Big Data Analytics and the Electric Utility Industry

Big Data Analytics (BDA) has recently seen a significant increase in its application as a powerful tool in supplementing and transforming existing business practices across a variety of industries. The electric utility industry has the potential to utilize BDA due to the large amounts of data the electric utility control centers receive. The data typically streams into the control centers in the form of measurements-analog and status. Some measurements come in every 2-6 sec via SCADA or through newer technology such as phasor measurement units (PMUs), which can produce data at a rate of 30-120 samples per second. The challenge for system operators is to absorb, process and then make precise operational decisions based on these large datasets. There is ample opportunity to utilize BDA to improve situational awareness and ensure system operators are making reliable data driven decisions. This paper provides very useful information to this subject and its application to the electric utility industry.