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The DISTRIBUTECH+ Series brings together the energy community through live content, networking and engaging virtual experiences for those looking for perspective and discussion on current and future issues affecting the transmission and distribution markets.
Begin experiencing DISTRIBUTECH+ by clicking on any of the previous series listed below:
September 2021 Series: Resiliency and Asset Management
July 2021 Series: EVs, Smart Cities and DERMs
May 2021 Series: Distribution Automation and Outage Management
March 2021 Series: Digitalization and Data Analytics
January 2021 Series: Grid Modernization and Energy Storage
December 2020 Series: Cybersecurity and Digital Grids
November 2020 Series: Grid Resiliency – Planning and Response
October 2020 Series: Renewables, Energy Storage and How Utilities are Preparing for a Sustainable Future
September 2020 Series: Utility of the Future
Want access to the upcoming content? Join the DISTRIBUTECH+ community to watch future sessions live and engage with your peers.
September 2021 Series: Resiliency and Asset Management
AMI for Resiliency
Key Takeaways:
- AMI’s role in a more resilient grid
- How AMI has evolved over the past decade
- Methods for maximizing AMI investments
Using Artificial Intelligence for Asset Management
Key Takeaways:
- How AI/machine learning can be applied to help electric utilities improve reliability and manage assets
- The benefits of utilizing an AI solution for asset management
- Use cases for ULC’s AI-driven Asset Identification and Mapping (AIM) solution
Outage Management – Using AI to Drive Vegetation Management and Outage Prediction Insights
Key Takeaways:
- How weather and climate affects every business in the world.
- How leading companies are now turning weather insights into a competitive advantage.
- How the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS) uses AI, weather data, and business operations insight to address sustainability, resiliency, and climate change challenges.
Battery Storage for Energy Resilience
Key Takeaways:
- The market and outlook for energy storage
- How different customer segments are implementing battery storage
- The role energy storage plays in resiliency planning and prep
Visibility Without Vulnerability: Strategies for Secure OT Monitoring
Key Takeaways:
- How the IT/OT boundary is evolving.
- Why centralized monitoring is essential. How to transfer more data without taking on more risk.
Driving Grid Modernization through Data Transformation
Key Takeaways:
- A strategic focus on data transformation building data trust, data centricity and data analytics will support Grid Modernization journey.
- Data trust will focus on data governance and quality; centricity will focus on building better solutions for accessing data between systems and reducing dependencies to chunk deliverables in proper proportions; data analytics will drive decisions to accelerate value from the available data.
Strategic Undergrounding: A Panel Discussion
Key Takeaways:
- How to determine which areas in your service territory would be good for undergrounding What constitutes a successful undergrounding project
- Why communication is key for undergrounding
July 2021 Series: EVs, Smart Cities and DERMs
Full Speed Ahead: Enabling Future Fleet and Highway Electrification
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss potential long-term, system impacts from fleet and highway electrification
- Discuss how states and utilities are currently addressing fleet and highway needs
- Discuss what future solutions (including potential transmission or distribution infrastructure) might accelerate electrification progress
Demand-Side Electrification Forum: Synchronizing Investments & Policies
Key Takeaways:
- We will explore the business frameworks utilities should consider as policies, timelines, and investments that affect critical adoption on the demand side need to align in a roundtable discussion format
Increasing Smart Utility Deployments through Collaboration
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss innovations in wireless connectivity and IoT to transform utility services, infrastructure, and management today
- Discuss active use cases and how the wireless industry is coming together to enable our connected communities for a safer, more resilient tomorrow
Cybersecurity Strategies for Highly Interconnected Devices, Sensors and Cloud Analytics
Key Takeaways:
- Where to look for vulnerabilities. Our expert panelists will describe how interconnected systems can create security and reliability risks, and how to identify potential problem areas.
- How DHS recommendations fit in. The Department of Homeland Security continues to issue new cybersecurity guidance for critical infrastructure systems. We’ll look at the current DHS recommendations for power generation, transmission and distribution, and what we can expect in future updates.
- Why hardware is stronger than software. Software-based security solutions have proven to be highly vulnerable to attack, and new exploits are being developed every day. We’ll discuss how hardware-based cybersecurity provides stronger, more reliable protection.
