{"id":4208,"date":"2015-03-20T08:05:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/?p=4208"},"modified":"2015-03-20T08:05:11","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T15:05:11","slug":"killing-old-habits","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/killing-old-habits","title":{"rendered":"Killing Old Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

To stay profitable and transform business, utilities must break with old habits.<\/em><\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s a well-known saying that goes, \u201cOld habits die hard.\u201d All my life, I\u2019ve struggled to manage my weight. I\u2019ve probably lost 1,000 pounds in my life, but the problem is I\u2019ve gained 1,050 pounds. If I really wanted to lose weight permanently, I would kill off my old bad habits for good, not just suspend them for a while during the diet and then bring them back again as soon as I lose enough weight. To really transform yourself, old, negative habits must die.
\nElectric companies are going through huge change. Regulators insist on unbundling utility components: generation, transmission, distribution, and retail services. In the old days of vertical integration, electric companies could make money on the strength of their business diversity. Today that\u2019s less so. And to make matters worse, energy delivery, transmission and distribution (T&D), faces lots of unknowns, including weather, theft, vandalism, terrorism, and public scrutiny.
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\nNot to mention self-generation. Customers are increasingly generating their own power from solar panels. This more than just adds complexity. It simply erodes utility revenue.
\nTo survive profitably, T&D companies need to kill old habits. The rituals they\u2019ve perfected since the time of Edison<\/a> have to go.
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\nBreaking Tradition<\/strong>
\nOne utility tradition is not investing enough in managing, processing, and keeping up good data. Quality data is a fundamental requirement for solid operations and financial efficiency. How do T&D companies deal with incomplete, inaccurate, or out-of-date asset information? Easy. They have folks hop in a vehicle and see if their data is correct. If not, no big deal. The crew writes what they see. Later, if they have time, they correct the information in the office. So what if there\u2019s a high cost in time and money?
\nThere is<\/em> a so-what, when utilities do this a lot.
\nStudy after study shows shortcomings in T&D GIS<\/a> data. The majority of T&D companies lack a complete facility record in GIS, for instance. Most also lack processes to ensure the timeliness of existing data. And in all too many cases, facility locations are not even close to GPS-accurate. In a several-year-old study, Esri asked utilities how long they need to get information from the field to the GIS. In some cases, utilities reported the time in weeks\u2014<\/em>not minutes, hours, or even days. The price they pay is lack of efficiency. Which equals higher costs, poorer customer service, and lower reliability. In some cases, the price is human. Accidents happen<\/a> when data is wrong. While most T&D utilities now agree GIS is fundamental in some capacity, the simple existence of GIS is not enough.
\nThe data has got to be right.
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\nKeeping it Simple<\/strong>
\nA complete data set is costly, though. It takes resources to migrate, collect, and maintain data. Considering most utilities\u2019 aging workforce and aging infrastructure, increasing cost exposure, dwindling margins, and growing customer expectations, it\u2019s not hard to see why they doubt they have money left over to complete the data migration. Yet today, not having information\u2014for instance, lacking records of the hard-to-reach assets such as underground facilities or secondary services\u2014hurts businesses. Not only do processes depend on good data. The smart grid demands<\/em> it.
\nIronically, utilities often capture too much information. Their GIS needs only this critical information:<\/p>\n