How utilities can accelerate their path to net zero

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Jaime Crawford, Locana

The recent Supreme Court decision about the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions by utilities has sparked a lot of discussion about how that ruling might impact decarbonization initiatives in the industry. While the impact is unclear at the moment, one thing that is certain is that pressure will continue to be placed on utilities by consumers and investors to move toward net zero.

The influence of investors in particular has been transformative on this issue as they have made it clear over the past few years that the valuation of utilities is inextricably linked to their ability to chart a path toward cleaner energy. This investor influence, combined with sustained support for greener energy from the public, has led 25 of the country’s largest 30 utilities to announce decarbonization plans, according to research by S&P Global Commodity Insights.    

That report outlines aggressive goals by some utilities to beat the 2035 targets mapped out in the Paris Climate Accords to achieve net zero, including Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) and Eversource Energy. Other utilities have stated targets ranging from 2035 to 2050 for achieving net zero, but have aggressive interim goals. American Electric Power, for example, will reduce its carbon footprint 80% by 2030. Xcel Energy will reduce its footprint in some states by 85% by 2030 and Constellation Energy will achieve a 95% reduction by 2030.

Achieving these objectives requires a top-to-bottom rethinking of how utilities produce and deliver power – a process whose success depends on information and insights that are difficult or impossible for utilities to obtain from their legacy computing systems. That data, and resulting insights, include:

  • Information about where to deploy DERs and how to manage them;
  • Insights about how to expand smart grid infrastructure and operate microgrids;
  • Vital information for capacity planning, managing peak demand, and operating distributed energy sources;
  • Measurements of carbon reduction progress and momentum toward net zero;
  • Sustainability insights into efforts in other areas of operation.

Today, most utilities do not have access to robust insights to power those business processes above, which will slow their ability to move toward those sustainability goals. Luckily, though, they have the data – an ocean of location-related data created by the sensors, equipment and mobile devices used by workers as well as data in digital maps, GIS systems and outside sources of geographic data sets. All utilities have that data today. The challenge is extracting the actionable insights from that data in ways that can be put to use for every aspect of decarbonization initiatives.

Location intelligence does exactly that.

Why is location intelligence key for decarbonization?

Location intelligence uses advanced analytics to turn that ocean of location-based data into decision-making guidance that is immediately consumable and usable by departments across a utility. Utilities have used these insights on a smaller scale for decades, but the impact was limited by the need for this data to be analyzed by specialists in geospatial departments who had the technical skills to work with complex geospatial software. Those geospatial professionals have an even bigger role to play now supporting this next-generation technology that automates so much of the data analysis and reporting – putting information into the hands of the employees spearheading every aspect of decarbonization.

Deployment and management of renewables is one of the key areas where location intelligence is having a major impact – accelerating utilities’ ability to make progress toward their net zero goals. Field crews using mobile devices can use location intelligence to speed up their installation timeline for renewable assets and the smart grid infrastructure that supports DERs. Location intelligence within the mobile device can help plan these projects and make the installation processes far more efficient. Mobile devices can also capture and verify location-based data that gives utilities a far more accurate view of their infrastructure, supporting the creation of digital twin models that support so many aspects of operations.

Once those renewables are operational, the role of location intelligence becomes even more vital, providing real-time information that enables utilities to understand the status of DERs and microgrids, and orchestrate the distribution of energy across a far more complex landscape of energy generation, transmission, storage and consumption.

I should also put a spotlight on the role that location intelligence is poised to play in one of the hardest aspects of net zero initiatives: accurately measuring and reporting progress toward achieving and sustaining those objectives. Measurement of sustainability is one of the most complex aspects of green initiatives across every industry, but it is particularly complex in the utility industry because of the sheer scale of infrastructure, the number of assets, the number of generation and consumption points in smart grids, and much more. That measurement and reporting is far more difficult without the analytics and reporting that location intelligence delivers.

As pressure continues to be placed on utilities to decarbonize and meet or beat their projections for reaching net zero, location intelligence has an instrumental role to play in removing major obstacles to renewable initiatives and greener operations.

About the Author

Jaime Crawford is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Industries at Locana (formerly Critigen), a location and mapping technology company whose software products and services solve the world’s most pressing infrastructure, sustainability, business, and social challenges. In this role, Crawford focuses on the delivery of innovative solutions to industries such as utilities where location intelligence is poised to have a dramatic impact across every aspect of the market. She has more than 20 years of experience in location intelligence, including her time in this leadership role at Locana/Critigen and at PwC where she led its GIS practice for power and utility clients. She has also worked closely with strategic clients in prior roles at CH2M Hill and at Esri. She also taught GIS at the University of Washington for nearly a decade, training the next generation of geospatial professionals. Crawford is based in Seattle and holds a Bachelor of Science from Western Washington University and a Masters in Environmental Science (GIS emphasis) from the University of Charleston.

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