Figure: Quantity of
Global Data (Exabytes = 10 to the power of 21 bytes)
Analytics consists of complex algorithms run against streams of big data in order to
infer actionable business intelligence at an unprecedented pace, often in real time.
Below are top five reasons why we need to apply business intelligence in energy/utility
market and why now:
1. Business Intelligence can help
utility industries to remove
inefficiencies
o Enough energy is lost
annually to power 1/4th of
the world.
o For natural gas-fired power
generation, a 1% fuel
savings would have a
value over 15 years of $66
billion.
Figure:
Energy - Utility Market
o A 2010 McKinsey & Company study concluded that a holistic energyefficiency program could
produce energy savings
worth more than $1.2 trillion,
reducing end-use
consumption in 2020 by 9.1
quadrillion BTUs (British
thermal units) and
eliminating up to 1.1
gigatons of greenhouse gas
every year.
Figure: CO2 Emissions
2. The grid getting older and getting replaced by smart grid
o We will have tons of data available to analyze and take action.
3. Smart meter will become mainstream.
o Smart meter has expanded data footprint. Instead of getting data once
every month, now it will be available once every 15 minutes or 96 times a
day or 3000 times a month
o If smart meters were incorporated across the U.S., they would generate
five times the data of the current AT&T network.
4. Energy mix Solar, Wind: Different sources have entered into the traditional
energy market
o Better demand and supply prediction is needed.
o Wind and Solar energy is unpredictable. How can we incorporate data
analytics to predict weather/consumption and thus plan production
o Battery technology/ storage is improving and thus providing tremendous
opportunity to use greener sources for production
5. Consumer now a days wants more insight and control
o Customer wants to know more about consumption and savings.
o Companies can push targeted offering to customer.
Bibliography:
1: IBM website: Bringing big data to the enterprise; downloaded on July 2nd
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/what-is-big-data.html
2: SiliconANGLE An independent media company; News article named Wikibon
predicts Big Data market to top $61B in 2020 ; downloaded on July7th
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/04/02/wikibon-predicts-big-data-market-to-top-61b-in2020/
3: Engineering and Technology Magazine; Volume 9 - Issue 1; Article on How