IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2016 - 65

market role, they guide its activities to balance and
shape local, regional, and federal (national) regulatory/
legislative policy in conjunction with the other market
stakeholders.
requirements can then be mapped to the following categories of benefits:
✔ operational benefits are defined as value propositions
created through control center and operator decisions
impacting real-time or near real-time system operations. Examples include generating station/unit performance, grid frequency stability, load balancing,
system voltage sag/conservation management, power
quality, and blinks/outage avoidance.
✔ nonoperational benefits are defined as new enterpriseside value propositions created across infrastructure
assets, functional operations and maintenance processes, and business-owner group processes and services when adopting advanced energy infrastructures
and big data solutions. Examples include using combined dEr and advanced grid solutions for additional
physical fuel-supply hedges, optimized generation
fleet utilization and heat rates, delivery point stress
reduction and congestion management, advanced asset performance and infrastructure life cycle management, asset/field services maintenance and workforce
management, advanced customer education/engagement, and requested retail services.
✔ interoperability standards are nontraditional operating
requirements for interoperability standards adoption.
they guide development and operations of next-generation energy system ot devices and it communications/data networks providing advanced sensory,
visibility, and command/control (i.e., it/ot convergence and big data). in addition, they ensure that these
system technologies and devices are technically and
functionally compatible. this is essential to enabling
the real-time information management and the enterprise's integrated operating and business decision processes that allow the organization to capture new operational and nonoperational benefits from advanced
energy infrastructures.
For example, advanced metering infrastructure deployments and increasing system intelligent electric device (iEd)
provide new "live" customer connections and sensory, visibility, and intelligent automation solutions across distribution and retail levels. these solutions also complement and
expand traditional system-level generation and t&d supervisory control and data acquisition capabilities. in addition,
these new advanced energy capabilities help energy markets
and systems more effectively integrate renewables and distributed energy with traditional fleet supply portfolios to gain
greater energy chain value through a "true" system-wide
integrated resource plan and economic resource management
(i.e., advanced dispatch optimization for the commodity portfolio). Finally, new value propositions are enabled through
september/october 2016

more a efficient and responsive command/control of grid
and supply asset operations, higher reliability with increased
event risk and contingency management, and stronger customer experiences with new service levels and offerings.
delivering these new values require unprecedented ot/
it convergence and data management (big data). accurately
connecting these dots between energy market needs and value,
cohesive market policy direction and guidance, and internal organization requirements (i.e., business models, operations, and regulatory) is essential for successful infrastructure
development through ot/it convergence and big data, or
what has always been our primary focus as engineers in the
energy industry. without these connections, it is difficult to
optimize performance of these new energy infrastructures and
their investment returns (benefits) for all market stakeholders.
For example, it is common for over half of iEd nonoperational benefits to remain unrealized after deployment.

Conclusions
it continues to be clear that the transition to the utility of
the future is a nonlinear one and that the destination may
be fluid and in perpetual flux. recently, we have seen an
increase in the rate of acceleration of change. the challenge
with managing change in these times is to understand that
the constancy of change quickly moves organizations from a
place where all variables are understood and managed to one
where the relevant variables may not even be identified yet.
in addition to more fully engaging customers and reshaping
the regulatory frameworks, utilities will require new capabilities to manage in these challenging times. chief among
these is a new risk management capability that proactively
seeks out "black swan" scenarios and plans accordingly,
even as customers continue to experiment with new capabilities and responsibilities within the utility ecosystem. once
developed, these new risk frameworks can serve to drive the
ongoing transition to a constantly evolving future state.

For Further Reading
r. E. brown, Business Essentials for Utility Engineers.
boca raton, Fl: crc Press, 2010.
EPri, "the integrated grid. realizing the full value of
central and distributed energy resources," white Paper,
Feb. 2014.
"review of Electric choice Finds more Providers, Products and customers, snl article," Jan. 2014.
"EEi's and nrdc's joint recommendations to regulators
regarding policy requirements to support dEr and advanced
grid integration in the market," Feb. 2014.

Biographies
Richard E. Brown is with Exponent, denver, colorado.
C. Scott Wilson is with Exponent, atlanta, Georgia.
Hugo van Nispen is with Exponent, chicago, illinois.
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