Smart Meters - Consumers are ready, but are the providers?

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Studies show that people save 5-15% of their energy costs when
they have access to information about their energy consumption.

Smart Meters (and on the bigger scale – Smart Grids) are devices
that actively collect energy data. The way they collect data is very different to the traditional electricity
meters, where data usage was only read on a monthly or quarterly basis, and was
only measured via gross consumption and offered no insight into when the energy
was actually consumed. Smart metering is a method of collection, processing and
management of energy consumption data in very precise ways. Smart meters can be
remotely read, instructed, configured and have the ability to send their
collected data automatically to a central device, enabling 2-way communication.
Smart Metering offers benefits to end customers, energy suppliers as well as
grid operators. Customers will have real-time energy information at their
disposal to make smart decisions. Suppliers will better understand their
customers, which will ultimately lead to better service. Finally, utility
companies will have the tools to better monitor, protect and manage their
networks.

"Smart meters expand consumption data by a thousand percent
or more, and many utilities are grappling with how they can manage and secure
this volume of data and then use it effectively," said Linda Jackman,
group VP of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities.

The big question in this big data collection initiative is how to
manage and organize the copious amounts of data. In the article below, Bryan
Truex discusses two opposing views on smart meter data analytics. On one side there
are utility companies that have been extremely focused on rolling out smart
metering systems have not focused on what to actually do with the data they
collect. Their main purpose is to use this data to bill their customers.

On the other side are utility companies whose main focus is improving
customer management, asset management and overall business performance.

Bryan Truex then expands on the three main categories emerged from
analyzing smart meter data. The first category is Customer Analytics, which focuses
on consumer behavior. The second is Asset Analytics. This category of data
analysis focuses on energy providers’ delivery methods. The third category,
Financial Analytics, dives into analysis of revenue flow.

There are still many obstacles that utility companies have to
overcome in managing smart meter data. “Oracle surveyed 151 senior managers at
North American utility companies with some sort of smart meter program in
place. Managers were asked to rate how prepared they were for the spread of
smart meters, which have been creating exponentially more data. The executives
said they were somewhat prepared for the nascent smart grid, rating themselves
6.7 on a scale of 1 to 10. (The scale ranges from not at all prepared to
completely prepared). Still, the survey found a gap between how much
information utilities collect and they actually use. Seventy-eight percent of
the respondents said they collected data on power losses, but only 59 percent
reported using it; 56 percent collected diagnostic data, but only 33 percent
used it. The survey found that the utilities see a need for improvement, with
64 percent saying that increasing their ability to use the data to guide
strategy and actions was one of their top three priorities. The biggest
challenge, they said, was overcoming the shortage of staff members with the
skills to analyze it.” (“So Much Data, but Who Can Analyze It?” Diane Cardwell:
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/so-much-data-from-smart-meters...)

http://blogs.teradata.com/industry-experts/Two-Opposing-Views-on-Smart-Meter-Data-Analytics