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November 1, 2009
Focus on Smart Grid/Energy Efficiency Preparation and Strategic Planning, Public Power Magazine, November-December 2009
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Tim Blodgett
Hometown Connections
303-526-4515
tblodgett@hometownconnections.com
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Hometown Connections Annual Update
Through our work with public power managers and boards across the country, Hometown Connections staff has a front row seat and unique perspective into utility priorities and concerns. This past year, I have seen more change—and more uncertainty—within the electric industry than at any other time during my nearly two decades in the utility sector. The economy is at the forefront of everyone's mind. Some of you have experienced serious financial blows, as industries close down and customer delinquency rates climb. Others are holding their breath, as local industries and utility revenues remain steady. That's not to say all is well in this latter group: the implications of the recession are far from over, and many of you have found yourselves in the midst of cutbacks and hiring freezes emanating from City Hall that have little to do with the financial condition of the utility.
Furthermore, regardless of how you feel about climate change legislation, it's coming. More renewables, grid optimization, demand response programs, time-of-use pricing and real-time information to and from the customer meter are in our futures. These, of course, are the key elements of the smart grid.
At Hometown Connections, our priority is to help public power navigate these strategic planning challenges and prepare for major improvements in utility operations, efficiency, and customer service that smart grid breakthroughs will soon deliver. In the past year, Hometown Connections has formed new partnerships with several vendors that offer solutions in key areas of the smart grid.
Hometown Connections returns to the AMR/AMI arena through our partnership with Elster Electricity. Elster has developed an integrated electric/water/gas (over 80 percent of public power also reads water or gas) automated metering infrastructure solution deploying wireless mesh technology that can hop on a utility's fiber ring as a backhaul to the utility. This solution has public power written all over it. For a medium- or high-density community, wireless mesh technology is a very effective and efficient means for two-way communications with the customer.
Another recent partner to Hometown Connections is GridPoint, whose technology creates an easy to develop and manage information portal between utility and customer. As we move toward stronger demand response programs including both those managed by the utility and those managed by the end-user, the need for real-time, two-way information between utility and customer will grow. GridPoint has a great package that allows for both Web-based interaction and in-home portals.
Our third new partner from 2009 is N-Dimension Solutions, which has focused its efforts on building the level of cyber security necessary to allow utilities to operate within North American Electric Reliability Corp. guidelines and with a stronger sense of comfort that their system is far better protected from cyber attack.
In addition to these new product lines, Hometown Connections continues to offer the excellent smart grid-focused products and services from our existing partners:
* unbiased broadband and smart grid assessments from Uptown Services;
* entry level and more sophisticated SCADA solutions from Survalent Technology;
* innovative engineering analysis and OMS/GIS/IVR software from Milsoft Utility Solutions;
* user-friendly, smart grid-enabled billing and financial software solutions from Cogsdale;
* customer-friendly online energy audit services from Enercom.
While these products and services enable utilities to improve outage response, energy efficiency, and customer service, we recognize that many smaller and mid-size public power utilities remain reluctant to pull the trigger on smart grid investments given the current economic climate and uncertainty of the future. Our advice is two-fold:
* Make the study of smart grid technology, energy efficiency, and industry developments a top priority. It's critical to understand emerging standards, applications, and pricing trends.
* Prepare now for the pent-up demand for smart grid innovations and energy efficiency programs that will come from customers and perhaps regulators as the economy improves.
Finally, I would like to underscore our utility assessment service, "Organization Check Up," that has caught fire within public power. It's really pretty simple but the impact can be significant. Hometown Connections personnel come on site for a few days, reviewing with utility staff and governing officials the key areas of utility management, including power supply, customer service, distribution operations, administration/accounting/finance, human resources, labor relations, technology, and governance. We analyze this information based on our work with hundreds of public power utilities over the past 12 years, prepare a process assessment, and then deliver a detailed report with specific and realistic recommendations for the utility. We offer a point-by-point road map for the future that reflects an understanding of public power that is unmatched in our industry.
The team at Hometown Connections thanks the public power community for its continued support. Our greatest source of pride remains that all of our decisions about which products and services to include in the Hometown Connections portfolio are driven by what public power leaders tell us they need. Our sole and enduring priority is to represent only those companies that understand public power, offer superior products and services, and are able to negotiate nationwide pricing and packaging for the entire APPA membership.
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