Beyond the Plug: How Automotive OEMs are Changing the Scope for Utility EV Programs
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss a path forward for scalable integration of multiple different OEMs into the utility grid, leveraging the EPRI-led Open Vehicle Grid Integration Platform (OVGIP), which includes the OpenADR protocols for automating distributed energy resource integration into the grid
Adoption of Electric Vehicles into Utility Operational Landscape: A Use Case for Vehicle to Grid (V2G) in Grid Management Systems using IEEE 2030.5
Key Takeaways:
- Vehicle to Grid (V2G) capabilities, particularly for electric buses, are closer to reality than you may think and can be used as a generation resources for suppling other loads.
- EV charging stations, advanced inverters and other grid edge technologies present unique opportunities to utilities for electrical supply/demand management.
- The IEEE 2030.5 protocol is gaining widespread adoption and is uniquely suited to integrating DER, including EV, to utility systems.
- Actively managing DER requires tackling challenges related to modeling, communications, cyber security, registration and operations workflows.
May 2021 Series: Distribution Automation and Outage Management
Combining Accurate Fault Location with Advanced Mechanical Sensing for Fast and Informed Outage Response
Key Takeaways:
This discussion will focus on the application of a new overhead line sensor metrology for the purposes of:
- Faster electrical fault response time
- Detection of physical risks to overhead lines
- Improving SAIFI/SAIDI statistics
- Outage Prevention through the identification of weak spots (asset deterioration) and assess likelihood of breakdown (combining with weather forecast and heuristic statistics) to enable predictive maintenance
- Optimal use of grid capacity for DER (renewables, EV and storage) integration
Preparing for the Storm Season with IT Readiness Testing
Key Takeaways:
- How an end-to-end availably and performance tests of the critical IT and OT applications and interfaces can ensure key systems and business processes will remain functional during storm conditions.
Enabling Cyber-Secure Connectivity and Regulatory Compliance for Distribution Automation
Key Takeaways:
- Hardware-based cybersecurity and why it is so much better than software-only solutions
- How better cybersecurity can be achieved while still easily sharing data outside the plant
- The use cases for securely transferring data from the grid to the cloud, remote monitoring facilities, 3rd parties, NOCs, SOCs, or any other entity that requires access to operational data WITHOUT posing a threat to the network
The Outsized Role of Technology and Data for Managing Outages
Key Takeaways:
Watch this webinar to:
- Learn how data aggregation can be used to get a complete out picture of an outage
- Understand AMI’s role in recovering from a large-scale outage—from reporting to restoral communications
- Learn how maintaining an accurate GIS model is critical to efficient outage management
The Next Evolution in Improving Reliability Indices – Single Phase Automation
Key Takeaways:
- Learn how Single Phase FLISR works.
- Understand how to determine if this is the right solution for your system.
- Identify the next steps on implementing Single Phase FLISR on your system.
Real-Time Remote Monitoring of Distressed and Damaged Assets
Key Takeaways:
- Insights on the importance of grid resiliency
- Challenges to utilities posed by natural disasters
- How to be best prepared to avoid outages and respond rapidly by leveraging next-generation grid-hardening technologies.
Smart, Fast, and Powerful – A Data-Driven Approach to OMS
Key Takeaways:
- An overview of the foundation Survalent built over the past 7 years to bring their vision of a data-driven OMS to life,
- A roadmap for the coming years to further extend use of the system.
Going Digital: Opportunities & Challenges for the Next Generation of Distribution Substations
Key Takeaways:
- Learn about the opportunities that substation digitization provides
- Discover how integration of the protection & control in the digital substation architecture can unlock new business value
- Explore how enabling technologies and modern communications protocols (such as IEC 61850 & IEC 61869-9/13) are helping to lay the foundation for the next generation of distribution substations
Transforming T&D Operations with DroneDeploy: What You Need to Know
Key Takeaways:
- Key use cases for drone insights for transmission & distribution
- How to optimize your communication with teams
- Managing your entire portfolio with drone data
Building a Modern DMS with Centralized Volt/Var Optimization and Control
Key Takeaways:
- How one utility replaced its in-house built distributed capacitor control system with an integrated volt-var control system (IVVC) built on a modern, centralized DMS platform
- Successes, challenges and operational benefits with this type of implementation
- Lessons learned from building and operating a centralized IVVC system
Applying Edge Computing to Distribution Automation: A Fault Restoration Example
Key Takeaways:
- What is edge computing and how it provides benefits to the utility distribution grid
- Application examples including distribution automation, overall grid management, advanced analytics, DER monitoring and control and asset management
- How the next generation of distribution automation and grid management solutions will provide strong distributed intelligence platforms
March 2021 Series: Digitalization and Data Analytics
Extending Data for Utilities
