Bob Karschnia is CEO and president of Sentient Energy.
Our nation’s economy, security, and the health and safety of our citizens depend on the reliable delivery of electricity. The power system in the United States consists of more than 7,300 power plants, nearly 160,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and millions of miles of distribution grid power lines connecting 145 million customers. The demands on this infrastructure have never been higher. At the same time, the grid itself is aging. Many components have been in operation for 50 to 75 years.
Grid modernization is a mammoth undertaking, a priority for the nation, and depends on the careful use of new technologies and approaches. Modernization is multifaceted and complex, involving physical assets like lines, switches, transformers and technology solutions such as sensors, software, vast amounts of data and sophisticated analytics that help operators make informed decisions.
Like the physical infrastructure, utilities’ computing infrastructures are also reaching limitations. Many utilities still rely on traditional on-premises computing models. However, the vast amount of data needed to operate today’s grid requires the scale and speed of cloud computing to gather, analyze and derive the necessary insights for a more modern grid.
Reliability, Efficiency And Safety Through Cloud Computing
In the utility sector, thousands of sensors and connected devices across millions of miles of distribution grid produce vast amounts of data. Cloud computing makes it possible for utilities to analyze that data to uncover insights that drive efficiency, savings, reliability, and safety, and even predict and preempt impending faults, safety issues and outages.
It’s not surprising that a study by Accenture found that many leading utilities (84%) have implemented a wide range of cloud solutions. Using cloud computing, utilities can often reduce operating expenses and help alleviate the burden of maintenance performed by IT personnel.
Security, Business Policies And New Hybrid Approaches
Data security and control are huge concerns for operators. As a result, many utilities have implemented “no-cloud” policies to prevent perceived threats. But, they need the data and analytics to effectively manage an aging energy grid that’s being pushed to its limits.
To adapt, many are employing hybrid approaches that connect traditional on-prem operational technology (OT) networks and systems to cloud computing resources. This allows them to offload computing loads that exceed the capacity of on-prem systems and take advantage of cloud speed, flexibility and security.
Hybrid cloud and on-premises systems are increasingly secure. New technologies can help reduce or eliminate security threats to utilities’ data, applications and infrastructure. Public cloud services leverage advanced security technology and practices that safeguard data against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, malware, hackers, unauthorized access or use, and many other constantly changing cybersecurity threats. Some of the nation’s most sensitive applications and data reside in these hybrid cloud environments.
Access To New Insights And Essential Information
Visibility and situational awareness are critical components of grid modernization. Advanced analytics are essential to grid visibility and predictability. The insights necessary for managing today’s distribution grid are impossible to obtain without vast computing capacity and scale.
Today’s cloud computing infrastructure is also essential for the development of new data-intensive applications and analytics processes, which are increasingly necessary as the demand on our grid increases. Utilities that utilize cloud computing can gain insights that help to optimize their operations, reduce downtime and safety incidents, and improve the customer experience. They can use new applications and data-intensive processes to further increase performance and reliability.
What Utilities Should Know Before Getting Started
Utilities should consider starting with a hybrid model when considering a move to cloud computing. Moving compute-intensive processes to the cloud, such as big-data analytics and machine learning, is a good starting point. Integration of on-premise data and cloud computing resources gives utilities access to analytics with AI while keeping sensitive data behind the firewall. The result is the best of both worlds. Hybrid models provide the flexibility to migrate to cloud computing at a pace that suits the needs of the organization while minimizing the risk of disruption to operations.
Since security is a major concern for utilities, it’s critical that security operations professionals are involved in adopting cloud computing resources. The good news is that cloud computing is designed with the highest levels of security built in. Cloud providers are required to adhere to strict security standards, including compliance with various industry regulations such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) standards. Cloud providers also have teams of security experts who are responsible for maintaining security, identifying vulnerabilities and mitigating risks.
Recommended Steps For Cloud Adoption
Adopting cloud computing can seem daunting to utilities with long histories of on-premises computing models. Working with our cloud computing partner, here are five key phases of cloud adoption we see across our client base to help make the journey easier.
1. Conduct a readiness assessment.
During this stage, a cross-functional team of business operations and IT will assess the implications of cloud deployment of essential production applications. Many utilities work with experts from their chosen cloud computing provider, or from a large consulting organization to assist with this assessment.
2. Define your cloud migration project.
Gather data to fully understand which computing functions can be offloaded to cloud infrastructure without compromising business policies or services. Consider starting with a hybrid model. There may be specific functions that can be deployed in the cloud to help the organization transform and adapt to the cloud model. This phase requires acquiring general knowledge about cloud computing architectures, security, new IT operations, and the benefits and advantages to be expected.
3. Build a cloud-computing foundation.
Establish security and compliance models, deploy the initial framework and build a nonproduction environment. Establish training for IT staff and move one to three groups of non-production applications to the cloud to test and learn.
4. Set a plan for migration.
In this stage, the utility will plan long-term cloud operations and define key roles within the organization to manage sensitive data and applications in the cloud. Establish a core team of cloud experts that comprise multidisciplinary members to drive cloud adoption across the organization. With the operations protocols and the team in place, it’s time to migrate production applications to the cloud.
5. Standard Cloud Operations
At this stage, the cloud becomes the default computing environment for production applications. Cloud deployment may be hybrid (reserving some data and operations on-premises) or cloud-native, where most applications are built for and migrated to cloud infrastructure.
Final Thoughts
The road to cloud computing may be challenging, but the benefits are well worth it for the utilities and the customers they serve. Sentient Energy does not sell cloud computing services, however, we recognize the benefits of it for our utility partners. There are many excellent resources available to utilities to help them chart their cloud transformation journey.
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