The 2022 Itron Inspire event focused on what is possible today while also painting a vibrant picture of the future of grid management.
A video floating around the internet shows a one-year-old child flipping through a print magazine and attempting to zoom in on images by pinching her fingers on the pictures. The caption reads, “a magazine is an Ipad that does not work.”
Indeed, if it isn’t intelligent, it’s broken said Tom Koulopoulos a Boston University professor and digital futurist who gave a keynote address on September 27 during the Itron Inspire 2022 event in Marco Island, Florida.
Koulopoulos’ talk gave attendees a glimpse of where the world is headed with data and technology as he sees it.
The talk was the perfect platform for this year’s Itron Inspire event, which focused on real-time data analytics and distributed intelligence.
One of the many takeaways from Koulopoulos’ talk was that “the catalysts for change are not found in the habits of the past but instead in the behaviors of the future.”
Think about that child who wants to zoom into a magazine picture: Her behavior indicates that as she grows up she won’t have tolerance for a technology that isn’t smart.
In much the same way, once utilities begin to use grid edge intelligence and understand how real-time insights can help improve system management, they will no longer tolerate devices or technology on the grid that isn’t able to provide insights and make use of artificial intelligence to carry out commands. Further, as utilities develop greater fluency with smart technology, they will envision — and demand — new uses for smart devices on their circuits. Doing so will drive out inefficiencies and make the grid safer and more sustainable while also improving the customer experience.
Koulopoulos labeled the future of real-time data analytics “autonomic” a combination of “automatic” and “autonomous.” He likened it to the way humans quickly pull away from something hot before the brain has even registered the heat. He said that in the future, the electric grid could be controlled by autonomic devices that make decisions at the edge to keep the grid in balance.
Heroes of today
The 2022 Itron Inspire event began with a keynote by CEO Tom Deitrich and included an award presentation that recognized utilities who are using the company’s technology to both enhance the customer experience and also help make operational improvements. Tampa Electric Company (TECO) was this year’s electric utility winner.
The Florida-based utility won for its Energy Planner Program, an automated price-based demand response program. As designed, TECO gives customers that enroll in the program a smart thermostat and devices that control their water heater and pool pump. Those smart devices can be programed by the customer to draw less power or no power at all when energy costs are high or in critical supply, and programed to operate when prices are low or medium (there are four pricing levels in all.)
The program uses Itron’s GenX load control switch and IntelliSOURCE Enterprise software as its backbone and driver. TECO says customers can reduce their bills by as much as 10% with the program and added that it has shed as much as 3.1 kW during winter peak and 2 kW during summer peak per enrolled customer since 2008.
“Tampa Electric Company is investing in the future by monetizing its $500 million advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) investment further by rolling out outcome-oriented distributed intelligence applications from Itron aimed at decarbonization and climate resiliency. All the apps are powered by distributed intelligence, which allows Tampa Electric Company to effectively use real-time data at the edge,” said Farah Saeed, Director Energy & Environment Growth Advisory at Frost & Sullivan in a press release announcing the award.
Saeed handed out the awards during the opening keynote of Itron Inspire.
Fleet charging – an Itron Experience
A highlight of the annual Itron Inspire event is always the Itron Experience, this year hosted by Tom Erceg and Kevin Ferree, both product showcasing consultants with the company.
Set in an area of Itron’s Knowledge Center, Erceg and Feree walked attendees through three scenarios that utilities could encounter and demonstrate how next-generation advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) enabled by Itron’s low-voltage management system (comprised of an EV Charging Optimizer (EVCO), DER Optimizer, and Grid Edge Optimizer) uses distributed intelligence to address safety issues such as gas leaks and provides non-wires alternatives for grid operators facing potentially problematic areas caused by fleet electric vehicle charging.
This year, Ferree presented a fictional fleet that had been electrified as part of an EV depot. The depot needed to draw 1 MW from the grid to charge all the vehicles in the fleet and the transformer it was connected to was rated to 2 MW.
However, in addition to the EV depot there was a grocery store with a peak demand of 1.5 MW, a small retail outlet with a peak demand of 200 kW and a 1 MW solar array located in the same complex as the electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) for the fleet and sharing the transformer. If all were to reach peak demand at the same time, the transformer would be overloaded (see diagram).
While one solution might be to upgrade the transformer, Ferree presented an alternative.
The demonstration showed how the EVCO can help ensure demand is met by using its forecasting abilities to predict demand and supply (solar), and then change the EV fleet depot’s charging schedule to accommodate possible gaps in supply.
For example, if a cloud were to limit the PV system’s output, the EVCO would automatically curtail the amount it is drawing from the grid to ensure the transformer doesn’t become overloaded. When PV output resumes, charging ramps back up again.
“The heart of the demo was the uncertainty around whether the utility could meet the demands at every moment of the day considering changing conditions,” said Ferree in an email after the demo had concluded.
Even though this was a hypothetical scenario, the crux of what was presented was clear. Smart edge devices can help manage charging while also monitoring the weather and other inputs to ensure that the grid remains stable throughout the day and to maximize the use of clean energy.
Resourcefulness report
Another event highlight was the release of Itron’s annual Resourcefulness report. This year the report focused on real-time analytics.
More Intelligence and More Possibilities: An Itron Resourcefulness Report dives into why 93% of utilities say it’s extremely/very important to be able to gain insights from real-time data and analytics. Driving this is the need to gain insights for greater efficiency, reliability in the face of extreme weather, personalized customer experiences and integrating renewables/promoting sustainability.
In addition to insights from utilities across the globe about which functionality investments they prioritize now as opposed to in 3-5 years, the report also gives use cases for how utilities can use real-time data insights to increase revenue.
For example, it explained that ComEd expects to save $2 billion over the next 20 years through operational efficiency improvements gained by deploying Itron’s Operations Optimizer analytics modules for AMI operations, grid operations, and revenue assurance. ComEd has more than 4 million smart meters, 6,300 critical distributed automation (DA) devices, and 750 smart streetlights in its footprint today.
Partners and Sponsors
Itron’s two largest sponsors are partners Verizon and Microsoft, which represent the other two key pieces of technology necessary for grid edge computing to be effective: a robust network and a safe and secure cloud computing environment.
In an interview, Verizon’s Torrey Cardinalli explained why 5G is a game changer for utility connectivity. He said that it takes years of purposeful investment in laying fiber and connecting that fiber to tens of thousands of wireless towers, and then managing that network by allocating the spectrum to operate a high-quality resilient network.
Itron’s edge computing capabilities wouldn’t be possible were it not for the cloud, which itself needs to provide a strong defense so utilities can be sure their solutions are cybersecure. Microsoft’s Azure cloud benefits Itron via its common data model for power and utility customers and offers a cybersecure environment. The company’s Alex Baar said in an interview that Microsoft did “more than $15 billion in security business in 2021 alone.
“That enables us to bring Itron end-to-end security architecture capabilities on their solutions and products,” he said.
Togetherness despite a hurricane
The Itron Inspire 2022 conference took place from September 25-27 in Florida and on September 28, Hurricane Ian made a direct hit at that very location. A state of emergency was in effect for most of the event. While some local attendees, particularly those from the Tampa area, left the event early to safeguard their homes, most either departed Marco Island on the 27th or rode out the hurricane in the conference hotel.
“Yes, we have a hurricane coming that will give us maybe an extra day or two,” said Itron CEO Tom Deitrich in an interview, “but the fact that everyone is here and everyone is collaborating…bringing everyone together as a community is so powerful,” he added. “There’s no industry like it.”