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss ways utilities can better leverage the data they are already collecting to optimize their operations and processes
- Learn how data from IEDs is being consolidated in a single platform to improve operational efficiency
Advancements in Spatial Data and Communication Systems for Utilities
Key Takeaways:
Discuss what new solutions utilities and stakeholders have implemented to:
- Save time
- Increase productivity
- Help deliver better customer service
Opportunity vs Security: Strategies for Harnessing Your Data While Protecting Your OT Network
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss the critical importance of hardware-enforced cybersecurity
- Learn from common use cases, recent implementations, and emerging technologies in the field
Obtaining Real Business Benefits from Data and AI in Utility Operations
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss how utilities are using data analytics and AI in operations
- Where utilities are prioritizing the application of data to operational processes and data sources for this work
How Utilities Are Using Artificial Intelligence for Greater Insight and Improved Decision-making
Key Takeaways:
- The different ways these utilities have implemented AI
- The information these utilities have gleaned from their data
- The lessons these utilities have learned in the process
Integration of Digital Platforms at a Major Utility: Unlocking New Opportunities
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss the key priorities for implementing Asset Performance Management solutions to reduce the risk of unforeseen asset failures
Modernizing Utility IT with SAP and Intel
Key Takeaways:
- How SAP and Intel’s latest technology enables utilities to capture rich and accurate data
- How this technology uses AI to analyze data
- How SAP and Intel are expanding capabilities and streamlining processes
Data Governance for Utilities Today
Key Takeaways:
- How utilities are keeping their systems fresh, accurate and up-to-date
- Learn what works and what doesn’t when it comes to data strategies for today’s enterprise solutions
Mitigating Threats and Strengthening the Grid with AI-based Inspection Programs
Key Takeaways:
- Alternatives to traditional approaches for Asset Management that are not necessarily efficient or optimal all the time, leading to costly O&M investments
- How utilities that adopt new solutions will see improvements in reliability, safety, costs and service
Becoming a Digital Utility
Key Takeaways:
- How utilities are working toward digitalization of their operations
- Benefits of digitalization within the utility sector
Advantages of Visual Based AI-Powered Asset Management for Utilities
Key Takeaways:
- How AI and data analytics has evolved in a way that is easy-to-use by gas, water, and electric utilities
- How through further development, AI has the potential for more inspection applications in the future.
Data to Insights – How SAP and Intel Technology are Transforming the Future of Utility Enterprises
Key Takeaways:
- Current trends influencing the Utilities Industry
- How to deliver a portfolio of integrated solutions that enable a utility to better manage asset data, automate workflows, and utilize AI and cloud technologies to help extract intelligence from data sources
January 2021 Series: Grid Modernization and Energy Storage
Energy Storage Utility Case Studies
Key Takeaways:
- How utilities are using energy storage to stabilize their grids
- How to design a utility-sponsored behind-the-meter energy storage program
- How large-scale energy storage can be used for grid balancing
Solve Operational Technology (OT) System Integration Challenges
Key Takeaways:
How to design your OT architecture to:
- Simplify integration
- Futureproof your system
- Mix and match best-in-class applications
Keynote: Doing Innovation Right
Key Takeaways:
- How our definition of ‘innovation’ is shifting
- Just how far ahead we need to think to keep from falling behind
Evaluation of ADMS Applications for Utilities Using NREL’s Testbed
Key Takeaways:
- What is NREL’s ADMS test bed and how utilities are benefitting from it
- ADMS test bed use cases and lessons learned
- New learnings from Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS)
SCE’s Grid Modernization Journey
Key Takeaways:
- How utilities globally have seen significant ROI from their ADMS deployments
- How to partner with GE to accomplish DER orchestration
AMI with Wi-SUN: A Mexico Case Study
Key Takeaways:
- Modernizing utility infrastructure with smart meters
- How to develop a stable, robust and secure AMI network
Strategies and Communication Systems for Grid-edge Modernization
Key Takeaways:
- Strategies for smart inverters along a distribution grid
- The role of grid architecture in grid modernization initiatives
- How sensors can enable distributed control of a distribution system
Collective Adoption of Private LTE Networks
Key Takeaways:
- How embracing this private broadband platform will enjoy a secure, digital and intelligent grid
- How forward-thinking utilities that have invested in private LTE can create a Grid Communications Network Effect
Using Digital Transformation as a Platform for Grid Innovation
Key Takeaways:
- The nebulous “digital transformation” broken down Into practical ideas
- How tech infrastructure and software can be used for more disruptive business growth
December 2020 Series: Cybersecurity and Digital Grids
Establishing a Protocol for Supply Chain Cybersecurity in the Energy Industry
Key Takeaways:
- How the industry should go about identifying at risk equipment and subsequently replacing it
- How to establish a protocol for supply chain cybersecurity in the US.
