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Inaccurate DER and electrification growth forecasts can have significant impacts on capital and operating costs as well as on the ROI in DER growth. Numerous entities are engaged with the distributed energy resources (DER) and electrification markets, primarily…

UAI and Mosaic Data Science host virtual executive roundtable discussion on deep learning. UAI and Mosaic Data Science (MDS) hosted a virtual roundtable with utility representatives from Con Edison, National Grid, Enbridge Gas, CenterPoint Energy, Grant County Public…

“The essence of risk management lies in maximizing the areas where we have some control over the outcome while minimizing the areas where we have absolutely no control over the outcome.”—Peter L. Bernstein, Against the Gods: The Remarkable…

Enabling millions of diverse DERs to participate in the wholesale market without deteriorating the reliability of the distribution system by using dynamic operating envelopes. The approval of Order 2222 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has generated…

What’s inside? For this white paper, UAI interviewed analytics practitioners from business, analytics and IT to learn how they are tackling data. Research includes the UAI Connect archives as well as reviews of articles in trade publications, webinars…

No area of operations reveals the risk of failure to transform AMI data into actionable insights more strikingly than transportation electrification. A 2020 Consumer Reports survey found that more than 70 percent of U.S. drivers would consider buying…

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative worked with Burns & McDonnell to simulate load flows in order to develop a digital model that would assist in understanding the correlations between loading, load flow and losses within the system. Rappahannock Electric Cooperative…

The importance of utility vegetation management is growing as weather events become more severe; satellites can help. More utilities are adding satellite analytics to their toolbox in their vegetation management process. LiveEO, a satellite analytics company, has rolled…

UAI has launched a new survey as part of a research project designed to understand how to operationalize artificial intelligence at utilities. Many utilities are interested in artificial intelligence (AI) but are not sure how to use and…

By using Enterprise Information Management and viewing data as a valuable asset, you can optimize its use for day-to-day decision-making.  Affirma, a product recently introduced by Xtensible, helps with data design and governance. Working with utilities over the…

When asset managers figure out how to harness existing high-quality data, they increase the health of power grids. Consider for a moment an analogy of your utility’s power grid as a living, breathing human being. Grids and human…

This webinar is now available on-demand View the Webinar Now As energy becomes greener, renewable generation is pushing the boundaries of reliability and data science teams. From turbines to batteries, inverters and other technologies, the number of assets…

EPRI has been working with utilities in the United States to digitalize wind assets and develop a physics-based machine-learning hybrid model to identify gearbox damage and extend the life of gearboxes. Wind turbine gearbox replacement cost can be…

Grid edge intelligence empowers business transformation, evolves distribution grid operations, enhances customer experience. The future of our modern grid is dependent on leveraging more distributed intelligence (DI) at the grid edge to help manage growth, stability, and safety….

Challenges include building transactive energy infrastructure, operational capabilities and security and decentralized decision-making processes. Decentralization, decarbonization, and digitalization are the three primary driving forces in the paradigm shift to the new energy economy. Decentralization, in particular, is a…

The most valuable utility of tomorrow will be the one that knows how to guard its data while simultaneously pursuing the benefits of data openness. After decades of only having to think in terms of physical assets, utilities…

A comprehensive digital transformation plan can help asset managers develop data-driven, risk-informed asset management strategies. Disruptive trends in the power sector can complicate transmission and distribution (T&D) asset management. But a comprehensive digital transformation plan can help asset…

Connecting DWH to advanced analytics at scale requires a data fabric, not just data availability. For industrial companies, the path to ultimate value from data liberation requires three crucial steps. Many organizations have already achieved step one: liberating…

With energy decentralization evolving into so much more than just an energy trend, nearly every business could have a stake in it. Energy transition, or the shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources, is a major step in…

AI should fuel digital transformation, not hinder it. The Digital Transformation Landscape As businesses adapt to the rapidly changing competitive landscape, many are pursuing Digital Transformation (DX) initiatives to increase business agility, improve operational insights, reduce costs, and…

Workforce training and development result in more engaged, motivated, and satisfied employees. Utilities should be investing in these areas to remain competitive. Utilities are becoming increasingly digital entities—leveraging data and analytics to make operational decisions. As they learn…

Consumers Energy presented for UAI’s July Customer Analytics Community Conversation on creating a process of continuous improvement for retail products and services. Consumers Energy recently lead the July Customer Analytics Community Conversation, which featured a presentation by Francisco…

Flexible energy platforms use artificial intelligence, cloud and blockchain to help manage renewable energy usage. On May 11, the Biden administration approved the Vineyard Wind project, a major wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts capable of powering 400,000 homes…

As broadband service rolls out to rural America and to other remote and underserved areas, it is increasingly clear that utilities will have important roles to play. Municipal, cooperative and investor-owned utilities all will have opportunities to be…

Machine learning provides an excellent avenue for predicting future energy consumption. Energy Consumption is Ripe for ML Predictions Matching energy consumption with the appropriate level of supply is critical. Excess electricity cannot be stored unless converted to alternate…

NYPA is committed to becoming an end-to-end digital utility. At UA Summit 2021 they laid out how they developed their data analytics strategy, process, and architecture. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has taken a disciplined approach to…

Computer vision offers significant cost savings by way of scalability and automation. The true art of any AI application comes down to how a data scientist can tune AI to accurately label what is in the image set….

Utilities in the United States have increasingly recognized the many benefits of power system flexibility and are developing their own services. Flexibility market development has been fastest in Europe I have been writing about the development of power…

A case study by Red Eléctrica de España, Elewit and Overstory. Which tree, of the millions that are located near power lines, could be the one to grow into a powerline or fall and cause a power outage?…

Distributed intelligence capability is a key pillar for utilities to building a broad solution—a distributed intelligence platform applies analysis, decision-making and action where it is best utilized for the most valuable outcome. The utility industry is presented with…

An enterprise data model will help utilities drive value out of the data platform in fulfilling the holistic approach of semantic reconciliation, sourcing and data governance, as well as the application of data transformation rules and metadata enrichment….

