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| MAY 2023 | UTILITY WEEK
Pan-utility
Event
Conquering complexity:
utilities' digital challenge
Can utilities overcome the challenges posed by mounting digital
complexity as they race to build the smart infrastructure of the
future? Industry experts share their views ahead of appearances at
Utility Week Live later this month.
D
igital transformation is the key to
faster, more flexible and efficient utili-
ties businesses. Access to bigger, bet-
ter data can help create more resilient asset
bases, capable of dynamic and efficient oper-
ations, and optimise constrained resources,
resulting in more sustainable operations,
better services for customers, improved prof-
itability, and new routes to market.
But tapping into intelligent infrastructure
and all that rich data brings with it high lev-
els of complexity. Recent research by Utility
Week revealed that, second to the threat of a
serious cyber breach, an inability to manage
an increasingly intricate network of opera-
tional and information-based technologies
is the biggest digital/security risk likely to
impact utilities in the next 5-10 years.
Established players in the energy and
water sectors have extensive legacy assets,
systems and processes, including frag-
mented IT application infrastructures, that
present barriers when scaling up and plan-
ning improvements.
In parallel, new expectations and
demands, such as tackling storm overflows,
leakage, or mobilising for net zero means
rapidly developing capabilities and wrestling
with entirely new systems and ways of work-
ing to boost network control, monitoring and
visibility.
In the absence of a single controlling
mind, cross-sector collaboration is required
to organise and align data standards and
governance, and educate and upskill the
workforce to ensure a consistent approach.
