N1005 IBM Research: utilities

Analytics helping cities and citizens smartly manage water metering

<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Real-time data on water usage benefits providers and end users</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Editor’s note: This article is by <u><a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=ie-bradley.eck">Bradley Eck</a></u>, IBM Research-Ireland’s Smarter Cities Technology Centre manager in Dublin.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftOGuXArfu269FEnzhnak4m4_XfKe5sd28Zl2C25lvs_VwFXggiGSMFBiOYBlpyMcaQaAStmY5LPIHjo7IpJ4xci5bd0eAtBMBQ-RiGTnbvXgzS0K2uraa05kpz81NLQjhZheu6FkZiE/s1600/bradley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftOGuXArfu269FEnzhnak4m4_XfKe5sd28Zl2C25lvs_VwFXggiGSMFBiOYBlpyMcaQaAStmY5LPIHjo7IpJ4xci5bd0eAtBMBQ-RiGTnbvXgzS0K2uraa05kpz81NLQjhZheu6FkZiE/s1600/bradley.jpg" /></a></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">A faucet that drips just once per second wastes 2,700 gallons of water, annually. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">My<span style="color: black;"> Water and Environment team is developing tools and methodologies, as part of an EU-funded project called </span><u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.i-widget.eu/">iWIDGET</a></span></u>,<span style="color: black;"> to manage urban water demand by reducing waste like leaky taps. </span></span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">iWIDGET links 9 expert </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.i-widget.eu/partners/partner-responsibilities.html">partners</a></span></u><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> together to look at how analytics and smart meters can help cities and their citizens get real-time data on their water and related energy usage – with the aim of improving the management of urban water demand by reducing waste, and improving utilities’ understanding of end-user demand, and ultimately reducing customer water and energy costs. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/images/us__en_us__water__info1__300x170.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/images/us__en_us__water__info1__300x170.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/files/us__en_us__water__water_infographic_031512.pdf">Download Infographic</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">iWIDGET </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">provides householders with easily accessible information that will allow them to make decisions on how to reduce water usage, and thus, their water bills. Plus, as utilities will have better visibility on their customers’ usage, they will be able to more-accurately forecast demand – and send their customers alerts if a leak is suspected. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Building iWidget</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">For our part, my team in Dublin focused on iWIDGET’s system architecture to improve a utility’s planning, operation, and management of real-time sensor data, and developed analytics around the high-resolution consumption data. <span style="color: black;">Not an easy task, as this involves noisy raw data and dozens of third party systems and analytical tools. </span>So, we built an API for the entire system that connects and interfaces with each partner’s components.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyk2B60p89Yp3351YtSTYgoziNAAUPOtRY4Vm73HYRQEuY45gVsLzhAsERn2i38U1hnt4GIONBaM8neVhdGQa9NqwgjfHrO0KJWdnfiKhTflqkTS8U8G-bPev-NWrZyLJSY7_QeP5oLgv/s1600/mobile_app.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyk2B60p89Yp3351YtSTYgoziNAAUPOtRY4Vm73HYRQEuY45gVsLzhAsERn2i38U1hnt4GIONBaM8neVhdGQa9NqwgjfHrO0KJWdnfiKhTflqkTS8U8G-bPev-NWrZyLJSY7_QeP5oLgv/s1600/mobile_app.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">iWidget on the iPhone</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Some of the components can be accessed via mobile applications. Meter Replacement, for example, looks at the history of readings and meter type to determine the best time to replace their meters. Another app focuses on pump scheduling, where real time data from smart meters feed in to a pumping plan that helps reduce energy costs.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">iWIDGET system trials have started in Portugal, Greece and the UK, and will conclude in 2015. The envisaged outcome of the iWIDGET project is increased interoperability between water information systems at the European Union and national levels, and overall improved efficiency of water resource management.<span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">For more information on the project please visit the</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.i-widget.eu/" target="_blank"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #745285;">iWIDGET project website</span></a></span></u><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">, or join our group on</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/FP7-project-iWIDGET-smart-meters-4835109" target="_blank"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #745285;">LinkedIn</span></a></span></u><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">, </span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">or follow</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://twitter.com/iWIDGET_FP7" target="_blank"><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #745285;">@iWIDGET_FP7</span></a></span></u><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">on Twitter.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div>

Analytics helping cities and citizens smartly manage water metering

Real-time data on water usage benefits providers and end users Editor’s note: This article is by Bradley Eck , IBM Research-Ireland’s Smarte...

