IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - 30
This proposed framework is intended to address strategic
short-, mid-, and long-term business and engineering
objectives defined by utility leadership.
these terms, all of them recognize that the status quo is no
longer able anymore to fulfill the changing needs and growing expectations of end users, while providing electric utilities and other industries with the opportunity to thrive in a
dynamic and modern market; therefore, they have encouraged the introduction of new paradigms.
The terms "smart grid," "grid of the future," and "grid
modernization" emphasize the need to build an intelligent
grid that can be monitored and controlled in real time to allow
for providing a reliable, safe, and secure service and empower
customers to actively participate and benefit from greater and
more diverse market opportunities and services. Building
this intelligent grid is a monumental task (particularly on the
distribution and grid-edge side, which are vast and heterogeneous) that has led to the emergence of new concepts, technologies, and paradigms. examples of this includes debates
regarding future grid architecture (a distributed, hybrid, or
centralized grid); advances in grid modeling, simulation, and
analysis; the introduction of the microgrid concept as an alternative to enhance resiliency and facilitate der integration;
and the convergence of information and operations technologies (iT/oT).
The idea of the utility of the future, on the other hand,
has a broader connotation and encompasses the need for
all aspects pertaining to the utility industry to evolve and
adapt to this new and dynamic customer-centric reality. This
includes business and engineering processes, regulation,
policies, rate design, asset ownership, service diversification,
and relationships with customers. Although grid technologyrelated aspects are challenging and complex, changes and
solutions in this area are at a more advanced stage than those
needed to address emerging regulatory, policy, and business
problems and needs (some of which are being triggered or
enabled by technology developments). in summary, addressing the business, legal, regulatory, and policy side of the utility of the future is an area where plenty of additional work
is required.
A review of ongoing activities in the united states and
other countries shows that utilities are currently engaged in
addressing several of the aforementioned elements of the
utility and grid of the future, some of which are shown in
Figure 1. The scope of the initiatives is broad and ambitious
in some cases and more specific and narrow in others. These
diverse versions are tailored to fulfill the needs and different
realities and business goals of electric utilities. in conclusion,
the concept of the utility and grid of the future means different
30
ieee power & energy magazine
things to different utilities. For some, it can be as specific as
deploying advanced metering infrastructures (AMis), and for
others this vision can be as ambitious and groundbreaking as
enabling a platform that allows for a bidirectional information exchange with customers. The latter could allow offering
a portfolio of services to customers such as tiered reliability
and der installation, maintenance, and operations, while
enabling them to participate in a distribution market.
This article discusses the overall strategy, framework,
and key layers and components of the vision of the utility
and grid of the future, along with challenges, gaps, needs,
initiatives, and solutions being investigated to enable this
vision. examples of existing initiatives being conducted by
important electric utility industry players are provided.
The Framework of the Utility
and Grid of the Future
This proposed framework is intended to address strategic
short-, mid-, and long-term business and engineering objectives defined by utility leadership. As an initiative of this
sort requires executive support and commitment to be successful, it must be envisioned as an enterprise-wide effort.
once objectives have been defined, it is necessary to assess
if the organization is prepared to address the expected
external market environment changes and identify gaps,
needs, and challenges to overcome to meet the vision. This
requires close interaction with utility executives, a thorough
research of industry trends, what similar initiatives being
carried out by other organizations, lessons that have been
learned, and plenty of education and debate involving decision makers and sponsors. Key layers and components of
this framework include the following, which are shown in
Figure 2 and explained in more detail in the next sections
of this article:
✔ foundational layer
* foundational infrastructure and resources
* organization and processes
* standards and models
* business and regulatory
✔ enabling layer
* enabling infrastructure
* incremental intelligence
✔ application layer
* grid and customer analytics
* real-time awareness and control
* customer interaction
september/october 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - Cover1
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - Cover2
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - 1
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - Cover3
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - Cover4
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