by psvish
7. September 2011 10:47
It looks like we are going to be flooded pretty much for the near foreseeble future in the nation's capital! Although we have for the most part, escaped serious damage, it feels like mother nature is hell bent on washing us off into the Atlantic....It makes it all the more difficult to focus on news items trumpeting the oncoming deluge of data from SmartGrid and what utilities need to do to take advantage of billions of terabytes of data - finally, something other than our national debt with incomprehensible number of zeroes...
Whenever the coverage is full of breathless pronouncements of impending deluge, we find it's a good idea to take a deep breath and consider the matter rationally without getting swept in the hype. Yes, it's true that smart meters have the capability to provide 1-second data for 24/7/365 days/yr, but the real issue is why would any utility pay for collecting and storing that much data for every customer they have. What one needs to do, as with any other business decision, first look at what goals and performance milestones any given utility wants to meet. Then, one would look at what data would help meet those goals and look to set up systems to collect, analyze and report on that data. Done correctly, the whole thing should by highly manageable and cost effective.
As usual, we stand ready to help our clients to sort through these issues.
On a lighter note: we came across this Dilbert strip today and it's just perfect for the above discussion. Enjoy:
Track. Report. Analyze. Manage.
