KPMG LLP Smart Grid Data Point of View: Data Key to Unlocking Business Value in Smart Grid Projects: KPMG's Julie Luecht

LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- What do utility executives often overlook when making a smart grid business case: data.  KPMG partner Julie Luecht, an energy consultant in the firm's Los Angeles office, says "leveraging data as a source of value is the key to establishing and realizing a strong smart grid business case."

A unique aspect of smart grid is that infrastructure, such as new meters and grid sensor devices, provides an abundance of potentially useful information that can result in new functional capabilities, enhanced business decision-making, and increased automation, says KPMG's Luecht.

"Data has the potential to be a key transformational driver in helping utilities optimize new opportunities from smart grid investments, with customer experience, utility operations and advanced power management as areas that can benefit," says Luecht, adding that "the challenge for utilities is how to identify and use that information to transform their business."

According to Luecht, the data-driven smart grid approach looks at data proactively rather than letting data needs be driven solely by process and systems requirements.  "This approach complements – but doesn't replace – traditional approaches to large scale business transformations, and demonstrates the value in placing data on equal footing with technology, process and organization," she says.

Luecht says a simple three-step process can help utilities use data to drive value in a smart grid transformation:

• Identify available data: this process focuses on assessing current systems; understanding data capabilities; and identifying new data that's available but either isn't being captured or is captured but not used.
• Assess potential value: this step includes comparing potential data against planned usage and searching for additional opportunities outside the planned solution set and current requirements.
• Develop the transformation: the final step will map the identified opportunities to its enterprise model; identify relevant stakeholders and what the new data elements will mean to them; and design transformational objectives.

About KPMG LLP
KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.kpmg.com/us), is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International.") KPMG International's member firms have 145,000 people, including more than 8,000 partners, in 152 countries.

SOURCE KPMG LLP