Transforming the digital utility

Future of value

A universe of possibilities lies ahead. On the customer front, the future likely will bring advanced interconnected solutions and self-service. Data science coupled with technologies such as smart meters, for example, can offer new data-driven insights into your customers, their consumption, energy efficiency, and behaviors. Microgeneration and microgrids could change the game for corporate and college campuses, and their power and utility providers. Smart power generation with advanced monitoring and controls, as well as smart transmission and distribution, likely will be widespread in tomorrow’s environment.

The changes ahead bring new complexities and new potential value—and force utilities to up their digital capabilities. Virtual-reality-based training, digital twin assets, mobile work tools, preventive asset maintenance capabilities, and machine intelligence for supporting utility network management. They all will be integral pieces of the digital utility future.

How will you respond? How will you survive—and thrive—in a dynamic digital future?

Becoming a digital utilities organization demands more than adopting or exploring the latest technologies. It requires shifting the way your business operates—to activate a truly digital enterprise that can continuously redefine what it offers and how it delivers. Essential ingredients for transformation include:

	Exponential technology How will you deploy technologies such as blockchain or robotic process automation (RPA)? And how will your digital utility incorporate the Internet of Things (IoT), in-memory computing, analytics and cognitive tools, augmented/virtual-reality capabilities, and wearables to revolutionize business processes?
	Digital mindset Do you know and understand your organization’s digital DNA—the core traits that can help you operate and innovate in the future, such as your ability to collaborate intentionally, “democratize” information, and operate with morphing team structures? Are you looking at talent needs and the future of work through a digital lens—or the same old lens? How will you embed a truly digital mindset and digital work into all your activities and operations—strategic planning, budgeting, process improvement, employee development, mergers and acquisitions, third-party relationships, customer engagement, and beyond?
	Constant experimentation and iteration Tomorrow’s digital utilities will foster innovation by engaging in constant exploration and discovery—with the understanding that innovation often occurs in unproven or unknown domains. What’s your plan for moving forward? How will you incorporate design thinking into your processes? Ultimately, how will your organization become more agile than it is today, and how will it stay agile?

In the news

• Digital transformation in the energy & utilities sector
  Deloitte discusses how digital transformation is reshaping the energy & utilities sector and what facets of the industry are experiencing substantial change