EY UtilityWave

In Power and utilities

Leading a decarbonized, decentralized and digitized energy system requires new tools and a new mindset. EY has worked with Microsoft to build an industry-first platform that is transforming how companies manage, integrate and leverage data from IoT devices to improve performance.

Related topics Energy reimagined Digital Power and utilities Power and utilities - Future of networks

The team

Paul Micallef

Paul Micallef

EY Global Digital Grid Leader

Serge Colle

Serge Colle

EY Global Power & Utilities Leader

What EY can do for you

EY UtilityWave puts your digital network in the palm of your hand

A new energy world demands new capabilities, and utilities must act now to master the changes driven by a rapid energy transition:

  • Distributed generation is accelerating with self-generating power reaching cost parity with grid-delivered electricity in some regions as early as 2021.
  • Electric vehicles (EVs) will make up more than one-quarter of car sales in China and Europe by 2030.
  • Advanced technologies including IoT are proliferating across the energy value chain. By 2022, worldwide IoT spending to surpass the $1 trillion mark.
  • Customers are becoming utilities’ potential competitors in an interconnected energy ecosystem.
  • Regulatory changes are more frequent and less predictable, creating more challenging operating conditions.

EY UtilityWave accelerates the realization of your digital vision by putting control of your entire network in the palm of your hand. It helps to deliver the capabilities needed to tackle the biggest challenges of a digital, dynamic energy system in one business-centric platform that connects multiple legacy systems, new IoT devices and diverse sources of data. With EY UtilityWave, you’ll be supported with broad visibility, unprecedented control and endless opportunities to unlock real value from your data. EY UtilityWave supports utilities to:

  • Plan and improve deployment of devices and drive vendor performance
  • Monitor field devices to immediately identify and resolve issues
  • Collect, store and analyze device and customer data to inform better decisions
  • Track real-time customer usage data to improve satisfaction
  • Monitor overall security health to identify threats and support preventative actions
  • Allow customers more control over their energy usage and accounts

The potential of EY UtilityWave to use data to tackle existing and emerging challenges is endless, and with more digital insight to drive better performance, operational cost savings and new insights, energy companies can play their role in fulfilling the energy transition. 

Why choose EY UtilityWave?

  • World leaders in digital energy solutions: EY organization is the recognized world leader in the delivery of digital energy solutions, with a track record of more than 60 projects spanning the utility digital value chain. We’ve distilled the insights and experience from these projects into EY UtilityWave.
  • Business-led, technology-powered: Your business challenges are at the heart of the solution. By focusing on the root cause of your issues, we’ll tailor technology and help delivery methods that best solve your existing issues and equip you with the critical business capabilities you need to tackle future challenges.
  • Flexible, commercial models: The flexible approach to pricing EY services allows us to meet your needs through a variety of commercial models that can adapt to the unique requirements of your business.
  • Modular services delivered fast: Each EY UtilityWave module can work alone or together — start with one, add more or deploy the entire suite, depending on your own specific requirements. Whatever you choose, we’ll build each module to meet your needs and develop new ones, if required. And, the agile development approach means that you’ll be up and running in just weeks, delivering faster results. 
  • Future-proof and scalable: Built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, the EY UtilityWave platform allows you to add new services, as they’re developed, and leverage the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to support a range of operational functions. 
  • Trusted collaboration with Microsoft: The solutions combine EY industry knowledge and digital transformation capabilities with Microsoft’s world-leading technology and utility-focused Azure cloud architecture, which features IoT Hub, Data Factory, Machine Learning, Cortana Analytics and other tools designed specifically to improve the performance of your digital network.

EY UtilityWave in action: case studies

  • Midwestern US utility: Building better situational awareness

    Mass deployment of assets is one of the most challenging aspects of building a digitalized network with complex vendor landscapes and processes that need to be managed across multiple business functions. When a large Midwestern utility was faced with deploying smart meters to its customers, challenges around vendor management and visibility of deployment performance threatened to impact timelines. EY was tasked with addressing the problem.

    Using EY UtilityWave, EY professionals developed a set of integrated deployment applications that gave the utility unprecedented transparency across the end-to-end deployment process. Through a series of interactive analytics dashboards, EY UtilityWave supported the client by providing deep insight into vendor performance, utilizing AI photographic analysis to evaluate installation safety and identifying latency in device connectivity. This data-driven insight enabled the utility to quickly identify and resolve issues before they impacted deployment timelines.

  • Large West Coast US utility: Providing better understanding of customers and assets

    The rising rate of EVs provides both a challenge and opportunity for utilities as they balance the provision of new services to customers with their core focus of maintaining a stable, resilient network. When a large West Coast utility was facing challenges in understanding the performance and customer usage of its EV infrastructure, EY was tasked with addressing the problem.

    Using EY UtilityWave, EY consolidated critical data from multiple internal and external sources to provide a single integrated view of the client’s EV charging network. EY then worked alongside the client team to develop a series of device monitoring dashboards that allowed the utility to better understand customer charging patterns and track charge station performance. This visibility equipped the client to better serve valued customer segments, as well as inform the design and build-out of future infrastructure.

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