Computer vision and the quickly evolving field of drones and robotics for inspection have become key figures in the race to realize automated operations across generation and grid. Just over a decade ago, I observed my first computer…

  UAI’s Erin Hardick talks with Gary Rector, Data Scientist at Salt River Project (SRP), about SRP’s Smart Usage Alerts project. At UA Summit 2021, Gary will give an update on how the project has progressed over the…

Artificial intelligence is a great tool for specific purposes but it’s not a panacea for grid automation. Speak with any data scientist about artificial intelligence (AI) and you’ll soon hear one common gripe: that hype lifts expectations to…

Satellites offer the utility industry enormous opportunities in the area of vegetation management. Students graduating from universities today most likely have never used a paper map to find their destination. The advent of GPS navigation, in combination with…

Data visualization software can help utilities visualize the return on smart grid investments and show how much change smart grid technologies bring. Data visualization is the graphical representation of data and information using visual elements such as maps,…

Apply data and analytics to solve these common challenges No utility has a perfect data and analytics strategy. There are simply too many problems to solve. From cybersecurity to asset inventory to customer experience, utilities are stretched way…

Outsourcing has emerged as a way to support utility analytics activities, but it comes with trade-offs. Outsourcing IT and business processes is not new to utilities. With the increased popularity of analytics, outsourcing has emerged as a way…

The increasingly dynamic nature of the grid means platforms need to handle all aspects of the analytic modelling process in an integrated and seamless fashion to rapidly get from analytical model development to business decision-making.   The proliferation…

February Data Science Community Meeting Estimating Electricity-Elasticity of GRP for Long-Term Demand Forecasting Purpose February’s Data Science Community Meeting featured Alex Elder, PhD, Data Scientist for The Energy Authority (TEA) speaking about estimating electricity-elasticity of GRP for long-term…

Blending customer-centricity and utility priorities is the art of portfolio optimization, but doing so can be perfectly scientific. In the first two articles of this series, I detailed how utilities can 1) use data science to break down…

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A lot has changed over the past four years. There is more clarity about alternative organizational models, useful process methodologies, technology architecture and tool options, and the skill sets needed to develop and implement an analytics…

Most power utilities create more or less the same data types as their peers, but what differentiates them is how some are better at extracting value from their data. If data is a company’s most valuable asset, why…

Why Utilities Need the Right Data to Empower Action While data can be an invaluable tool for utility companies, what happens when there’s too much of a good thing? Many utilities have vast amounts of asset data. This…

An executive summary on a virtual roundtable with eight investor-owned utilities discussing the state of cloud adoption. Purpose UAI and IBM hosted a virtual roundtable with eight Investor-owned utilities including, AEP, Avista, Duke Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery, Xcel…

It has never been more urgent for utilities to understand their customers in vivid detail to unlock the full potential of programs and portfolios. Electric utilities have seen a large increase in low-to-moderate income (LMI) and small-and-medium-sized business…

A first look at Title VIII Grid Modernization from the 533-page Energy Act of 2020. The 533-page Energy Act of 2020 is chock full of provisions that cover almost every aspect of the energy transition, including R&D, development…

Asset analytics can help make the shift from run-to-failure to predictive and condition-based maintenance. This is the second part of a two-part series. Read part one here. Process and tool challenges The ability to collect and organize data…

Predictive analytics can help utilities realize value through improved reliability, decreased O&M costs, improved safety, and developing a coherent, systematic approach to asset base replenishment. Using analytics for asset management within utility operations is far from a new…

Investors will be looking more closely at utilities’ exposure to climate risk as an input to their investment decisions.   Climate risk has shareholders, bond holders, insurance companies and ratings organizations worried. Note the recent statement by Larry Fink,…

What if you could double the performance of your utility’s program portfolio without increasing marketing spend? The development of new technologies and new ways of applying data science can make this a reality for utilities and help enable…

Throughout a year of unprecedented change in 2020, utilities have been committed to developing energy resilience through innovation. While resilience is often thought of only in a grid capacity, this year has seen a fundamental shift in which…

Southern Company is recognized as a bellwether utility in the United States and around the world. This leadership position is owed not just to its size – it’s operating companies serve over nine million electric and gas customers,…

Hydrogen is the latest buzz for meeting the world’s energy needs. It is another–and some say important–tool for meeting decarbonization goals. For utilities, hydrogen is being discussed as a way to decarbonize heating, lower power plant emissions and…

Risk mitigation is the key reason to know the probability of failure of utility assets. Unfortunately, the utilities that know that best, are the ones that have had one or more catastrophic asset failures that jeopardized the safety…

PG&E recently received a CIO 100 Award for Excellence for its creative approach to wildfire risk. The utility applied machine learning to aerial images of transmission towers – PG&E has 2 million – to shorten the time it…

Have you ever met with utility analytics practitioners who are grappling with the same questions you are? I have. Have you ever participated in a meeting to help vet an early iteration of analytics architecture? I have. Have…

Utilities have seen the evidence; there is real value in using artificial intelligence (AI) to solve business problems. Artificial intelligence – encompassing machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and image processing – has been successfully applied to…

Anyone who has ever used a search engine or virtual assistant is using natural language processing (NLP). Who knew that NLP is artificial intelligence (AI)? Well, probably most of the readers of this blog. In 2018, Karen Hao…

Partnership creates grant funding opportunities for fire and community organizations to address ongoing risk of wildfires. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has renewed its partnership with the California Fire Foundation (CFF) by providing US$1.2 million for a…

The commission said that any interested person or entity may file a request by Aug. 24 that the commission convene a hearing on the company’s application. Comments on Kentucky Utilities d/b/a Old Dominion Power Company’s (KU-ODP) June application…

Investment over the next decade to be led by Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. The fifth edition of the South America Smart Grid: Market Forecast study published recently by Northeast Group, LLC, says the South American smart grid infrastructure market will finally…

The company, working with NYCHA, reviewed the energy usage and equipment at more than 200 buildings and identified 29 of those for inspections. Con Edison has completed inspections and service upgrades at 29 NYCHA buildings, ensuring that residents will be…

Across the board utilities are seeing extreme shifts in energy demand due to COVID-19 lockdown orders, particularly increases in residential consumption. The unpredictability of energy demand makes it hard to manage the grid, so the more utilities can…

In 2017, “hosting capacity analysis” is the buzz phrase heard in utility, developer and regulator circles. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council defines hosting capacity analysis as “the amount of DERs that can be accommodated on the distribution system…

Utility takes steps to restore power quickly after a storm without compromising on the health of employees and customers. Duke Energy has prepared to respond to power outages as quickly as possible during the hurricane season that started…

The American Public Power Association awarded 13 individuals and 10 utilities for giving back to their local communities. Nineteen individuals and 10 utilities were recognized for service to the American Public Power Association and the public power industry…

The City of Boulder and Xcel Energy last week announced that they have begun discussions that may lead to new pathways to reach the city’s energy future goals as an alternative to a city-run, community owned electric utility….

