Big Data Analytics Strategies for the Smart Grid

By implementing a comprehensive data analytics program, utility companies can meet the continually evolving challenges of modern grids that are operationally efficient, while reconciling the demands of greenhouse gas legislation and establishing a meaningful return on investment from smart grid deployments.

Readable and accessible, Big Data Analytics Strategies for the Smart Grid addresses the needs of applying big data technologies and approaches, including Big Data cybersecurity, to the critical infrastructure that makes up the electrical utility grid. It supplies industry stakeholders with an in-depth understanding of the engineering, business, and customer domains within the power delivery market.

The book explores the unique needs of electrical utility grids, including operational technology, IT, storage, processing, and how to transform grid assets for the benefit of both the utility business and energy consumers. It not only provides specific examples that illustrate how analytics work and how they are best applied, but also describes how to avoid potential problems and pitfalls.

Discussing security and data privacy, it explores the role of the utility in protecting their customers’ right to privacy while still engaging in forward-looking business practices. The book includes discussions of:

• SAS for asset management tools
• The AutoGrid approach to commercial analytics
• Space-Time Insight’s work at the California ISO (CAISO)

This book is an ideal resource for mid- to upper-level utility executives who need to understand the business value of smart grid data analytics. It explains critical concepts in a manner that will better position executives to make the right decisions about building their analytics programs.

At the same time, the book provides sufficient technical depth that it is useful for data analytics professionals who need to better understand the nuances of the engineering and business challenges unique to the utilities industry.

About the Author

Carol L. Stimmel began working with "big data analytics" in 1991 while hacking code and modeling 3D systems for meteorological research—years before that combination of words ever became buzzword compliant. In those 23 years, she has spent the last 7 focusing on the energy industry, including smart grid data analytics, microgrids, home automation, data security and privacy, smart grid standards, and renewables generation. She has participated in emerging technology markets for the majority of her career, including engineering, designing new products, and providing market intelligence and analysis to utilities and other energy industry stakeholders.

Carol has owned and operated a digital forensics company, worked with cutting-edge entrepreneurial teams; co-authored a standard text on organizational management, The Manager Pool; and held leadership roles with Gartner, E Source, Tendril, and Navigant Research. She is the founder and CEO of the research and consulting sustainability company, Manifest Mind, LLC, which brings rigorous, action-based insight to advanced technology projects that create and maintain healthy ecosystems for people and the environment. Carol holds a BA in Philosophy from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.