SERI Predicts Improved Utilities of the Future

9:16 AM N1000 0

<br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Data and analytics hold the key for many global industries facing a future with difficult obstacles and new opportunities. Few industries are facing challenges as significant as those in the energy and utilities field.</span> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Today’s aging energy infrastructure isn’t just being battered by dramatic weather events. Increases in cyber attacks on the grid have skyrocketed – from 2012 to 2013, more than 53 percent of cyber attacks have been on energy installations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXxnmmH02usAjUWnYmRmye2Ntp6FNX7ytgfnbhjvUKyCc_2t00jiUCMVaZ13GLVE4En9gcAZOufUUOZ4zF8vM3_obYsFUOcDbxypKJw1CgfFCRp-6jRLMjscPSSlaufmmnBSnvGSBN_ls/s1600/2014conf_keynote_placeholder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="73" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXxnmmH02usAjUWnYmRmye2Ntp6FNX7ytgfnbhjvUKyCc_2t00jiUCMVaZ13GLVE4En9gcAZOufUUOZ4zF8vM3_obYsFUOcDbxypKJw1CgfFCRp-6jRLMjscPSSlaufmmnBSnvGSBN_ls/s1600/2014conf_keynote_placeholder.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Jonathan Pershing</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">“Energy demand is rising, but supply is dropping … and our aging infrastructure is vulnerable,” said Dr. Jonathon Pershing, the principal deputy director for the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at the US Department of Energy, who keynoted the second annual <a href="http://research.ibm.com/client-programs/seri/index.shtml">Smarter Energy Research Institute</a> Conference at IBM Research, before more than 125 energy and utility experts from companies around the world</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">SERI was formed in 2012 with the goal of bringing together the world’s top energy and utility companies to build the energy utility of the future using data analytics. It pairs IBM’s open analytics toolkit platform of application-specific code with energy and utility companies’ ideas, needs and expertise to develop new software applications that solve their operational problems. At this year’s conference, Institute partners Alliander,<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> Hydro-Québec</span>, DTE Energy and IBM spent two days with representatives from 18 companies from around the world to learn how the big data analytics applications demonstrated at the conference can address these challenges.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin-left: 6.75pt; margin-right: 6.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid white .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid white; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid white; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-overlap: never; mso-table-rspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-top: .1pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"> <tbody><tr style="height: 89.4pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">  <td style="border: solid white 1.0pt; height: 89.4pt; mso-border-alt: solid white .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 139.45pt;" valign="top" width="186"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .1pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">In 2013, the US averaged 140 minutes per   electrical outage, its highest rate in history.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .1pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"> In his keynote Pershing also pointed out that “50 percent of natural gas transmission infrastructure in the US was built between the 1940s-60s … and by 2030 the US will need to invest between $1.5 and $2 trillion in utility improvements.”</span> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">He said this comes at a time when more than 60 percent of those working in this industry are likely to retire in the next decade. As part of Pershing’s role with the DOE, he is leading their <a href="http://energy.gov/seab/secretary-energy-advisory-board-seab-task-force-support-quadrennial-energy-review-process">Quadrennial Energy Review Project</a>, a four year effort to improve the country’s energy production, generation, supply and demand, and entire value chain. And he’ll count on the innovation of groups such as SERI to deliver solutions to these needs. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Predictive Analytics: Energy solutions through smart software</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Every country faces similar energy challenges. DTE Energy, Alliander, and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Hydro-Québec</span> are using software – big data analytics – to better understand and solve these challenges.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">Take weather prediction. Data, and lots of it, is behind the collaborative project Outage Prediction Response Optimization (OPRO) application, led by SERI partner DTE Energy. It is designed to predict weather and potential damage to the grid in order to help the utility optimize resources and prepare its response proactively. OPRO can predict where the storm will hit, down to one kilometer; who it will affect; and even utility service response times.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3ffDUQX8Xfg5qGEffOusXREbL0DYJ2ixH5o1QiKSrQRXzAAAKUPNIGFS8yCWv4xLQo6vj5Xi-OR3Pq_7Jy8PvW_XSWUdUFlccSVC7yzMnVqABQy5iVoDaGaQkPiddlXzD6uGJYHAnynq/s1600/OPRO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3ffDUQX8Xfg5qGEffOusXREbL0DYJ2ixH5o1QiKSrQRXzAAAKUPNIGFS8yCWv4xLQo6vj5Xi-OR3Pq_7Jy8PvW_XSWUdUFlccSVC7yzMnVqABQy5iVoDaGaQkPiddlXzD6uGJYHAnynq/s1600/OPRO.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OPRO screenshot</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">The weather isn’t the only thing utilities need to predict. Grid maintenance costs in the US increased 42 percent between 2011 and 2012. Another DTE Energy-SERI project, Asset Risk Management and Optimized repair-rehab-replace (Armor^3), applies predictive and prescriptive analytics to grid data to quantify and optimize infrastructure maintenances planning for all electrical assets, including transformers, cables, poles, circuits, and more. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;">SERI partners are working on a handful of other applications that, among other things, use data to optimize the management and preservation of energy we depend on from all sources. Energy and utility companies interested in joining SERI can read more about how it’s building the <a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/06/how-analytics-is-powering-utility-solutions.html">utility of the future</a>, and about some of the partners’ projects already <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/client-programs/seri/index.shtml">underway</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4DQaABe8z86GwoR4eTrOnzprIXJox2_yEUtrnLVuvnS9r6elxsfAqW4WTyrELGnHU-TfQ6_Q1AM3hDxMN-UgPLfRURiOR5bTKnj2DnjvYK-_jIhomC9Lcc5XaiOcP4QchxDST1BJFESlR/s1600/Cody_BlogPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4DQaABe8z86GwoR4eTrOnzprIXJox2_yEUtrnLVuvnS9r6elxsfAqW4WTyrELGnHU-TfQ6_Q1AM3hDxMN-UgPLfRURiOR5bTKnj2DnjvYK-_jIhomC9Lcc5XaiOcP4QchxDST1BJFESlR/s1600/Cody_BlogPhoto.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i>This article is by </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i>Cody Frankel</i></span></span>, a senior at the University of Rhode Island's Harrington School and intern with IBM Research Marketing and Communications.</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div>

energy SERI smarter energy research Institute utilities SERI Predicts Improved Utilities of the Future

Data and analytics hold the key for many global industries facing a future with difficult obstacles and new opportunities. Few industries ar...