As part of its commitment to using data and analytics to solve the world’s most pressing problems, SAS’ recent work includes helping to save the world’s No. 1 food crop pollinator – the honey bee. With the number…

Managing vegetation and tree growth around power lines is an important responsibility that rests on the shoulders (and budgets) of utilities. It plays a critical role in fire hazard mitigation, and ensures the reliability of the grid, but…

The Natural Gas Analytics Community was the first Utility Analytics Institute (UAI) analytics community focused uniquely on the application of analytics by natural gas utilities. The group’s roster was 107 members strong by the end of 2019, and…

Utilities remain uncertain on how the order intended to secure the bulk power system from foreign cybersecurity attacks will impact current projects and the installed infrastructure base. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1, 2020, that…

Digital reporting promotes quicker response to bird-related power issues. FirstEnergy Corp. has deployed an app that allows utility personnel to report avian issues in real time, streamlining the process to protect nesting birds and enhance electric service reliability….

As an essential industry, utilities have risen to the occasion by implementing pandemic plans to protect customers and workers while keeping the lights on. COVID-19 has brought unemployment, shutoff deferments and changes in consumption patterns. Now, with states…

Guidehouse Insights report shows North America is the leading microgrid market, claiming 36.3% of global capacity.   A new report from Guidehouse Insights examines data on known grid-tied and remote microgrid projects in the proposal, planning, and deployed stages across…

“These heroes are people we know, and they need our help,” said John McAvoy, CEO and chairman of Con Edison.   New York’s doctors, nurses, food banks and firefighters are just some of the many front-line groups battling…

As providers of essential services, utilities have their hands full with COVID-19. From managing a large workforce to serving many customers, utility operations are using analytics to adapt quickly to the pandemic. Fortunately, utilities are more prepared than…

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, utilities are doing everything in their power to protect workers, ensure safe working conditions.   A series of storms that hit the south and the southeastern United States beginning on Easter Sunday…

A new energy economy will require long-term interaction between energy companies and communities hosting next-generation energy infrastructure.   Living in a city, it is easy to forget that one in five Americans — about 60 million people —…

The Virginia Clean Economy Act will foster economic development across Virginia, reduce carbon emissions.   The Virginia Senate recently passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, after the House of Delegates’ approval of the bill. Governor Ralph Northam is…

Energy storage technology has moved to center stage and has changed renewable energy, DERs, and microgrids along the way. For almost a year now, I have been writing the “Charging Ahead” segment. It has been an exciting undertaking…

Getting better at storm-related outage prediction Utilities need to know the “ground truth” One of the utility’s primary missions is to minimize outage frequency and duration.  Outage prevention is even more important during the COVID-19. Until recently, storm-related…

Resource planning has changed a lot over the last five years, with the increase in intermittent renewables and distributed energy sources. In 2018, the piece Are DER Heavy Utilities Being Held Captive by Technology Limitations?, posited that analytical…

The Georgia Power Foundation is supporting COVID-19 recovery with investments impacting food insecurity, homelessness and displaced worker assistance. The Georgia Power Foundation, Inc. is investing $1 million in 2020 to support the state of Georgia in addressing the…

Solutions to provide Greater Boston with enhanced electric reliability and clean energy capacity. National Grid and Eversource are preparing to meet the energy shortfall expected to be caused by the eventual retirement of the Mystic Generating Station. New…

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is becoming ubiquitous throughout the utility industry, providing many sources of value for both utilities and ratepayers as utilities unlock previously unavailable insights to help customers understand their consumption and use that information to…

Government agencies, environmental organizations, and manufacturers around the globe hold high hope for a green H-based economy.   During my time as a young engineer at an electric utility, the standing joke we shared internally about the gas…

One of the world’s largest energy companies, ENGIE, is committed to being the world leader in the transition to a zero-carbon future. Achieving that goal led to a digital transformation of the business.   The digital transformation of…

Amazon made big news last September when it announced a deal with well-funded startup Rivian[1] to deploy 100,000 medium-duty electric box trucks by 2030. There are a lot of incentives for companies to adopt electric fleets. Still, there…

Gridwise, AI is becoming the Rosetta Stone for making sense of big data.   Does it seem like artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere today? It can be found in everything from transmission to distribution. Gridwise, AI is becoming…

ABB Power Grids recently launched its Asset Performance Management Edge solution for power transformers.   ABB’s Power Grids business has launched its APM Edge solution for transformers. This technology accommodates the growing complexity of grid operations to safeguard…

Utilities shared their plans for wildfire mitigation at recent workshops organized by the California Public Utilities Commission.   With the risk of wildfires increasing in California, utilities are taking a proactive and preventative approach. The California Public Utilities…

Ever since the 2003 blackout, vegetation management has improved, largely due to FERC regulation. Still, improvement has been mostly in transmission. The “last mile” of distribution has not achieved maturity. The good news is that analytics infrastructure –…

SAS’ Founder and CEO Dr. Goodnight weighs in on analytics in the energy and utilities industry.    SAS has its roots in the energy and utilities industry. Can you provide an overview of how analytics has evolved since…

Data governance is like motherhood and apple pie. Everyone thinks it is a good and necessary thing. Should the pervasive use of analytics change how data governance is done?   Stakeholders at leading utilities interviewed for Ensuring Success…

Hyper-personalization drives enterprise analytics Bidgely UtilityAI™ is the energy industry's only AI-powered Platform for Hyper-Personalization. Read this guide to learn more! Bidgely UtilityAI™ is the energy industry's only AI-powered Platform for Hyper-Personalization. UtilityAI delivers actionable insights for every...

