NEWS
The six key points of the Digital Strategy in Utilities
Today, the energy sector lags behind other economic sectors in digitization. Change, however, is coming quickly, and the industry will look dramatically different in a decade or so with a much faster pace of change than expected. How then should utility executives decide their digital strategy? Here are the 6 most promising key points of a digital strategy in utilities:
- Decline of peaks. Utilities develop a large production capacity that often remains underutilized. All that is about to change: energy storage and distributed resources will come together to level out peak demand and make better use of resources.
- Always online. Users continuously communicate with the system and its controllers, helping utilities identify failure risks before they occur. Accurate predictive maintenance could prevent outages.
- Field teams. Smart-grid technologies, self-restoring networks, and underground burial lines are among the technologies that utilities will need to invest in to avoid unnecessary manpower and redirect field forces.
- Automation. Automation of activities and processes significantly reduces costs, typically by 25% to 50% and sometimes up to 65%. It can also improve efficiency by reducing errors, shortening response times, and enabling activities to run around the clock. Digital technologies help utilities streamline their processes, make better forecasts, introduce new services and improve existing ones.
- Onlineengagement. To interact with customers accustomed to the simplicity of online shopping, utilities today should borrow customer engagement techniques from companies such as Amazon and Uber by improving their digital approach to customer interaction.
- Promise of choice. There are new products that help customers manage their energy use, but users do not want to spend too much time managing their energy use. For utilities that can provide integrated service packages, therefore, profits are likely to be higher.
The Energy sector in recent decades has been slow to change due to a number of obstacles, including its unique business model dynamics. From here on, however, change is likely to accelerate. Today, almost all Utility executives recognize the opportunity and potential value at stake in the broad digital transformation underway.
DigitlSuite Italy supports Utilities in Digital Transformation. Learn more by attending upcoming free webinars dedicated to digital technologies for the Credit Area in the Energy & Utility sector.
This post is also available in: Italian
