by Shane Henson — November 23, 2012—Multinational technology and consulting corporation IBM recently announced the launch of the Smarter Energy Research Institute, a new industrial research collaboration model aimed at accelerating innovation across the global energy and utilities market. Hydro-Québec (Canada), Alliander (Netherlands) and DTE Energy (USA) joined as the first members.
Hydro-Québec is one of the world’s largest hydroelectric power producers and the only North American electric utilities operating its own research center, says IBM. Alliander is a major Dutch energy distributor specializing in renewable energy, serving three million customers in the Netherlands. DTE Energy is an investor-owned diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services across the United States.
Working with its members, IBM hopes to transform leading energy companies through the use of predictive analytics, system optimization and advanced computation to deliver better services to their customers. Combining IBM Research’s expertise in the areas of mathematical sciences, computer science and high-performance computing with the deep-power engineering and operational know-how of the participating members, the institute will focus on five core innovation tracks to pursue joint research and where shared investments, knowledge and capabilities will benefit every member. Each company will identify and be active in up to two tracks that match their business and operational priorities, says IBM. The areas include:
- Outage Planning Optimization: Reducing the amount of time a customer is without power;
- Asset Management Optimization: Improving the allocation of capital and operational expenses in upgrades and maintenance;
- Integration of Renewables and Distributed Energy Resources (DER): Meeting renewable integration and distributed energy resource regulatory targets while ensuring system stability;
- Wide-Area Situational Awareness: Detecting anomalies across the grid in real time to improve resiliency, reliability and energy quality; and
- The Participatory Network: Using an engagement model to transform relationships with consumers.
According to IBM, expected outcomes of this research include equipping members with the ability to improve planning and reliability of operations through the use of prediction and optimization in the areas of outage and asset management. For example, the creation of coupled-predictive models allow for understanding, days in advance, the impact that a storm would cause on the electrical grid and preemptively position crews and resources to facilitate restoration efforts. A shift from “fixed” to “condition-based” maintenance plans based on model-driven asset failure predictions have the potential to deliver significant value creation opportunities for energy and utilities.
In the area of renewable and distributed energy resources, which are prone to extreme variability, members can leverage predictive and optimization technologies, increasing the accuracy of their forecasts to balance the supply and demand of electricity and take measures that ensure system reliability. Likewise, says IBM, using advanced computational techniques capable of analyzing streaming data from sensors across the grid in near real-time enable more dynamic monitoring of the entire power system across large geographic areas, and offers the potential to reach even higher levels of performance and cost-effectiveness through improved situational awareness.
As a result, members can better navigate the transforming energy and utilities environment, collect insights from the vast amount of information pervading their networks and systems, add further intelligence to the smart grid, and uncover new ways that improve business and operational outcomes, says IBM.