Discovering Value Intersection Customer 2019 - State of the Market Empowered consumers, energy democratization and convergence of industries brings opportunities and threats to the utility industry. Utilities are responding to these as per their inherent strength, perception of...

In 2018, UAI, published Ensuring Success in Analytics:  A Playbook for Utility Executives, which provided advice to utility leaders on how to de-risk analytics deployments. The findings, based on interviews with analytics stakeholders at leading utilities, delivered insights…

Scrying, the act of staring into reflective surfaces like crystal balls to see the future, can be traced back to the Medieval Period in central Europe (between 500 – 1500 AD). Thanks to predictive analytics, it is being…

Modernization of the grid, digitization of the customer experience, and replacing back office infrastructure to support complex rate structures are just some of the factors influencing utility rate increases. Combine these with an economic slowdown in the US…

I’m not here to sell you on asset performance management (APM)—plenty of blog posts and thought pieces already exist for that purpose. I’m here to shed light on the challenges facing asset-heavy operations and why now is the…

The use of AI in energy operations has picked up the pace in recent years and is now moving beyond back office automation It’s no secret that participating in energy markets and developing strategies requires processing massive amounts…

How Duke Energy is gaining insight from self-organizing maps, a form of deep learning. Duke Energy has a reputation for deploying analytics to solve business problems. The Data Science role at Duke was defined in 2014, with the…

Overall utility industry analytics maturity has increased substantially when compared to the first Utility Analytics Week nine years ago. This year’s presentations covered the use of machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), deep learning…

Could data hubs provide a life preserver for analytics teams thrown into the deep end with IoT data? “Data hub” may be one of the more popular analytics buzzwords of 2019, quickly surpassing its relative and predecessor, the…

Defining an energy IoT platform may be tricky, but the need for these bundles is unmistakable. “Complexity” may be an arguable concept, but anyone who’s been through an energy IoT implementation probably has a deeper understanding of the…

PPL Electric Utilities recognized early on that data – and the compelling ways it could be put to use – would play a major role in its becoming a “utility of the future” and delivering on its mandate…

Journey orchestration at its best includes planning and coordination of elements of an activity to produce the desired outcome. Here’s an example: A man by the name of Robert Cass is raising money for athletes with special needs…

Smart inverters are getting more attention these days with utilities looking to mitigate voltage instability and variability on the system brought forth by distributed energy resources (DER). As the penetration of DERs increases, autonomous operation of smart inverters…

Is CRM investment worth it?  Traditional customer information systems (CISs) are billing engines that were built to process meter data and send the appropriate information to the billing department for processing. These systems also grew to include the…

In the future, Smart Contracts utilizing blockchain are expected to autonomously enable billions of transactions among power producers and transporters, consumers, vendors, service providers and even directly with millions of devices. It is envisioned that advanced Smart Contracts…

The 5G race is on. Analysts expect carriers to build up to 900 thousand microcells across North America over the next ten years in their drive to achieve market leadership. But carriers aren’t the only ones vying for...

How do we manage the largest machine ever built? The first time I walked into an electric T&D control center was about a decade ago. With a smartphone in my pocket and a laptop in my bag, I…

The world of asset performance management (APM) technology is expanding rapidly. But what does that mean in terms of how utilities are investing solutions that exist in the marketplace today? According to Gartner’s IT glossary, APM “encompasses the…

Open-source analytical models abound, but having a dedicated community is essential. In More to open-source than you think, the ABCs of open source were described in the utility context. While “open-source” is being used to describe developer tools,…

Utilities are continuing to face a variety of challenges with an aging infrastructure, and flat or declining revenues as a result of the deployment of solar generation by consumers, coupled with a greater ability to better manage usage...

When most people think about a democracy versus a dictatorship, they distill it down to collaboration among people, or lack thereof. CEOs who use a dictatorial style of leadership believe that they are the only person who possesses…

Vegetation Management has always been a critical function for utilities. It is, however, increasingly top of mind with company executives looking to mitigate the escalating costs and risks posed by vegetation. Due to economic and logistical challenges, utilities...

Upper Midwest regional utilities are embarking on a cross-state effort to establish a transmission investment approach. Midwest consortium CapX2020 utilities announced yesterday that they will study the Upper Midwest transmission network to identify system improvements and infrastructure upgrades…

After a few years of hype, a lot of questioning and a handful of disappointments, Blockchain is starting to make some inroads into energy and utilities. Once upon a time, Hervé Touati worked as an executive at Shell…

5G is not just a fatter pipe. It is a much smarter, more capable one that will transform how data is managed in the field. But utilities need to start preparing now.  I’ve written previously about how 5G…

Tom Siebel, CEO of C3.ai, weighs in on a data-driven, strategy-first approach. “Putting the cart before the horse”, a cliché’ we inherited from the Greeks, means that the action that should come second is prioritized first. This approach…

We broke down some common misconceptions about open-source models for utilities. With an uptick in literacy in Python and R, utilities are hearing the term “open source” more often. But, open source has already become ubiquitous in many…

Social media and nontraditional data sets create transparency of when, why and where major grid events occur. In the fall of 2018, with a new vision of grid resiliency —driven by industry collaboration and a necessity to provide…

Using blockchain as an enabler of new technologies to assist utilities in keeping up with the times. In April 2016, the first official peer to peer (P2P) energy transaction occurred between neighbors in a residential neighborhood of Brooklyn,…

Oracle is ramping up investment in analytics-based products and services to facilitate smoother utility operations alongside booming EV adoption. Oracle recently announced that the company is “test driving” EV analytics with several partner utilities. Oracle takes a two-pronged…

Uplight wants to make it easier for utilities to do more for their customers—and for IT teams work with their solutions on the back end. By now the word has gotten out on the formation of Uplight, born…

AI-powered technologies are transforming business models, value streams, and revenue opportunities throughout the electric power industry. The prime directive for the “Charging Ahead” department at T&D World is to explore new technologies and older technologies that are being reestablished or…

