Disruption has long been top of mind for the energy industry, although 2020 forecasts, of course, didn’t account for the pandemic. Now, COVID-19 is accelerating utilities’ plans to change. A utilities data platform (UDP) that unifies, consolidates and standardizes customer, assets, usage and field data insights could be the linchpin. Here’s how utilities can get started with a UDP to identify new sources of value and ward off competitive threats.
Data-driven opportunities
Historically the relationship between utilities and their customers has been purely transactional. Customers paid the “rate” in exchange for a guaranteed supply of electrons. Their data was limited to account details, payment info and monthly consumption. However, today’s utilities are collecting a lot more data thanks to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and new digital channels. Enriching this internal data by integrating it with external data gives utilities a huge opportunity. They can leverage data in three key ways: improve customer service and operational performance, offer new value-added services around core utility services and use new business models to monetize data. A UDP can accelerate and enable success in each of these domains.