A large-scale survey of electric power utility employees shows how much certain aspects of the business have changed over the past five years, but it also revealed a wide gap in awareness about major trends facing the industry, particularly grid modernization. 

The poll of more than 20,000 utility executives, managers and engineers, conducted by Massachusetts-based BRIDGE Energy Group, a firm that specializes in utility management services and releases such surveys annually, found that just over half of utility employees (55 percent) indicated that their utility was developing a grid modernization plan. 

The poll similarly showed that many utility professionals are largely unaware of grid modernization plans undertaken by other utilities or other states. Only 25 percent of respondents said they were following grid modernization initiatives closely, while 18 percent said they were completely unfamiliar with grid modernization. 

In addition, only 12 percent of respondents reported that their state was currently implementing or developing a grid modernization plan, and only a quarter of those polled said they were aware of such efforts by states. 

BRIDGE highlighted other parts of the survey as evidence that utilities were entering a period of rapid change for the better. For instance, although only 39 percent of respondents reported that their utility had a distribution management system in place, only 11 percent reported no plans of implementing one in the coming years. 

"Expect to see many more distribution management systems in the near future," said the report. "However, integrating these complex systems into day-to-day operations will remain challenging." 

In other good news, the survey showed how rapidly utilities have adopted smart meters in recent years. A whopping 89 percent of electric utilities report deploying smart meters in their service areas, up from 74 percent in 2013. The change has been even more dramatic among water and gas utilities. Fifty-eight percent of water utilities now deploy smart meters, up from only 12 percent in 2014, and 57 percent of gas utilities now have them, up from only 10 percent in 2014. 

In the coming years, utilities plan to add even more smart meters. Seventy-four percent of electric utility employees said they plan to put in place more smart meters than they did last year. Sixty percent of those from water utilities and 58 percent of those from gas utilities said the same.  

The survey elicited a certain degree of consensus among respondents over what the goals of a grid modernization plan should be. Two-thirds said that maintaining or improving reliability should be either the first or second priority of any modernization plan. This is the second consecutive year in which the percentage of overall respondents citing reliability as a top goal declined, but the rate has not declined among those from states currently engaged in grid modernization efforts, 73 percent of whom listed reliability as a major priority. 

The next most-cited goal was to "improve operations through work and asset management," which 41 percent of all respondents classified as a major reason to modernize grids. 

A third of respondents said that empowering customers should be a central goal, while 26 percent cited "improving grid flexibility and efficiency" and "accommodating distributed generation" as top-two objectives. 

Those from states engaged in grid modernization efforts were far less likely than the overall group to cite flexibility and efficiency as goals, with only 14 percent of such respondents classifying that objective in their top-two. Conversely, those from such states were far more likely to prioritize accommodating distributed generation; 41 percent said it should be a top goal. 

"Survey results emphasize that utilities remain focused on grid reliability and improving operations in the face of a changing energy landscape," said Forrest Small, VP of Grid Optimization Strategy at BRIDGE Energy Group. "Over the last two years BRIDGE has worked with utilities on grid modernization activities in California, Massachusetts and New York, and we find that these states are driving real change that is gaining momentum across the United States."

 

http://www.energybiz.com/article/16/01/survey-grid-modernization-under-way-more-half-utilities