The same technology that superimposes bunny ears on Snapchat is also changing the fabric of utility workforce operations. Last month at the IEEE ESMO Convention, representatives from American Electric Power (AEP), Burns & MacDonnell, XR Product Line, Pillar…

JEA is preparing for a flexible grid for power and water With the introduction of new sources of power, both distributed and centralized, along with more frequent extreme weather conditions, utilities are looking for ways to enable a…

Duke Energy’s MADLab (machine learning, artificial intelligence and deep learning) initiative is an important driver of innovation culture. For the younger audiences reading T&D World, you will need to Google “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” a 1963…

To thrive in the grid of the future, we must leverage analytics to move from good to great. As a kid growing up in Wyoming, I played every sport and, being from a small town, was considered good…

The Austin Energy SHINES project optimizes utility-scale and behind-the-meter resources with a mix of centralized and distributed intelligent systems. Austin Energy is transitioning rapidly into a utility with significantly high levels of renewable resources. In 2015, only 20%…

Data is fueling disruption everywhere, and the utility industry is no exception. The exponential accumulation of data is a global phenomenon that is turning many industries on their heads. Research suggests that the amount of data doubles roughly...

Sales of in-home voice assistants are surging. According to a report by Market Research Future, the market for this technology is anticipated to achieve revenues worth USD 7.8 billion by 2023 while growing at 39.27 percent of CAGR…

Utilities are relying more on data to minimize the risk of taking on new rate structures. Performance-based regulation (PBR) has been in the news, with Nevada approving legislation calling for a PBR process. Hawaii just approved a Phase…

Consider this scenario: your utility notices that there was a high volume of calls to make payment arrangements for residential customers in the months immediately following high bill season. Analysis of the calls by disposition code reveals a…

Entergy creates new approaches to better manage the grid that involve more distributed energy resources. Today, approximately 120 megawatts of customer-owned distributed energy resources, almost all rooftop photovoltaic systems, are spread out over 20,000 connections at various customer…

Stay posted for quarterly updates! Big data and analytics are transforming the public utility sector with advances in storage, computing power, applications, and connectivity. Utilities can gather and analyze greater amounts of data faster and cheaper than in…

Avista Utilities and Duke Energy partner to create an energy operating system available to the entire utility industry. The electric utility industry is increasingly challenged by external drivers such as regulatory obligations and mandates as well as competitors…

Austin Energy wants to understand V2G; so should you. Austin Energy (AE) recently announced that it will work with the Pecan Street project to test Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology, adding to an increasing number of V2G pilots…

Industry consultant Mark Konya weighs in on eight critical factors for analytics. The contemporary view of deadly sins originated from the works of 4th-century monk Evagrius Ponticus; the eight “vices” he advanced include: gluttony, lust, avarice, pride, sorrow,…

From discovering new sources of revenue to data collection and analysis that lead to customer experience, becoming an integral part of the smart home value chain makes good business sense for utilities. But as explained here, utilities are…

The global Smart Home Energy Management Device Market is budding. According to Market Research Future, it is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 18% during the forecast period of 2017-2023. Utilities that want in and are…

Three-year EPRI study indicates a cost-effective path to enhance the resilience of the electric grid. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has released findings from its three-year study of the potential impacts of high-altitude electromagnetic pulses (EMP) on the…

How utilities adopt the new rule will depend on their ability to integrate and analyze electric vehicle, transportation, grid, and customer data. In mid-April, Oregon regulators adopted a new rule to compel utilities in that state to increase…

It’s been over two and a half years since NARUC passed a resolution encouraging state public utility commissions to “consider whether cloud computing and on-premise solutions should receive similar regulatory accounting treatment, in that both would be eligible…

Want to see how utilities are actually solving problems with AI? Come to Utility Analytics Summit. Artificial intelligence has erupted across markets, promising organizations the capability to transform and optimize the business. Defined, artificial intelligence is the “development…

We looked to our members to find out which solutions are rising to the top of the utility analytics market. Big data and analytics are transforming the public utility sector with advances in storage, computing power, applications, and…

Power transmission has rarely been the hottest topic in the utility industry. With the integration of large-scale renewables and the drive to decarbonize, this segment of the power value chain has received more attention, and the focus on…

Tom Martin, formerly of PG&E and now Trove, discusses an AI data-driven path to outage prevention Reliability – the ability to deliver uninterrupted power to residences and businesses across a service territory – is a top priority of…

Digital twins hold promise, but not without a massive data headache The digital twin market is exploding—some say to the tune of $15.66 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of almost 40%. Utilities are among many asset-intensive industries…

The State of Utility Analytics from the SAS 2019 Global Utility Industry Survey The utility industry in 2019 is in many regards barely recognizable from the utility industry just 10 years ago. The growth of renewables, electric vehicles,…

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have strong potential in vegetation management, but there is a lot that can go wrong. My last blog discussed the opportunity for transmission and distribution utilities to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve…

Senior Vice President Of Technical Services M. Michelle Blaise Discusses The Project’s Significance In A Time Of Rapid Change. Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) is leading the way in revolutionizing energy delivery alongside Siemens and the Illinois Institute of…

How steady is the bridge between the smart grid and smart cities? The buzz of the smart grid began to cede ground to smart cities just a few short years ago in 2013 (at least if Google Trends…

Hard work could reap big rewards in vegetation management. The world of vegetation management (VM) has received significant press in 2019, and for good reason. In 2017 and 2018, a series of deadly wildfires struck the state of…

How utilities are optimizing smart grid investments in the digital age. A typical electric utility is responsible for investing in the maintenance and replacement of millions of assets spread across thousands of kilometers of the network. Making the…

Microgrid And New Technology Pilot Program To Be Included. Ameren Missouri over the next five years plans to invest $5.3 billion on more than 2,000 infrastructure improvement projects across its 24,000 square mile service area. The Smart Energy…

Meter data improves visibility into the edge of the electric system, directly impacting a wide range of utility operations. Distribution utilities have installed millions of smart grid devices, creating an unprecedented amount of data available for analysis. The…

Blockchain was developed to facilitate the business of cryptocurrency, but now utilities can leverage the technology to solve other business problems. Marrying Blockchain with edge computing could be the next step forward for utilities. But what happens if…

