the utility initially gathers a huge amount of data from each customer. This data as well as the
larger sets of data about overall consumption in the region are used by algorithms that decided what the best time to run the
linked home devices and what is the right setting for the thermostat in each household. This way the customer uses less
electricity during peak demand, thereby saving on power bills and also reducing the load on the utility.
Smart meters are electronic devices, which measure, record, and display electricity consumption pattern of a consumer. The
recorded electricity data allow utilities to assess consumption trends, forecast demand, and manage peak loads. Smart
meters are an integral node of the smart grid environment, optimizing system efficiency and improving energy management.
As of 2018, smart meter installations globally stood at nearly 71 million, declining 23% over that in 2017. The global market

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

2
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

size grew at a negative compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7% between 2014 and 2018; simultaneously, the market
value grew at a CAGR of 1.3% to reach $5.8bn in 2018.

Figure 2: Smart Meters, Global, Market Volume (Million Units), 2013–2018

140 127.3
120
102.0
100 89.9 92.0
Million

78.9
80 71.0

60

40

20

0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

© MarketLine
Source: GlobalData

Utilities that convince consumers to install smart meters and smart thermostats also gather and process data from these
meters in order to use it to better match demand and supply. Through the ownership of this data, the utilities are at an
advantage as other contenders in markets such as automated home, and energy management services do not have access to
this data. Players such as smart home device manufacturers and service providers would be keen to partner with utilities in
order to not only reach their existing customer base, but also use the utilities’ historic smart meter and thermostat data in
order to better program or calibrate their devices. The sheer size of the smart home devices market implies that selling these
devices to existing customers in partnership with device makers could create a viable revenue source for utilities. Besides,
through such sales, the utilities also gain access to finer data from the consumers.

2.2.1. EDF systems help consumers pay less through measures taken based on this smart meter data.

EDF has been instrumental in building systems that use smart meter data and draw insights and help consumers pay less
through measures taken based on this smart meter data. To complement this, the company has also carried out widespread
smart meter rollout and deployment. EDF has also funded a startup called Viaroom that builds an interface for customers to
control their automated homes through a smartphone app. Viaroom’s product is an AI system that interacts with all smart
devices installed in a home, learns the usage patterns of the customer, and tries to automate the usage of electric devices
and appliances at home. All of these functions are based on drawing consumer patterns through the collection and storage of
big data and their analytics.

2.2.2. National Grid partnered with demand response and software company Open Energi

National Grid has always been a leader in adopting smart grid technology across its UK transmission operations, gas
networks, and its US subsidiaries. National Grid has been working with Open Energi, a demand response and software
company. The partnership explored the use of automated demand response, which depends on installing sensors to capture

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

3
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

data and control devices at energy user sites, to stabilize the grid. The focus of the trial was frequency control, which is
important for the stability of a system with a high level of distributed generation, and which requires very fast response from
the system.

2.3. Big data is being used to optimize electric vehicle charging

Big data can be used to optimize Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems based on EV charging, parking, and retail consumption data.
Electric vehicles that are connected regularly to a V2G system have the potential to generate huge datasets of various
parameters. This data can in turn be used by the utility or the administrators of smart city ecosystems for a variety of
purposes including further reduction of emissions. The data generated by electric vehicles comes from several sources such
as sensors, travel logs, parking times, and parking locations. Once this vast amount of data is analyzed using big data
techniques, it can be used to develop policies for charging stations, developing smart charging algorithms, solving energy
efficiency issues, and for evaluating the capacity of power distribution systems to handle future charging loads as the EV
population increases.
The UK’s National Grid has also worked with technology vendor Moixa, Nissan, and Western Power Distribution on exploring
vehicle to grid technology that allows the use of EV batteries as a resource for the grid. The company has also announced
plans to invest in its own high-speed EV charging network in the UK. EV charging systems inevitably include edge intelligence,
monitoring and connectivity by default, and its use will expand National Grid’s IoT footprint significantly.

2.4. Edge computing is gaining momentum among utilities

The traditional methods of performing analytics may no longer be viable as the amount of data that is being generated is
growing exponentially. Moreover, it may not be feasible to keep moving large volumes of raw data to centralized data stores
or the cloud because of the sheer size of the data. Therefore, the prevalence of the IoT model of connected devices has led
to an increased focus on edge computing. The ability to collect, filter, and process IoT data at the edge (before or instead of
sending it to the cloud) makes sense in many deployment scenarios.
Edge computing is gaining momentum among utilities as an increasing number of IoT vendors are flooding utilities and their
consumers with their devices, thereby creating large volumes of data. Moreover, to help utilities uncover insights from IoT
data, vendors are offering edge computing capabilities to reduce the time taken to arrive at actionable results.
With the creation of the OpenFog Consortium in November 2015, edge computing has been getting strong backing from
various hardware and software vendors. While Cisco was previously the only prominent vendor, other vendors such as Dell,
Intel, IBM, Microsoft, HP, and ARM are also providing these services now.

