Enabling smart grids with Oracle Utilities

The utilities industry has been a dormant player as compared to some of the other industries over the last two decades. However this is poised for change according to a Gartner survey which predicts a significant increase in spending in this industry over the next few years. The expected investment in the Electric and Gas Utilities spend is to the tune of 34 billion USD by 2015 of which the SW spend expected is 13.7 billion USD, which is close to 30% increase over year 2011.

One of the initiatives catalyzing this sudden growth is the smart grid initiative. What is Smart Grid? To put it simply, the smart grid is a theme in the electric utility process that calculates how intelligently power is generated, transmitted and consumed. It is a process rather than a product and is part of an infrastructure establishment which is still evolving.

Unlike other utilities, electricity cannot be stored or produced in excess. The challenge here is to generate only enough electricity to match the demand from the customers, i.e. effectively analyze and calculate the demand pattern of the consumers on a periodic basis, generate electricity to match demand and fulfill it through distributors and suppliers.

Oracle Utilities now has an end-to-end guide that will help fulfill the smart grid needs for end customers.

Enabling smart grids with Oracle Utilities

Two of their smart grid solutions widely known in the utilities industry are - Oracle Customer Care & Billing (CC& B) and Oracle Meter Data Management (MDM). Together they fulfill the Meter to Bill business flow.

The Oracle Customer Care & Billing (CC& B) application addresses customer information needs such as 360 degree view of the customer- their Account details, service agreements and service points. Oracle CC& B also provides complex billing requirements with different rate options for various types of customers based on geography and usage. The application fulfills the requirements right from setting up a new connection to managing the meters, billing and receiving he payments.

Another important Smart grid solution from Oracle is the Oracle Meter Data Management (MDM). This application works on the back end information i.e. aggregates the meter data, interprets the data received from smart meters and interfaces between customers and grid operations. The concept of interval data measurement is well achieved through Meter Data Management with data being gathered at 15 minute intervals to obtain a more dynamic view of the usage pattern and provide customer more options of billing.

Oracle MDM validates edits and estimates the aggregated data which then interfaces with other Smart grid apps like Oracle CC& B which uses this data for billing the customers.

To conclude, Oracle Utilities applications in their latest version2.x provide an upgraded Java based framework with more user friendly screens & dashboards and provides seamless integration. The ability to fulfill customer needs by providing a choice of billing options, capturing interval measurements of meter reads, huge data aggregation and analysis is fulfilled by Oracle CC& B and MDM- a big step towards realizing the Smart grid vision.

About the Author

Satish Shankar has 20 years of overall experience in the IT and in Manufacturing /Supply chain industry. He has been leading the competency development in Oracle Utilities for last 2 years other than he Oracle eBiz area and has contributed in multiple roles in Presales, CoE, Architect and Program management both at Onsite and Offshore.

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