According to a new study by Oracle, electric utilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are not taking full advantage of the opportunities being offered by smart networks. In the EMEA Smart Grid Rollout report, “The research also found that many utilities have adopted or plan to adopt Smart Meters but they are likely to be unable to gather and utilise the intelligence created by the technology because their IT systems are unable to cope with the amount of information Smart Meters produce.”
The research, which surveyed 50 senior executives from electricity utilities across Europe, Middle East and Africa, found that over half of utilities are worried that their current IT applications will not be able to scale to their needs. Nearly half of respondents expect to achieve return on investment from smart meter deployment in five years however, nearly a quarter don’t know when this will be achieved. In addition, 18 percent of utilities do not have a communications plan in place to educate customers about the different aspects of Smart Meters.
The study also discovered that 12 percent of utilities have not started to assess the systems they will need to assess data from Smart Metering and an additional 12 percent have no plans to
put this in place at all.
Oracle’s position is that smart grids have the capability to improve power distribution efficiency and reliability as well as reducing the need for expanded grids. But for utilities to make the most of these benefits they need to make some fundamental changes to their infrastructure.
“It’s positive to see that utilities are taking active steps towards planning and implementing their Smart Grid roadmap,” Oracle says in the report. “Despite the vast range of new possibilities the majority of utilities are not leveraging the process innovations and intelligence available to them through the Smart Grid infrastructure. Harnessing this information has the power to maximize improvements being made to their business and their ability to enhance efficiencies such as providing new customer offerings, improving field operations and supporting renewable generation. The utility industry is only at the very beginning of uncovering the disruptive evolution available today.”
