The smart grid is evolving at a rapid pace around the world. From advance metering infrastructure deployments to sub station automation the concept of the “Smart Grid” is becoming a reality. The underline technology behind the smart grid is evolving such as cellular based communication as the industry is learning from early deployments of the technology.  However are the utilities ready for such rapid changes?   This article examines the key change management challenges the utilities face as they enter into the smart grid maze and makes comparison with the challenges building management systems faced as it transformed from analog systems to fully networked, integrated, web-based systems.

                              Figure 1: Changing paradigm of the utilities industry

The utility industry has been a old slow growth industry since Thomas Edison invented the electric bulb. A vertical hierarchy governs the industry, with high resistance to change. The primary aim is to maintain power on the grid and prevent outages. As long as this objective is achieved it is business as usual. This culture has instilled a resistance to change behavior in the industry. “We know power, don’t tell us what to do”.  With such attitude, utilities are facing a major challenge of adapting to the concept of the smart grid due to its dynamic nature and ever shifting environment. The concept of information technology communication (ICT) managing the grid is becoming cultural shock for people who have been in the industry for long period.

Let’s rewind a decade and examine the transformation of the BAS industry from a stand lone proprietary system to fully networked open systems. The prime aim of the BAS was maintain the temperature of a facility at a desired level to prevent complaints from its stakeholders. As long as the users are satisfied with the temperature, the facility manager completed key maintenance activities and it was business as usual.  Enter the world of open systems; integration with networks, IT systems, web base systems and new open protocols. As with the current utilities, for the typical facility, the changes pushed away from their comfort zone.  The resistance to change was evident from the start, “It's too complicated” “Why do we need all this technology, we only want to control temperature” “We don’t want to integrate BAS with corporate IT”. These were common symptoms of resistance to change.

How did BAS overcome these roadblocks?  Time was a critical factor. As the industry evolved continual knowledge empowerment on the technology was instilled on the stakeholders injecting more confidence. Continual means of educating and transferring knowledge became a common agenda with conferences around the world.  The process for screening for staff also changed with BAS employing personel with IT backgrounds rather than just purely on control systems. BAS has now begun to share the benefits of an open and integrated system with its stakeholders by exposing key data of a facility to its stakeholders. Dashboards vendors have sprouted into the market over the last two years with significant impact on the ultimate goal.

[an error occurred while processing this directive] What can utilities learn from BAS to ride the wave of the smart grid and implement a change management process to adjust to the dynamic industry?

• Time: As with any major technological change, time is a key for stakeholders to learn from, make mistakes, and enlighten with the benefits. A clear example is in the BAS industry and how it has endorsed the open protocol evolution. Over a decade we have seen open protocols mature to the stage where almost every specification for BAS clearly states the communication medium must the open.
  

• Education: Educating the stakeholders is a key for them to embracing new technology. In the power industry it's not poles and wires any more, as it integrates with information technology and telecommunication industries. Continual education of stakeholders with training programs, exposure to the technology to make them aware of benefits of the technology is a key to changing the industry behavior. The 9 am start 5 pm knock off culture of the utility industry must be changed as the grid evolves. It has transformed from managing wires and poles to managing a large complex 24/7 network that needs to be operational 99.9% of time.
  

• Requirements: As with any new technology defining clear requirements is a difficult task. The functional specification of the technology is not clear to decision makers and ever evolving. The smart grid fits into this category with ever changing products. Therefore management of requirements is critical to prevent over blown budgets.  The smart grid vendor implement its product to theory, the decision makers define a theoretical requirement but in reality the requirement and feature are some where from the reality. Then the vendors implement the feature again to fit to the reality, becoming a cyclic process. This is great but the costs increase rapidly.  For example turning electricity supply on or off to household to a vendor is a simple implementation where when the ‘on’ command is received the relay contactor is closed or when the ‘off’ command is received the relay contactor is opened. Simple! Not quite. What happens if there is a person in the house who has a heart condition and has a heart monitor which requires 24/7 electricity supply? What happens if someone is in the middle of cooking? What happens if the remote off command does not on turn off the supply? Therefore life safety factors, convenience to the consumer and fault case scenario need to be developed to facilitate all stakeholders of the technology.
  

• Fastest not the best: As utilities around the world gear up to the smart grid evolution, it is always tempting to the business to use the latest technology in rapid deployment time as a showcase. However it is critical that utilities choose the correct technology to its requirement and build a stable underlying infrastructure before any rapid mass deployment. It is important with any major issues that root causes are identified and resolved, rather than bandaging the issue, before moving to the next phase. There will be immense time pressures from investors of the smart grid project but methodological troubleshooting mechanisms will save immense money in the long term.
  

• Vendor verification: Don’t assume what the vendor says is correct; verify and validate.  The smart grid products are in early stages and most of the developers are from an information technology or telecommunication background. The functional specifications to the products are developed from theory of the power industry; hence in reality the functions do not align with what is required in the real world. Therefore the utilities must validate the functionality of the product before deployment.  A clear example in the BAS industry is where every vendor claims it has an OPEN protocol based product. But what is OPEN? It needs to be validated and verified to uncover the truth.
  

• Plan for the future:  A goal of any smart grid deployment is to clearly plan for the future.  In the worst case, in the BAS industry it is possible to remove a system from a building and install a new system with bearable costs. However in the utility industry where it is serving millions of homes, planning the future is key its success. Once the underlying infrastructure is in place, there is no going back. Therefore decision makers need to choose the technology that will server for the next 100 years. For example when choosing a platform for advance metering infrastructure, there are two major communication mediums available in the market today; mesh or cellular. Is a mesh network with a million nodes a viable solution in another 25 years? Can it with stand the demands? The mesh technology might seem visible today compared to  cellular but a power of the cellular communication must be highly considered for the future. The utilities must leverage existing infrastructure with current expansion in the telecommunication market with 3G, 4G, LTE etc… technology.  Why reinvent the wheel?
  

The utilities are inundated with various technology choices. It must change the current cultural behaviors to embrace the technology and learn from mistakes to deliver a smart grid that is viable to its investors. 
 

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