View all smarter energy solutions
Grid operations for energy and utilities
Everyday issues for grid management
Utilities around the globe are faced with pressures on several fronts: to improve reliability, efficiency, customer satisfaction and utilisation of assets; to reduce outages; to avoid new infrastructure construction; and to address environmental conservation. At the same time, a growing number of alternatives are emerging, including wind and solar power, customers who want to be involved in managing their own energy affairs, the emergence of electric vehicles, energy storage and microgrids, which bring additional challenges.
Improve operations and asset management
The grid operations offerings for energy and utilities are part of the IBM® Intelligent Utility Network Solution. With our ecosystem of IBM Business Partners, we can help utility clients like you realise your next-generation network operations systems, and re-engineer and automate processes across the utility enterprise.
We provide the grid sensing capabilities, communications networks, IT infrastructure hardware and software, systems and cyber security, and help ensure integration under a common architecture. We also provide analytics and optimisation software tools and services to help you gain more intelligence and business improvements from the wealth of information that is becoming available to utilities through smarter grid investments across the enterprise.
Finally, we provide the needed business and technical services to enable the above, including project development, systems integration, project management office, vendor selection, testing, security, communications networks, change management, training and application support.
Increased performance and understanding
The grid operations offerings can help your enterprise:
- Manage project development risk.
- Improve network operations performance.
- Reduce outages and outage response times.
- Provide a standards-based information management infrastructure.
- Incorporate analytics and optimisation capabilities.
- Enhance business processes and reduce operating costs.
- Increase utilisation and management of asset life cycles.
- Improve regulatory compliance and reporting procedures.
Enhance operational and analytical capabilities
The grid operations offerings include:
- Grid management systems integration with utility operations and business processes — enable information access for business and operations intelligence.
- Outage and work management ― automate outage processes from detection to resolution, enabling information access for business and operations intelligence.
- Remote asset/device monitoring and life-cycle management ― remote monitoring systems for field assets and smart devices, their integration with grid operations and enterprise asset management, and their life-cycle management.
- Reporting and regulatory compliance ― document, compliance and reporting management systems to comply with and automate government mandated reporting and compliance regulations.
- Informed decision making ― analytics and optimisation software toolset and services enable the transformation of data into integrated and trusted information to drive improved performance across the utility.
- Cyber security ― a unique combination of cutting-edge technology and proven security expertise to build a proactive, integrated approach to managing cyber security risks, costs and regulatory compliance.
- Communications networks ― assessment and development of a utility-wide voice and data communications strategy to enable information exchange across all the components of a smart grid.