2.5. Strategic partnerships are the most common technique used

to adopt big data technology
Utilities are collaborating with technology companies through partnerships and joint ventures to build new products and
services specific to the power sector that can be sold to other utilities.
Enel is at the forefront of big data analytics in the utilities’ business. The company has been using big data analytics for a long
time now and has also invested in several big data startups that find potential in the energy industry. The company aims to
not only use this potential, but also innovate in this area and provide these services to other utilities through one or more of
their subsidiaries and startups.

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

4
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

In early 2019, Enel partnered with C3.ai to develop a suite to integrate big data from various aspects of the business into a
single data management and processing unit. The suite will allow Enel to unify data from several operating systems already
used by the company such as SAP, Oracle, Cloudera, PostGreSQL, and MongoDB. This unified data can then be stored,
processed, and communicated.
Using technology from C3.ai, Exelon’s BGE subsidiary developed a machine learning algorithm that crunched through the 35
billion rows of data and was trained to detect electricity theft, billing issues, and problems with the health of the smart
meters themselves.
In August 2016, TEPCO announced that it was looking to partner with technology companies in order to build applications for
the usage of big data analytics and IoT within TEPCO and also offer this service to other businesses. The company said it was
looking for business partners who propose ideas for new services that combine various domestic and overseas data, as well
as the application of IoT and AI to electricity facility data, power usage status data, and other similar data and promote new
businesses. In mid-2017, TEPCO partnered with a Boston based company Via Science to use AI and big data analytics to
implement predictive maintenance of power lines.

2.6. Some utilities design their own business units responsible for
big data development
Duke Energy was among the first utilities to build a big data analytics strategy. The company now integrates separate
datasets and streaming data live from field sensors. Using a team of data scientists at its Analytics Competency Center, Duke
Energy is able to not only look at what had happened or what is happening, but is also able to make predictions about the
future. Duke Energy is able to translate insights from meter to distribution to generation to make improvements in its
processes and service.
In May 2019, the Big Data Center of State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) was unveiled along with a press conference on
big data in Beijing. At the same time, preparations for the China Power Big Data Innovation Alliance were launched. The Big
Data Center is a professional organization of data management and the platform for data sharing, data services and digital
innovation. While its primary responsibility is to carry out data management, operations, and services of SGCC, it also aims to
realize the unified operation of data assets, promote the efficient use of data resources, and provide digital support for the
company.
E.ON has invested in modeling using artificial intelligence and neural networks across a number of areas that involve
implementing and analyzing large volumes of captured operational data, including automation, predictive maintenance and
asset-life extension. Most of this was developed internally at E.ON’s DataLab. The company deployed these models to
increase the efficiency and utilization of wind generation, and improve the maintenance of wind farms, as well as managing
distribution more efficiently.
KEPCO is the first South Korean utility to integrate big data. In mid-2018 the utility launched a power big data convergence
center to enable new services based on big data and an ecosystem of data sharing. This facility comprises a data science
research lab responsible for analyzing power big data, a power data sharing center designed to open data for utilization, and
the data service trade portal ’Energy Marketplace’. The data science research lab will analyze models specialized for the
energy sector.

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

5
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

3. Appendix

3.1. Abbreviations and acronyms

Wide-area monitoring systems (WAMS)
Energy Management Systems (EMS)
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
Electric Vehicle (EV)
Center of State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC)
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

3.2. Sources
GlobalData IC
www.ge.com

3.3. Further reading

Global - Electricity Retailing - Industry Profiles published by MarketLine on 21 Feb 2020
Smart Cities: The future for urban living - Case Studies published by MarketLine on 20 Dec 2019
Big Data in Insurance: From product development to claims management, Big Data is critical to insurers - Case Studies
published by MarketLine on 23 May 2019

4. Ask the analyst

We hope that the data and analysis in this case study will help you make informed and imaginative business decisions. If you
have any questions or further requirements, MarketLine's research team may be able to help you. The MarketLine Research
team can be contacted at ReachUs@MarketLine.com.

5. About MarketLine
At MarketLine, we deliver accurate, up-to-date insights on over 100,000 companies, 3,500 industries, 215 countries, and
3,000 cities as well as the latest news and financial deal information from within your market and across the globe.
Established in 1997 when the Internet was in its infancy, we recognized the need for a convenient and reliable data service to
help our clients understand local and global markets and the companies operating within them.
In today’s information-rich world, sifting fact from fiction to pick out what’s relevant and what’s up to date has become the
new ‘holy grail’ in business information provision.

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

6
Big Data in the Utilities Industry: Utilities optimizing their businesses with big data
Published: March 2020

Hundreds of dedicated research professionals aggregate, analyze, and cross-check facts in line with our strict research
methodology, ensuring a constant stream of new and accurate information is added to MarketLine every day.

© MarketLine 2019. This product is licensed and is not to be photocopied.

7