With the growing severity of weather events including floods, severe storms and tornados, it is imperative utilities continue to evolve their storm response practices to maintain the high levels of reliability their customers demand.
Ben Spanswick, Director, Data Science & Machine Learning, PPL, will speak on how utilities can use data science to mitigate the impact of storms at DISTRIBUTECH International, taking place February 26-29 in Orlando, Florida.
Spanswick will participate in A Storm is Brewing: Using Data Science to Mitigate Storm Damage, taking place Feb. 27 from 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm.
This session will show how, using a three-tier approach, utilities can use data science to mitigate the impacts of storms on their system. Retrospective analysis can help utilities understand and quantify the impact of weather on the grid as well as identify conditions that increase risk of damage. Predictive modeling can be used to forecast outages and more accurately deploy resources or optimize mutual assistance requests.
“I like to refer to the domain as the impossible problem – how can utilities expect to get it right when meteorologists are wrong half the time,” Spanswick said. “PPL, along with its partner Esource have tackled the project in some unique ways, using both cutting edge data science techniques and pairing it with a comprehensive organizational mindset.”
Ben Spanswick has been building highly effective data science teams for over a decade. He previously pioneered the FBI’s Data Science Center of Excellence. In 2019, he transitioned to PPL Corp to grow their data science organization and has been enjoying the unique challenges faced in the industry. He holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Risk Analysis from The Pennsylvania State University, and a Masters of Data Science from Southern Methodist University.