Utilities around the world are waking up to the reality that they must prioritize their investments based on asset health and not age. Gaining an accurate assessment of an asset’s health can be a complicated task, however; drawing…

Avista and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together on advancing the grid. You may know that PNNL has been active in developing the concept of transactive energy, “a…

Grid operators across Europe are experiencing higher maintenance and reinforcement costs than ever before and, without significant increases in funding, are realizing that they must fundamentally change the way that their assets are operated, maintained and replaced. In…

In the face of declining profits, utility companies are recognizing Electric Vehicle (EV) charging as a viable source of revenue. According to a report from the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, a comprehensive shift to EV charging is estimated…

Once regarded as a back-door payment solution for less-than-legal online commerce, Blockchain is moving into the mainstream due to its ability to solve complex problems quickly and efficiently. Blockchain has moved away from its tech audience niche, with…

Traditional utility planning is based around static, worst-case analyses of system conditions. To effectively integrate distributed energy resources (DERs) into distribution planning and make the best use of distribution assets, many utilities are implementing scenario-based planning processes that...

From the creation of the Data Science Consultant job family in 2015, Duke Energy now has over 60 data scientists across the enterprise. Norv Clontz, the Director of Data Science Innovation at Duke Energy, will provide an overview...

AI is becoming indispensable across industries, and utilities are not immune. Back in 2012, the Aberdeen group reported that merely 18% of utility industry businesses believed that customer satisfaction was important. Since then, several well-documented market factors have…

5 Precepts That Promote Effective Power System Planning and Operations In November 2018, the European Commission adopted a strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive, and climate neutral economy by 2050. Wide-scale energy transformation is central to…

Defined in the negative, operational analytics are not about those precious “aha” moments or dramatic storytelling; they are about making better decisions in the moment. While there are many popular press stories generated about the beneficial returns from…

Customer Analytics will help utilities provide better service and identify new opportunities, but not without adopting a new perspective on customers. From the 13th century until the early 19th century, roughly 600 years, people connected pieces of paper…

Most utility executives and upper-level management cannot go a day without hearing from a vendor about how machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize the utility industry. The truth is, these technologies are already revolutionizing operations and...

Customers and regulators have expectations that reliability levels should continue to improve without any substantial costs to themselves. Utilities want to provide continual reliability improvements for their customers, but need to do it in the most efficient and...

Grid reliability cannot be maintained in a silo. The North American bulk power system is a highly complex machine. It is also one of the most critical infrastructures to society and as electrification expands into every aspect of…

Let’s face it. The utility industry is asset-intensive. Even with disruptions to centralized supply and delivery models, there will still be physical assets to maintain. Over the last three decades, asset management practices have evolved from routine maintenance…

UAI’s Analytics Architecture & Technologies group is exploring strategies for publishing analytics models. R Shiny has recently risen to the top at many organizations. Data visualization tools have brought many benefits to the utility industry, making it easier…

How to create data solutions for utilities that they actually need Most people who were around circa 1990 know the quote from the Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” While this approach worked out…

Utilities need to take a few things into account before they can extract value out of their data. We’ve all heard it; data is the new oil. It’s valuable. It’s a differentiator. Like crude oil, it needs to…

New data sources for power utilities continue to emerge, a trend that is likely to continue in the digital age. Whether these new data sources can and will be harnessed by utilities for significant value, however, remains an…

The best way to your customers may be through the front doors of City Hall. In the late 1990s, I was working with a cable company that was deeply invested in selling high speed data services to the…

It is absurd to think that there is a single modernized utility that doesn’t derive some significant value from analyzing data. Without data and its analysis, it’s impossible to improve customer segmentation for improved demand-response targeting, revenue protection,…

Predictive maintenance growth in North American markets a result of high potential for ROI and operational benefits. Equipment manufacturers, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies, and power and process plant owners and operators for the energy industry commonly…

Analytics are essential from the get-go for non-wires alternatives (NWA) projects to succeed. NWA are gaining popularity in utilities, so much so that E4theFuture funded a study by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and the Peak Load…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way that many industries operate, and has huge potential to transform the utilities industry. Today, many utilities are in the early stages of investigating applications and adopting AI. In this webinar, hear...

Smart grid will be the leading edge of revolutionary new electric grid capabilities soon to be launched to achieve a set of key environmental and sustainability goals. Next year PGE will begin building three smart grid test beds…

Brett Carter, executive vice president and Chief Customer & Innovation Officer at Xcel Energy discusses the company’s partnership with Google. The internet has changed many things about how people purchase goods and do business, but one thing stands…

A background in data science versus a background in utilities? How can utilities hire the right people for their analytics initiatives? Nearly every utility has a data analytics initiative today, or at least the beginnings of one. Like…

Comanche Electric Cooperative moves to the next generation of advanced metering infrastructure communications with real-time visibility into the grid. Nov 26, 2018 As technology companies pioneered new mobile applications such as email and web browsing on phones and…

It is that time again. FERC just published a paper that has been on my night stand every year at this time since 2006: the Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering. The original economic justification for smart…

The “adapter-free” integration feature found in the new software version eliminates the need for most custom adapters to deploy metering analytics ATLANTA, GA. – Nov. 15, 2018 – Landis+Gyr (LAND.SW) has released version 5.1 of its Advanced Grid…

Arrowhead Cooperative combined data from three grid modernization technologies to pinpoint and prioritize load control receivers that need maintenance. Like many electric cooperatives in the United States, Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc. employees have at their fingertips the power of…

The brightest person in the room might also be the worst one at telling a story. In the early years of in-home energy display technology, there was an ongoing and often heated debate over how to drive behavior…

Overview Together with Utility Analytics Institute (UAI), Sensus surveyed utilities across the board (water, gas and electric) and found some common ground around their biggest business and operating challenges today, and how data and analytics can help them…

Hot off the press – the latest market research from UAI and Sensus provides a timely, accurate analysis of the utility industry’s use of analytics. We’ll cover key findings about industry trends and you’ll gain knowledgeable insights for...

