Smart Grid

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Smart grid maturity model

Moving from a traditional to a progressive power grid
Electric grids today reflect a time when energy was cheap, their impact on the environment wasn't a priority and consumers weren't even part of the equation. The world is ready for a smarter, more dynamic power grid that can dramatically reduce outages and faults, improve responsiveness, handle current and future demand, increase efficiency and manage costs. IBM helped develop the smart grid maturity model to help you establish a clear path from your traditional grid to a smart grid
 

Advance global deployment and smart grid utilization
This strategic framework can help your company develop business cases and explicit plans to move toward a smart grid infrastructure. It begins with an assessment that determines the current level of maturity for your utility. Next, it helps identify gaps that need to be filled to achieve a smart grid. For example, gaps in strategy development, infrastructure upgrades, system and plant integration, automation and analysis, and the ability to implement emerging technologies.
 

The smart grid maturity model also helps track quantifiable results from the implementation of smart grid initiatives. And it can support investment cases, strategic planning and direction for individual utilities, governments, regulators and industry leaders. The smart grid maturity model helps you define your steps toward a smart grid transformation.
 

Turn advanced analytics into insights
The smart grid maturity model consists of eight domains, or logical groupings of functional components of a smart grid transformation implementation. It can help your utility focus on:

1. Determining your strategy, management and regulatory investment process.
2. Enabling an external strategy and an internal organizational change strategy.
3. Preparing a cohesive technology strategy, including information engineering and integration, operational standards and business analytics tools.
4. Providing a strategy and plan for "green" initiatives, sustainability, and alternative and distributed energy.
5. Empowering grid operations with a core foundation of intelligent grid components.
6. Operating and maintaining assets based on up-to-date, fact-based performance data.
7. Extending automation beyond traditional boundaries with value chain integration.
8. Educating customers to make their own choices regarding their energy usage and cost of energy.

Overview of the smart grid maturity model
The smart grid maturity model defines characteristics that you would expect to see at each stage along your transformation. It uses observable indicators of progress—measurable outcomes that should come with maturity. The five smart grid maturity levels are:

• Level 1—Exploring: The utility is beginning to explore the journey toward a smart grid, and may have a vision but not a clear strategy. At this point, experimentation and evaluation of technologies and building of business cases are key.
• Level 2—Investing: The utility is investing in and implementing at least one of the essential functional areas of smart grid. For some, the priority is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Others may start with demand-side management (DSM) or deployment of a distributed intelligent sensor network for enhanced grid reliability and outage recovery.
• Level 3—Integrating: The components of smart grid begin to be integrated with one another, providing operational linkages between two or more functional areas.
• Level 4—Optimizing: Transformation and optimization of systems enterprise-wide occurs, taking advantage of integrated control across and between utility functions.
• Level 5—Innovating: The enterprise is positioned so when new business, operational, environmental and societal opportunities present themselves, the capability exists to take full advantage of them.

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