OREANDA-NEWS. Helping utilities turn meter data into actionable intelligence, GE’s Digital Energy business (NYSE: GE) has introduced its Grid IQTM Insight - Advanced Meter Insight. The solution aids utility operators in prioritizing, validating and making cost-effective business decisions by analyzing data from numerous systems, increasing the value of their meter data by driving new cost efficiencies. The grid analytics solution was announced today at DistribuTECH 2014, the utility industry’s leading annual transmission and distribution event. GE is displaying a variety of its grid management solutions on-site at DistribuTECH at booth #1949.

GE’s Grid IQ Insight - Advanced Meter Insight—part of the company’s broader Grid IQ Insight portfolio of analytics solutions—provides utilities with advanced analytics on the performance of their meters and related systems, delivering value to utility managers. The software solution allows utility operators to conduct complex analyses and solve data-intensive utility problems in the control room, at their desks or in the field.

“GE’s new solution provides utilities with the tools they need to optimize their grid performance and to access the full spectrum of data that it produces. The software is capable of analyzing data from various utility systems—including advanced metering infrastructure networks, customer information, meter data management, outage management, distribution management and geospatial information systems—providing utility operators with crucial insight into the functionality of their grids,” said Mike Carlson, general manager—software solutions, GE’s Digital Energy business. “Grid IQ Insight is a GE Predictivity™-powered solution and is built on GE’s Predix software platform for the Industrial Internet, which captures, organizes and secures data, optimizing it for real-time, large-scale analytics and asset management across operational silos.”

Grid IQ Insight – Advanced Meter Insight addresses the trend of grid modernization across global utilities. To improve the efficiency and reliability of their operations, many utilities have rolled out large deployments of smart meters across their service territories. This increase in advanced metering infrastructure has led to an influx of available grid data that can become overwhelming and increasingly more difficult to manage as the data continue to pile up. GE’s grid management solutions, such as its Grid IQ Insight - Advanced Meter Insight, help utilities decipher what data can be utilized to improve their grid systems and enhance their business results.

Using advanced metering infrastructure and network model data, GE’s Grid IQ Insight - Advanced Meter Insight enables a utility to make cost-effective decisions about preventative maintenance to its grid and about the management of assets such as transformers, regulators and other distribution infrastructure. The solution provides utilities with the analytical insight needed to identify and minimize equipment issues, momentary outages and sustained outages. It covers more than 75 advanced analytics functions, providing an in-depth look at four major grid management areas, including:

Meter Health­—minimizes meter installation errors and malfunctions, greatly reducing revenue losses associated with outages and errors. The solution also streamlines workflow with its intuitive and role-based dashboards for groupings of meter events.
Power Quality and Reliability—equips a utility with analytics technology, providing insight on its grid performance and electrical load and helping a utility to make cost-effective decisions for preventative maintenance and asset management. Grid IQ Insight - Advanced Meter Insight enables utilities to identify and minimize equipment issues, temporary outages and sustained outages.
Revenue Protection—enables utilities to identify revenue lost due to theft, meter installation errors and meter malfunctions, assisting utilities to identify lost revenue more accurately than customer information systems and meter data management systems, which can produce a high number of false positives. For example, GE’s Grid IQ Insight - Advanced Meter Insight can reduce the theft identification process from an average of 30 days to one day.
Load Research and Forecasting—optimizes expenses to balance supply and demand of electricity with accurate, timely and granular load forecasts that segment and predict customer loads. By researching load profiles, a utility can align energy efficiency programs with optimal candidates.
Built on a secure, reliable and easy-to-use platform, GE’s Grid IQ Insight - Advanced Meter Insight enables utilities to expand their analytic capabilities and improve the functionality and reliability of their grids. The software brings together GE’s vast expertise in the electrical distribution industry and its extensive set of utility analytics solutions and services to provide a comprehensive grid management platform.