March 2, 2011 source: GreenTechGrid
“Utilities are getting far more data than they have ever had and are just beginning to think of how they might take advantage of that operationally.” — Paul Straub –
Brother, Can You Spare a Statistician?
At ARPA-E, everyone wants to know how to take advantage of all these new data streams. More data, more problems…and more opportunities.
At the 2011 ARPA-E innovation Summit, attendees spoke of the immense challenges utilities will face in making the most of the data overload that will accompany the transition to a smarter grid.
“How do [utilities] deal with information flow that today is massive and tomorrow is going to be 10 times or 100 times or 1000 times [bigger]?” asked Matt Rogers, a McKinsey Director and former DOE Senior Advisor…
“Utilities are getting far more data than they have ever had and are just beginning to think of how they might take advantage of that operationally,” said Paul Straub, a director at Claremont Creek Ventures. “For example, AMI [is] driving adoption of meter data management systems. As [utilities] move to time-of-use billing, how do [they] take data from meter management systems and come up with interesting rate structures?”
“As an investor who comes from an IT background, it is exciting, because all of a sudden there are a lot of potential applications,” continued Straub.
Other, more creative applications may be necessary to enable delivery to customers of customized electricity portfolios.
“The more progressive utilities are very interested in the problem [of data management and analysis] and are looking into licensing software from startups to try and address it,” said Straub. “Some utilities…are very interested in this problem but like to buy m known vendors, so if a startup wants to address the problem, it is best to find a partner.”
Read the full article at GreenTechGrid