I recently read an article about the major challenges electric utilities are facing in 2016, and I thought: "Wow, those challenges can be answered in so many ways..." Utilities are dealing with an onslaught of issues which can no longer be ignored or put off because they're all high priority and interrelated. But you've got to start somewhere, so here are the ones that must be addressed sooner rather than later:

• Aging of infrastructure (the Grid) and security concerns
• New regulations concerning sustainability and distributed generation
• Improving customer interactions and customer satisfaction
• Developing new channels of revenue based on sensor data and the IoT
• Upgrading their own IT infrastructure to meet the demands of big data and their business partners

It's a good thing that analytics can help with all of these issues. As I mentioned in a previous post, analytics are the ultimate renewable resource: Applying analytics can help solve not just these issues, but a whole lot of other utility and energy-related business issues and processes as well.

Stop by the Intel Booth #1055 and the OSIsoft booth #808 at DistribuTECH in Orlando, February 9-10 to learn more about how analytics can help your utility.