DISTRIBUTECH 2024: Ulteig’s PathFinder Leads the Way in Smart Technology Investments
Three-quarters of energy utilities are betting on AI to transform operations, but governance challenges threaten to derail their investments
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Key takeaways
Three-quarters of energy utilities are betting on AI to transform operations, but governance challenges threaten to derail their investments
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The utility industry is witnessing a transformative shift towards harnessing technology to enhance efficiency and offer value beyond conventional services. A recent study unveiled at DISTRIBUTECH 2024, the industry's energy transmission and distribution show, revealed that 74% of energy and utility companies are adopting or exploring AI to improve data management and operational efficiency. The research, conducted by IBM, highlighted the role of AI in addressing industry challenges, particularly in HR, talent acquisition, and AI governance.
Amidst this backdrop, the introduction of PathFinder, a SaaS solution by Ulteig, marks a significant milestone. PathFinder empowers utility companies to make technology investments driven by data-backed decision-making, addressing complex challenges such as substation security. To delve deeper into how strategic corporate initiatives are shaping the future of utilities, MarketScale spoke to Eliz Giardino, the Associate Director of Corporate Strategy at Ulteig, whose insights offer a glimpse into the innovative approaches driving industry transformation.
Eliz's Thoughts
"We're definitely seeing a shift with the utilization of technology within utilities, specifically for a lot of different varying reasons. I mean, the demand right now for human capital is quite high. Utilities need to do more with less and additionally, determine ways that they can provide additional value to their customers aside from traditional electricity. So with that, coming up with various solutions that provide them internal efficiencies specific to data, leveraging data as much as possible. Historically, data has been a really big challenge within the industry and the ability to not only collect historical data, synthesize the data and drive the ability to make better, informed decisions, not just for internal productivity purposes, but also being able to really predict various trends to stay ahead of."
Historically, data has been a really big challenge within the industry and the ability to not only collect historical data, synthesize the data and drive the ability to make better, informed decisions, not just for internal productivity purposes, but also being able to really predict various trends to stay ahead of.
— Eliz Giardino, Associate Director of Corporate Strategy at Ulteig
Advancements in DER and Strategic Solutions
"Another big area that we're seeing across the board is within DER specifically. So automating those interconnection points specific to DER is a really big area right now that a lot of different companies are really focusing on from a technology perspective. So I would say within the data and DER interconnection points are some of the top areas. So from Ulteig's perspective, we are ultimately trying to do everything that we can in order to provide our clients with more value in the service offerings that we provide. So one of the big products that we have right now is called PathFinder. It's a SaaS solution that really empowers our clients to utilize data-backed decision-making in order to invest in various technology investments."
Enhancing Efficiency and Decision-Making
"So specific to utilities, we know that there are a lot of different topics of various use cases of problem areas within the industry where technology investments can really assist our clients with coming up with ways to evolve and stay ahead of those issues, such as substation security is one, for example. And what we've done is taken all of our historical expertise, our Ulteig expertise, turn that into data that is built into the backend of the technology and allows our clients to very simply, by answering various questions, provide recommendations on different technology investments in order to save, evolve their decision-making, which also helps with the issues that I just talked about.
Investing in the technology really provides them internal efficiency. So the teams or individuals that might be difficult to find these days can really be evolved with utilization of smart applications like this."
Investing in the technology really provides them internal efficiency. So the teams or individuals that might be difficult to find these days can really be evolved with utilization of smart applications like this.
— Eliz Giardino, Associate Director of Corporate Strategy at Ulteig
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About the author
Daniel Litwin is a journalist of multiple disciplines focused on finding and telling engaging stories for B2B communities. He has interviewed executives from Fortune 500 companies including Honeywell, Microsoft, John Deere, and Chipotle, and leads editorial direction at MarketScale. Litwin hosts weekly shows and podcasts while helping develop new content approaches across the MarketScale platform. He holds a B.J. in Radio/Television Reporting/Anchoring and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