Municipal utilities have the reputation of being dedicated to the customer and dedicated they are, especially when it comes to meeting customers’ desires for sustainability. Municipal utilities and cooperatives like Georgetown Utilities (TX), the City of Austin, the…

The resilience matrix has provided TVA methodologies to understand severe storms and plan for future events. The Tennessee Valley Authority has transmission facilities in seven states in the mid-south region of the United States. The climate in general is mild…

There’s little doubt that today’s utilities have entered the age of Big Data — and Big Analytics. From customer experience ratings to SAIDI and CAIDI numbers, from equipment operations data to weather metrics, most if not all utilities…

Demanding times call for innovation and utilities have responded by getting involved. Traditionally risk averse, utilities now recognize that they can learn from companies that are born of a culture of fail fast, learn and move on. Active…

The New York Power Authority Is In The Vanguard Of Utilities Turning To Sophisticated Sensors To Better Understand Their Billions Of Dollars Of Grid Equipment – And Provide For More Resilient Electric Service. A vast multiplication of sensors…

Organizations such as utilities that manage complex assets often become aware of problems only after significant damage or failures occur on those assets. This reactive approach to asset management leads to avoidable productivity loss, downtime and expensive repairs….

Utilities have historically had a very distinct wall between the siloes of customer operations and grid operations. Within each of these siloes were systems, data, processes, and people that never cross paths. Today, with the advent of energy...

NJ, CT, CO, SD improve most; MA and CA lead. As the U.S. government loosens environmental rules, states are investing more in energy efficiency and delivering increased power savings, according to the 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. This…

Data privacy is bubbling up across markets as a major issue to be faced. The DataGuard Initiative is aiming to be a source of support for utilities. When widespread furor erupted over FaceBook and Cambridge Analytica’s unauthorized uses…

Wednesday, October 03, 2018, 2:00 PM EDT The utility sector faces ever-shrinking revenue streams and an on-going battle to manage CapEx and OpEx efficiency; predictive maintenance, risk assessment and capital planning have never been more important.  Using advanced analytics...

The phrase, “you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing,” applies less and less these days. Between wildfires in California and flooding in the Carolina’s, utilities have been on high alert….

As many Utility Analytics Institute members are aware, and indeed are experiencing, utilities have historically had a very distinct wall between the siloes of customer operations and grid operations. Within each of these siloes were systems, data, processes,…

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Karl Popham, Manager of electric Vehicles & Emerging Technologies at Austin Energy. At the heart of one of the most progressive smart cities in North America, Karl is a nationally recognized…

The penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) is growing rapidly. Forward looking utilities are engaged in planning exercises to learn how DERs will impact their business. Concerned utilities want to understand the impact of DERs on revenue (minus…

Wednesday, October 10th @1pm Central Time Utilities have historically had a very distinct wall between the siloes of customer operations and grid operations. Within each of these siloes were systems, data, processes, and people that never cross paths....

As mutual assistance crews hit the road for the Carolinas, many companies tracked their progress on social media. Not that long ago, when linemen were deployed out on storms, they didn’t have smart phones or social media at…

Wednesday, October 03, 2018, 2:00 PM EDT The utility sector faces ever-shrinking revenue streams and an on-going battle to manage CapEx and OpEx efficiency; predictive maintenance, risk assessment and capital planning have never been more important.  Using advanced analytics...

Nothing can make or break a utility like a storm. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season that devastated Texas, Florida, Georgia, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, was a sobering experience. Many lessons were learned that are guiding efforts to…

With the gas explosion in San Bruno in 2010 came an uptick in public attention to the hazards of pipeline leaks. Regulators in several states are mandating more regular inspections and reporting, and penalties for incidents can be…

Tuesday, September 25th, 11:00am-12:00pm Eastern Clutter created by years of Excel usage is inescapable in the utility industry, as are its associated bad consequences. A few years ago The Energy Authority (TEA) decided to utilize R to break...

One word sums up all discussion of what the future grid will be — flexible. There is a great deal of speculation about what the electric power grid will look like in the next 10 to 20 years….

T&D World’s Rick Bush ponders the changing utility business since his time at Georgia Power. I once had the privilege of serving as the chairman of a Georgia Power committee to see how we might better serve our…

As we reported recently, the new JD Power’s J.D. Power 2018 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study is out and it is good news for utilities. For the seventh consecutive year, customer satisfaction is up, which JD Powers believes…

Raiford Smith, VP of Energy Technologies and Analytics at Entergy, shares insights based on his experiences with analytics and change management.  One of my favorite childhood songs was Elmo & Patsy’s Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer….

Deploying analytics has become a top priority for utilities and is driving significant investments. By now, most utilities know that there’s a slew of well-documented analytics use cases with proven value. Analytics technology can provide answers to complex problems…

For both utilities and industrial facilities, substations are keystone assets. When there’s an issue at a substation, the resulting problems can be widespread and significant. In the quest for greater reliability and more efficient operations, traditional approaches to…

Utilities today are recognizing the value of becoming data driven. The workforce is retiring, leaving utilities with a dearth of knowledge. At the same time, the rise in data from smart meters and new sensing devices is offering...

City of Tallahassee Utilities is undergoing an enormous transformation, and is working to put analytics into the hands of its employees through a self-service campaign using Alteryx/Tableau solutions. David Carnes, Mobile Systems Data Coordinator, shares some insights from…

The cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Grand Rapids, Michigan have each turned to a new technology to track customer sentiment of their police forces. The technology is called Elucd, and the goal is to monitor public…

Information Can Heighten Grid Security, Top Government And Utility Leaders Tell Icons Of Infrastructure Washington Conference. The public and private sectors are increasingly focused on using analytics to make the nation’s electrical grid more secure. “We’re looking at…

The new JD Power’s J.D. Power 2018 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.SM is out and it is good news for utilities. For the seventh consecutive year, customer satisfaction is up. Many in the industry are curious about what…

While many utilities understand that the analytics discipline offers heaps of benefits, crafting an actionable analytics strategy has proven much more difficult. In less than two years, Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) has engaged in a rapid transformation effort…

The Analytics Architecture & Technology Advancement Group at UAI meets to share insights and experience on the use of customer segmentation. This is a report out of the discussion. In an ideal working environment, we have no barriers. We can…

There is no question that the pace of EV adoption is quickening, and analytics are more important than ever for utilities to accommodate that growth. Once a niche product, EVs are coming into the mainstream. In the United…

Thursday, August 16th at 1:00pm EDT Over 50,000 times a year, Florida Power & Light’s field crew is deployed to respond to customer-reported outages. Beginning in 2016, FPL began building systems that analyze smart grid data for active...

