The technology landscape is advancing at a rapid pace while the utility industry is in a state of constant improvement and modernization. And the convergence of electric and water utilities, telecom, and tech is creating new opportunities to enhance the capabilities and performance of the grid. At ETS22 our fireside panel discussed how emerging technologies can be utilized to create a new ecosystem that can benefit utilities, entrepreneurs, and customers alike with:

• Jason Handley Duke Energy, General Manager | Distributed Energy Group

• Ryan Gerbrandt, Anterix, Chief Operating Officer

Key takeaways

• When integrating technology into distributed energy resources, it is important to understand where the cost curves are for decision making, the right time to deploy technologies, and create a solid base of groups to work with.
• Minimizing the impact of technology integration and moving away from legacy technologies means getting the technologies right upfront.
• Utilities have to carefully look into ways to recoup the rate of recovery to minimize the burden of the technological investments on the customer.
• Data is the basis of all digitization and connecting assets. It’s a ripe ground for future innovation and we’re at the early days of truly understanding the value of this massive amount of data that the industry has been collecting.
• Enterprise communication systems are the baseline to determining what data is important and where to find it.
• Technology integration, electrification, environmental challenges, renewable integration are challenges faced by the nation and the global economy. It’s important to collaborate and learn from each other by sharing experiences, results of experiments, and data with each other. Creating systems of common foundations, information standards, and standard products and services and sharing those across organizations and enterprises helps us accelerate innovation at a scalable level.
• Creating a structure where you can get feedback from the best resources you have, your employees, is a step forward toward success.
• Not everything that is transformational is necessarily new. The utility industry has to work better to tap into the existing capabilities of tech companies and providers that have existing solutions to long existing problems.

The next twenty years will witness greater technology adoption than what we’ve experienced in the past fifty years. For that, organizations must be set for success. The discussion left us with positive remarks and recommendations for the future of technology integration into renewable energy. Ultimately, having clear objectives, tapping into existing resources, and industry-wide collaboration will ensure a successful transition toward digitized renewable energy resources.