Protecting Your Utility’s ESP and PSP with a Zero Trust Identity Management System
Key Takeaways:
- How the utility sector can benefit from high assurance Identity and Access Management technology
- How today’s utilities can benefit from the best practices in cyber-physical security
What If Utilities Could Identify, Mitigate, and Recover from a Cyberattack in Minutes instead of Months?
Key Takeaways:
- How to identify cyber intruders much quicker
- How to disrupt an attacker’s cyber kill chain before damage is done
- How to deliver an initial automated cybersecurity capability for cyber defenders and control system operators
Enterprise-wide Solutions for Cybersecurity and IED Management
Key Takeaways:
- ED management challenges
- Synopsys of IEEE 1686 and NERC CIP
- Best practices for centralized access, asset, updates and log management
- Eaton’s role in product cybersecurity and supply chain
Cybersecure Substation Networks – How to Protect Modern Substations Against Cyber-Attacks
Key Takeaways:
- Different attack vectors of a substation
- How to apply the NIST cybersecurity framework in substations
- The challenges and solutions for applying intrusion detection at the substation level
The Maturity of Grid Security in the Age of Digital Transformation
Key Takeaways:
- How technology innovation is affecting Utilities security postures
- Learn about the collaboration between government, infrastructure owners and operators and technology vendors
- Learn the importance of research work to move the industry forward
Best Practices for Ensuring the Cybersecurity of Utility Transmission Grid Assets
Key Takeaways:
- Learn about the increased risk of cyberattacks due to insecure distribution automation equipment and assets
- Learn the overall cybersecurity best practices for distribution utilities and offer methods for identifying and securing the weakest link in the system
Beyond Perimeter Security: Learn How Malware, Zero Day, and Credential Vulnerabilities are Expanding the Utility Threat Matrix
Key Takeaways:
- How hackers think and launch attacks using Malware, Zero Day, and Credential Vulnerabilities
- How you can further secure critical distribution assets
Optimizing Data Privacy and Personalization in the Next Normal
Key Takeaways:
- How to safeguard customer information in the context of cybersecurity
- How utilities are balancing data, privacy, and security in the next normal
- Strategies utilities are leveraging to keep their consumer data safe
Examining Supply Chain Security of Substation Transformers : A focused discussion on the Executive Order
Key Takeaways:
- The potential implications for power utility companies
- How the executive order will change supply chain procurement and BPS monitoring of substation transformers
Corporate Venture – Accelerating Cleantech Innovation
Key Takeaways:
- What solutions are most appealing to corporate venture
- How can cleantech entrepreneurs seek investment while maintaining IP
Utility of the Future: How the Power Sector is Embracing Open Innovation
Key Takeaways:
- What innovation strategies leading power companies and implementing
- How to effectively work with startup companies
November 2020 Series: Grid Resiliency – Planning and Response
Compensating Resiliency: Developing Appropriate Tariffs for Integrating Microgrid Services
Key Takeaways:
- Insight into multi-customer microgrid interconnection and coordination with utilities
- How market, program and/or tariff mechanisms should be considered as a means for qualified microgrids to provide energy and grid services, including resilience, in return for compensation
How New Technology Can Improve Utility Vegetation Management
Key Takeaways:
- How new technology can improve accuracy and lower costs for utilities everywhere
- Discover key takeaways from a utility on the forefront of award-winning integrated vegetation management.
Wildland Fire Risk: A Quantitative Risk-based Framework for Asset Health Assessment of Overhead Lines
Key Takeaways:
- Discussion on an innovative, quantitative risk-based framework recently incorporated by PG&E
- How to better assess the performance of individual overhead power transmission assets during high wind events
Rolling with the Punches: Workforce Resiliency in the Face of Disasters and Pandemics
Key Takeaways:
- How to quickly respond to weather, climate, and other disasters
- How to provide a healthy and safe environment for your workers
Modernizing for Reliability: One Utility’s Story
Key Takeaways:
- What motivates a utility to overhaul an existing distribution automation scheme that has proven successful over the course of 20+ years
- What roadblocks must be overcome in order to implement an enhanced fiber-based distribution automation scheme
- Secondary benefits to the grid provided by enhancing a utility’s distribution automation scheme with fiber optic communication
Enabling Utilities’ Next Generation of Small, Low-Power Cellular Devices
Key Takeaways:
- Telit’s IoT-as-a-service concept leverages new miniature, low-power modules
- How AT&T’s FirstNet would work for utilities in emergencies
- What the next generation of devices is bringing to the utility sector
Quantifying and Evaluating Storm Resilience and Disaster Preparedness
Key Takeaways:
- Different approaches that utilities are taking toward resiliency
- How data and sophisticated algorithms can be employed to develop resilience hardening projects
- Best practices that can be used to increase all-hazard response capabilities.
