Utilities are increasingly combining data from different departments for analytics to gain insights. Distributed processing in the field enables new applications for grid operations in real-time. While some analytics use AMI data, operational analytics are just beginning to provide real-time insights. Access to cloud-based analytics and data is growing to improve efficiency and share information both inside and outside utilities. Venture capital funding for soft grid technologies has remained consistent over the last five quarters.

1. Trends in Soft Grid 2014
September 2014

2. Soft Grid Trends 2014

3. 1) Utilities Are Increasing the Number of Data Streams Used for Analytics
Increasing sources come from the integration, duplication, or transport of data from siloed groups that
are not prohibited from collaborating (i.e. energy trading and T&D operations in a deregulated territory)
Traditional Utility Siloes
Custom Services /
Engineering
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Wholesale
Generation
Transmission and
Distribution Operations
Customer Service /
Demand Management
Asset
Management
Energy
Marketing/Trading
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Examples of Converging Data:
1. Using SCADA from operations with
traditional asset management systems to
enable the creation of asset health scores.
2. Comparing monitoring data from T&D
operations with measured consumption
within AMI systems to pinpoint technical
and non-technical losses.
3. Combining recent customer and
topological data with public data sources
and system characteristics to suggest EE
or DSM retrofits in lieu of grid expansion.
4. Combine current renewables production
and predictive production data with
contract and status information from
DERs located on the utility system or at
the customer site for supply-following.

4. 2) Distributed Processing Is No Longer Just for Reliability
Duke, BC Hydro, RWE, MECO, and San Diego Gas & Electric to research approaches that enable IIoT
services over a distributed computing platform in the field for operations and energy management
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Field Message Bus
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Semantic Conversion and
Processing
Communications Data Storage
Benefits
1. Reduced Backhaul
Communications
2. Faster Event Response
3. Flexible/Expandable App
Architecture
4. Marginal Scaling Costs
Capabilities
1. Real-Time Automation
2. Application-Driven
Operations
3. Local Area Situational
Awareness
4. Federated
Decision-Making

5. 3) Operational Analytics Are Just Starting To Be Real-Time
Analytics use cases associated with AMI data are NOT real-time
Asset Management
Voltage Reads Load Forecasting
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applications today
Theft Detection
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Customer Engagement
Within operations, SCADA and DMS systems operate in near-real-time, but still are limited by
use case development, operational maturity, lack of utility demand, and existing IT structures

6. 3) Operational Analytics Are Just Starting To Be Real-Time
Real-time analytics are the next wave of investment as renewables proliferate and
distribution utilities are subjected to new regulatory constructs
2008-2012 2012-2014 2015-2017
Batch Processing Complex Event Processing Stream Processing
Semantic Conversion
and Processing Communications Data Storage
Control
Supervision
Supervision
Control
Utility interest is migrating toward more real-time applications with processing
and applications in the field (distributed processing) and in the enterprise to
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provide real-time support for grid operations.
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Siloed Post-Event Analysis
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6
Current Situational Awareness Predictive and Adaptive Modeling
• Major focus on billing system
advancement, MDM and
traditional systems
• Utilization of traditional utility-owned
systems
• Limited integration within the
enterprise
• Utility-owned centralized
processing used during off-hours
• Interest in crunching data from
many sources
• Enabling utilities to seek out
insights and explore anomalies
from a multi-system view and
“jump” to relevant systems so
to execute a business process
• Major focus on visualization,
permissions, and centralized
management and control
• Major focus on machine-to-machine
communications and
response
• Increasing use of embedded
apps and federated control
structures
• Real-time M2M control coupled
with near-real-time human
supervision and global system
management

7. 4) Accessibility and the Cloud Are Becoming Important
• Cloud platform scalability is opening up analytics and data to wide groups of users,
• Scalable processing is beginning to reduce processing time and improve the efficiency
• Value of data access varies widely due to regulatory peculiarities in various territories,
especially when a territory is deregulated or when utilities are required to provide usage
data to customers or system status data to other parties
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inside and potentially outside the utility, on a dynamic basis
• Access to cloud data streams and ease of data duplication is allowing utilities to
provide wider sets of reliable data across the enterprise.
of query generation and data exploration
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Data Storage Processing
Government Consumers

8. 5) Consistent VC Funding Over the Last Five Quarters
10
8
6
4
2
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$28
$14
$52
$45
$5
$137
GE Ventures invests
$105 million in Pivotal
$26
$47
$25
$29 $31
0
$160
$140
$120
$100
$80
$60
$40
$20
$0
Q1 2012 Q2 2012 Q3 2012 Q4 2012 Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014
Number of Deals
Disclosed Investment (Millions US$)
Soft Grid Deal Count