Big Data & Big Brother

The mountain of data generated by smart gas and electric meters is a mixed blessing, according to speakers at a Dec. 4 California Public Utilities Commission Thought Leaders meeting.

Huge amounts of data on energy use can reveal a range of valuable patterns, such as data on energy savings and appliance efficiency, but storing, packaging and properly analyzing it, including identifying faulty or missing data, are big tasks. Other major challenges with the intimate data are privacy protections and transparency.

The goal of government in this age of big data is to “assure safety, reliability and affordability” as the state moves towards a clean energy paradigm, said Sue Kately, Assembly Utilities & Commerce Committee consultant and the panel moderator.

The panel of speakers, which included financial consultants and utility representatives, stressed that one of the advantages of properly evaluated “big data” is the ability to track the long-term transformation of the energy market. That creates, according to Anne Arquit Niederberger, Enervee vice president of market development, “the ability to begin innovating with dynamic programs on the ground.”

The biggest issue, however, is who’s going to pay for warehousing, sorting and analyzing the data.

“Who is willing to step up to the plate and pay for it,” asked Robert Casamento, Deloitte Management Consulting senior director.

Although utilities and energy regulators are grappling with big data from smart meters “the amount is nothing compared to what passes through Twitter every day,” Niederberger pointed out. —Elizabeth McCarthy