Power Up Vegetation Management and Outage Prediction to Increase the Resilience of Your Grid
Key Takeaways:
- How new and maturing information technologies can help Utilities revamp their vegetation practices and mitigate weather-related risks
- How to reduce widespread and potentially longer-lasting power interruptions, as well as improve the odds of successful outcomes
Keynote: Mitigation after the California Fires
Key Takeaways:
- Discuss utility and vendor efforts associated with the aftermath of recent historic fires in the west
- How can utilities be better prepared in the event of a wildfire in their service territory
Keynote: Electrifying Energy: What “Sustainably Fueling the Future” Means for Grid Resilience
Key Takeaways:
- How grid resilience underpins the IBM vision for “Electrifying Energy”
- Learn about a global movement that supports decarbonization of large portions of the economy through clean electrification
October 2020 Series: Renewables, Energy Storage and How Utilities are Preparing for a Sustainable Future
How Smart Utilities are Using IoT to Enable Smart Cities and Plan for a Sustainable Future
Key Takeaways:
- Drivers of smart city initiatives and the essential role played by infrastructure and tech
- Action plans that converge the utility’s evolutionary path with that of their cities
- Roadmap to drive the change needed to meet the smart cities challenge
Keynote: The Road Ahead for Energy Storage
Key Takeaways:
- Learn how the path ahead is paved with opportunities for stakeholders
Modular Energy Management Solutions Increase EV Charging Capacity While Mitigating Grid Impact
Key Takeaways:
- How to solve the challenge of increased EV charging demand
- How to start the transition to electric
- Key considerations in deploying an energy storage system
An Overview and Analysis of DER Management Software Technologies including DERMS, VPP Management Systems and DER Analytics
Key Takeaways:
- Analysis of the market for DER management software technologies
- Enable current and prospective electric utility solutions and service providers to understand the drivers for projected demand
Best Practices for Distributed Solar and Storage Programs and Interconnections
Key Takeaways:
- Best practices to more efficiently interconnect systems
- Utility approaches to community solar
- How utilities can partner with vendors to facilitate new revenue streams
September 2020 Series: Utility of the Future
Smart City Initiatives and their Partner Utilities
Key Takeaways:
- How city and utility planners are working together to make their regions safer, smarter, cleaner and easier to navigate.
- How these partnerships between the planners have evolve
- How these partnerships could benefit a community near you
Carbon Reduction in an Uncertain World
Key Takeaways:
- Hear how utility executives are approaching carbon reduction in an uncertain world
Keynote: Sparking Change: The E-Mobility Revolution
Key Takeaways:
- The various ways in which e-mobility is set to take off
- How utilities can best prepare for the charging needs of EVs
Innovative Solutions for Engaging Customers
Key Takeaways:
- How one utility is approaching customer engagement today
- How utilities can use data that they already have to increase engagement and better serve their customers.
COVID-19’s Impact on U.S. Consumers – and How Utilities Can Support Them
Key Takeaways:
- Insights into consumers’ capacity to pay bills – especially Utility bills – and their priority among all financial obligations
- Consumers’ experiences seeking – and receiving – accommodations such as payment holidays, deferments, and forbearances, across all financial obligations
- Techniques Utilities can use to mitigate risk, despite the drastic shifts in consumer credit data triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic
- Considerations for Utility service providers regarding account management, including how to help customers get back on track with monthly payment
A Big-Picture Look at the Needs and Wants of Today’s Energy Consumers in the US and Canada
Key Takeaways:
- How to better understand today’s energy consumers
- How to develop programs and services to effectively meet consumer needs
Keynote: Driving Innovation for the Interconnected Utility
Key Takeaways:
- How to pursue the 3 “D”s – digitalization, decentralization, and decarbonization
- How to include the two “I”s – innovation and interconnection
- How to unlock the benefits of affordable, reliable energy for all
