Intelligent Utility Magazine May/June 2009
In This Issue
  • Enterprise refit
    FORTUM TAKES SMART TO THE NEXT LEVEL
    Carolyn Heinze
    FOUNDED IN 1998 THROUGH THE MERGER OF STATE-OWNED IMATRAN VOIMA and Neste Oyj, Fortum has grown to be one of Northern Europe's largest energy groups. Its distribution arm serves Finland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Russia and the Baltic region. In 2007, the company's power generation unit established two subdivisions - energy efficiency solutions and renewables - to address its strict emissions...

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  • Architect approach
    STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS IN ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE AND THE INTELLIGENT UTILITY
    Staff Writer
    AS UTILITIES PLAN A SMART GRID VISION, A KEY STRATEGY IS HOW TO manage the information flow between devices and enterprise business systems. It's about advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). It's about real-time. It's about the spatial context of data.Enter today's enterprise architect. Enterprise architects bridge business and technology in organizations. The role and importance of an...

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  • Redefining roles
    DUKE, PG&E TALK SMART ENTERPRISES
    H. Christine Richards
    A SMARTER GRID OFTEN CONJURES UP VISIONS OF METERS, ELECTRIC vehicles and home energy displays - essentially, the tangible elements. But what really makes these technologies - and many others - feasible are the systems that are running behind the scenes. So, this brought up a question for me: How do smart grid projects impact enterprise architecture? To find out, I spoke with Brian Abrahamson,...

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  • Clemson excels
    UNIVERSITY RESEARCH ASSOCIATION LEADS THE WAY IN POWER ENGINEERING
    Staff Writer
    CLEMSON UNIVERSITY IS KNOWN AS A TOP RESEARCH INSTITUTION. Ranked No. 22 among public universities of 2008 by US News and World Report, the Tigers attract brilliant minds from all over the world. This pool of talent, coupled with immense resources, enables Clemson to play an integral role in the future of the power industry.In the 1980s, Clemson partnered with Duke Power, Santee Copper,...

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  • Strategic sourcing
    THIRD-PARTY IT RESOURCE STRATEGY
    Staff Writer
    A LONG TIME AGO, IT DEPARTMENTS TRIED TO MEET ALL OF THEIR STAFFING needs with full-time, in-house resources. As the pace of technology change increased, it became more difficult to find and afford the kind of talent required - particularly on a full-time basis. Often, the specialized talent was only needed for a short period of time during a transition or to train existing staff. It became...

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  • Future workforce
    HOW KSAs WILL CHANGE TO MEET DEMANDS OF TOMORROW'S UTILITY
    Staff Writer
    WHAT DOES INTELLIGENCE MEAN IN RELATION TO THE UTILITY WORKFORCE of the future? According to Wikipedia, intelligence is ''a property of the mind that encompasses…abilities such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas…and to learn.''Intelligent utilities will need an intelligent workforce, but this doesn't mean that today's employees...

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  • The grid coach
    CEO DRIVES OG&E INTO SMART POWER
    Phil Johnson
    ONE OF THE WORLD'S BEST EXAMPLES OF SMART GRID TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS IN action is smack in the middle of the U.S. heartland at Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E).OG&E - whose service territory covers a sizable stretch of the state and a small portion of Arkansas - is a storied electric utility that's been in business longer than Oklahoma has been a state.In fact, Oklahoma only...

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  • Ground up
    COOP LEADER SEEKS ''SMART TALK'' FROM ALL EMPLOYEES
    Elizabeth McGowan
    IF BILLY MARRICLE EVER ISSUED A FIAT DICTATING exactly how the San Bernard Electric Cooperative will be evolving toward a smart grid, he surmises he would have an employee rebellion on his hands.It's not that the Texan isn't in charge of his 71-year-old distribution coop. Indeed, as president and general manager, Marricle is the ultimate decision maker. But it isn't the 50-year-old's style...

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  • The town hall meeting
    STRONG LEADERS KEY FOR INTELLIGENT UTILITY
    Staff Writer
    ''MY ELECTRIC BILL HAS BEEN WRONG THE LAST TWO months!''''We had three outages during the storms that came through last month!''''I don't trust that electronic thingee you've put on my house! What is this - Big Brother?''The intelligent utility town hall meeting was off to an auspicious start. The citizens of the intelligent utility had had enough of the promises of ''great service at great...

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  • Overcoming the wall
    VISION REALITY STRATEGY CENTERPOINT ENERGY'S JOURNEY
    H. Christine Richards
    THE GRID HAS BEEN GETTING SMARTER FOR A WHILE, BUT sometimes it gets a significant brain boost. CenterPoint Energy started testing broadband over power line (BPL) and advanced metering in 2005. Now, the company is deploying 2.4 million meters by the end of 2014.How did CenterPoint Energy get to where it is today? How did it find success? To answer these questions, I swung by Houston a few...

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