The Customer Analytics Advancement Group at UAI meets to share insights and experience on the use of customer segmentation. This is a report out of the discussion. Knowing your customer is the key to business success for nearly…

Stan Hoptroff, VP, CTO, and Director of Information Technology at the North American Electric Reliability Council, discusses the use of NERC’s ERO Enterprise CMEP technology to streamline compliance monitoring and reduce risk. Maintaining reliability across the bulk power system…

Andy Kapp, lead enterprise architect at Evergy, discusses how the right approach to technology can help to create an analytics culture.  What types of benefits and ROI has your utility observed from adopting analytics? A data driven culture,…

Jen Owens of Pacific Gas & Electric’s Digital Catalyst Group discusses how agile product development teams at PG&E have developed tools to optimize asset management via data science and advanced analytics. How did your agile product development team…

It’s undeniable - analytics provide utilities with opportunities to realize significant cost savings in work and asset functions.  Additionally, improvements in network reliability, regulatory compliance, customer satisfaction and safety can be achieved.  Obtaining these benefits requires a focused...

Each month, UAI members gather to discuss the role of data analytics in grid optimization. This is a report out of recent discussions. It’s not 2008 anymore, but there is something in the air in terms of utilities…

The energy industry is evolving at a rapid speed, and utilities are embracing data and analytics to counter challenges and create new opportunities. But, with their unique regulatory structure and the complexity of managing energy resources, utilities have...

Modern utilities are challenged to do more with less. Today, utilities must meet the ever-growing expectations of consumers while maintaining or reducing operational costs and, most importantly, keeping the lights on, despite heavy electricity demand. To support each…

SRP has a thriving Analytics Community. Last year we formally established a community of people with an interest in data and analytics together to share success stories, discuss tools, show best practices, and encourage collaboration. This group meets…

There is a new mindset coming to the forefront for utility leadership, a mindset that says: “Data must be considered a vital asset to the enterprise.”  Without this statement, grid modernization efforts will only go so far. Distribution…

The electric grid as we know it is changing. The generating resource mix is shifting with the retirement of natural gas, coal and nuclear plants combined with the introduction of renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar…

Earlier this month, Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar participated in a cross-industry White House Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI). There were no identifiable outcomes of the meeting, but AI for utilities and power generators…

Data Privacy is top of mind across markets, due in part to the mandatory implementation of GDPR to all companies that do business within the European Union, in addition to the accumulation of headlines involving high-profile privacy violations (Red…

Integrating Analytics to Drive Customer Value and Operational Excellence While many utilities understand that the analytics discipline offers many benefits, crafting an actionable analytics strategy has proven more difficult. In this session, Joe Tellez and Andrew Braeger of...

Some folks may be surprised to learn that a utility with millions of customers could have a 100% accurate billing system which associates each customer address correctly with each meter, while having a much less accurate mapping of…

Utility analytics and I have had a very long, sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding relationship. Having started as a SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition) market analyst nearly three decades ago, and SCADA being arguably an early version of…

Last month at the Utility Analytics Summit, four data scientists provided examples and realistic perspective on how they’ve optimized model-building for their internal customers at Southern California Edison (SCE). Two key aspects of model-building emphasized by the SCE…

What unexpected synergistic benefits will be created, based on the announcement this week that California plans to have solar photovoltaic panels installed on 100% of new homes in the state?  The announcement represents a tremendous vote of confidence…

Advanced analytics will likely play a front-and-center role in the majority of goals associated with a drive toward operational excellence which American Electric Power highlighted in a recent publicly-available presentation to a major investment bank. Well-prioritized advanced analytics…

nalysts involved in building new Demand Response, Home Energy Network, and Energy Efficiency programs may find the following analogy of interest, especially if they work at utilities seeking to improve upon low (often single-digit percentage) participation levels currently…

With a spotlight on analytics and DER, it’s important to remember that advanced analytics capabilities in support of optimal operation of centralized generating facilities and the Bulk Electric System (BES) connecting them are vital areas of recent utility…

Major advanced analytics strategic considerations are involved in a utility’s decision to replace a core legacy system, such as a Customer Information System. In contrast, a more tactical “quick win” approach can fit advanced analytics projects of narrow…

The phrase “all other things being equal” has been a simplifying assumption frequently employed in many situations. But in the data-driven world in which utilities now operate, this common phrase should be viewed with increased skepticism, including decision-making…

Some of the keys to optimizing outcomes of an advanced analytics project appear directly associated with how utility personnel define project “success” and how they frame any obstacles they encounter along the way. A theme during several Q&A…

Power theft (or energy diversion) is like an arms race, where the good guys are constantly seeking to stay ahead of the bad guys. In a recent filing a revealing spotlight was shined upon the multi-faceted relationship between…

Utility planners can drive big ROIs by using more detailed data to reveal the best area for improvement when it comes to responding to smaller day-to-day outages. A review of a wide range of recent OMS-related improvements clearly…

A February 2018 Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL) white paper provides helpful perspective on factors to consider when utilities evaluate the economics of distributed generation (DG) and associated analytics challenges. Source:  “Distributed Generation Valuation and Compensation.”  Page 35…

What will be required for Distributed Energy Resource Management System solutions to model and control increasingly complex grids and asset portfolios? Recent work by Sameer Kalra and his colleagues at Pacific Gas & Electric provides a sense of…

The Utility Analytics Summit offers the same type of inspiring setting to exchange ideas as years past, but this year the Summit will be held in a growing technology hub: Irvine, California, from April 16th through the 18th,…

Increasing use of distributed energy resources drives development of real-time system loss analysis. Whether a utility generates its own power or buys power on the wholesale market, one certainty is the amount of electricity the utility puts into…