A new research report and corresponding interactive infographic released by Zpryme, an Austin-based market research agency, explores how utilities can digitally modernize their customer service, grid operations, business model, and IT systems to meet the challenges facing the industry. At the core of the paper is a digital maturity curve that will help utilities identify where they are and how to move through the stages of digitization, digitalization to ultimately become an integrated enterprise where crucial business data can be analyzed, shared, and acted on in real time. Zpryme surveyed 150 utility industry professionals to understand where utilities are in the process of digital modernization, and their future plan to integrate data, upgrade critical infrastructure and develop a customer-centric business model.

"Building the 21st Century Digital Grid" found that there is a broad consensus that digital modernization is crucial for the industry to meet challenges related to changing customer demands, technological disruption, and a new regulatory framework. 91% of respondents report that embracing digital technology is crucial to the future success of their utilities. Furthermore, utilities have been working on this modernization for most of the last decade, and 76% of utilities expect to be able to align digital strategy with regulatory policy and fill key digital roles in their enterprise. However, only 23% of utilities have reached a level of digital maturity where they are making capital expenditure decisions based on predictive analytics.

"This paper really shows the progression from data to actionable intelligence," said Gary Rackliffe, ABB Vice President, Smart Grids and Grid Modernization. "Utilities already collect a tremendous amount of data, but they are still in the early stages of applying it. This research offers some insight about where utilities are focused on developing their digital maturity."

The digital maturity curve is a vision and framework for how utilities can effectively modernize to meet regulatory and business challenges. The report examines what a utility will look like as it becomes more advanced. Ultimately, a digital utility will be customer-centric, resilient, automated, and hyper-connected with collaboration between AI and human processes. Digital utilities will tackle the business challenges of aging infrastructure, regulatory shifts, distributed energy resources and the convergence of Information Technology and Operations Technology (IT/OT).

"The past decade has seen substantial investment in grid modernization; however, our research shows that further digital advancement is crucial for utilities to drive operational, financial, and customer success. Zpryme's research partnership with ABB has enabled us to effectively gather concrete insights into how utilities are working to modernize their business model and explore the power they will have to transform the grid into the future," said Zpryme Senior Content Manager, Christopher Moyer.

Zpryme | zpryme.com