By Satish Saini, HEXstream industry specialist  

You’ve probably seen headlines such as this one— “Explosive’ demand growth puts more than half of North America at risk of blackouts”—alerting us to storm clouds gathering on our collective energy horizon.  

This news is true. It is troubling. But it might also spur a turning point.  

Our transmission and distribution grid, infrastructure and assets are aging. If we don’t update these systems, we will be unable to meet the growing demand referenced in this article.  

In short, we must put additional resources in our grids and operating systems, and there are three components to this:  

1. Adding new infrastructure where it is needed. 

2. Upgrading existing infrastructure that requires it—think rotting wooden power poles.  

3. Adopting new automation technologies so that our existing systems can operate more efficiently.  

Data analytics is central to all of this, both real-time data from assets and historical data, which holds tremendous value for guiding strategic decisions moving forward. Smart data informs how we prioritize our efforts and allocate funds properly.  

And while headlines like the one above are troubling, this news can also be cause for optimism. In the past decade we’ve seen tremendous developments with R&D related to energy technologies and resources, resulting in new approaches to energy platforms , which help utilities become more efficient with their existing assets and fully capitalize on new resources, new devices and new programs.  

To put it frankly, our accelerated demand for energy can accelerate our smart strategies for distributing it.  

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