How digital twin technology powers the future at Xcel Energy

Harnessing the power of the Internet of Things through advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) isn’t new. But capturing the benefits it promises continues to elude utilities today.

Billed as a technology that allows for real-time monitoring of power usage, AMI enables utilities to remotely monitor consumption at the meter level; detect and minimize outages across the grid; and better meet customer, regulator and stakeholder expectations.

It is designed to give consumers and utilities more control over electricity usage and the infrastructure that provides it. But for many utilities, the sheer volume of data points collected through AMI is challenging. Knowing where to focus – and how to integrate data within the existing technology architecture and other enterprise data sets – is key.

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy – one of the nation’s leading utilities powering millions of homes and businesses across eight Western and Midwestern states – built a digital twin platform that transforms its AMI data into actionable intelligence that speeds decision-making, improves service and support to customers and other stakeholders, and creates opportunities for new products and services.

After implementing AMI across its grid, Xcel Energy found itself drowning in data – 6 billion data points generated via AMI every day, similar in scope to the data volumes that giant consumer companies handle.

That data was combined with a significant amount of operational data outside of AMI – data from other sensors, asset location data, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) devices, customer information systems (CIS), geographical information systems (GIS) and more. Together, the information flow was overwhelming.

As part of its largest-ever customer and grid transformation programs, Xcel Energy worked with Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) to identify and implement the technology needed to make sense of this high-velocity and -veracity data set. The multiyear effort included mapping out the technology needed to ingest, store and operationalize data platforms as well as integrating innovative technology with other core systems for decision-making.

Driving meaningful insights and getting to the true value of AMI data to help drive efficiency, augment safety, enhance the customer experience and improve grid visibility was only possible by transforming business processes and modernizing the associated architecture.

EY US helped the utility build an enterprise-wide digital twin that combined emerging technology with new business processes to deliver unique data insights that created new value opportunities – including improved grid monitoring to prevent spiking and outages; better customer satisfaction through enhanced communication; lower operational and capital costs; and rapid access to pinpoint and aggregate data to assist with regulatory reporting.

Xcel Energy’s digital twin – created in collaboration with EY US – integrates fully with the utility’s core systems. It allows for rapid, detailed data mining and enhanced understanding of energy consumption and system operations while increasing real-time transparency and improving regulatory reporting.

Through the digital twin, the utility is evolving its systems and business processes to enhance customer satisfaction, lower operating costs and create new value streams.

For example, distribution operators use the tool for visualizing, planning and managing assets, including advanced meters, transformers and feeders.

That enables the utility’s engineers to identify overloaded transformers, reduce blackouts and monitor voltage irregularities proactively to advance the promise of a highly available, reliable and resilient grid. By proactively using these tools, the utility can save significant dollars compared to the cost of rolling trucks to manage incidents.

By leveraging high-volume AMI data, the grid visibility tool (GVT) supports efficient capital deployment for asset upgrades and addresses grid reliability challenges, particularly rising demand from increased electric vehicle adoption. While similar systems have existed, the digital twin is an unprecedented productivity enhancer, especially in proactive diagnosis.

Increased insights into momentary, sustained and nested outages allows for more rapid response. And maintenance and equipment replacement can be managed more efficiently. For example, Xcel Energy now can quickly identify faulty residential or commercial meters so they can be replaced quickly – helping protect revenue. The ability to send crews to the right place at the right time enhances service and saves significant costs .

Energy demand forecasting is built on this data platform, too, which makes use of statistical modeling to create load forecasts to be used by the utility in its rate cases in regulatory proceedings, leading to the decommissioning of legacy tools that did not perform such analysis with high accuracy .

The initial success of the digital twin – wrangling AMI data into a value-generating tool – is inspiring its use on a broader scale. Today, the enterprise is increasingly becoming stakeholders in its broader implementation.

For example, a regulatory support team used insights to better support regulators in making well-informed decisions. Demand planners now size up the right demand-side management programs and incentives to reduce peak load. Operators can tell when asset thresholds aren’t bypassed. And integrated capital planners can identify assets to improve based on recommendations derived from real data.

Xcel Energy’s first digital avatar proved value by meeting regulatory requirements in less than six months. By embracing a culture of innovation and a product/startup mindset, the utility, working with EY, built out the digital twin platform over time, adding incremental value to both the enterprise and its customers and making the technology work for targeted business outcomes.

The platform model allowed the team to keep development and implementation costs low, while decommissioning legacy systems and scaling up volumes. Today, the digital twin has turned AMI into tangible value across a growing ecosystem of stakeholders:

• The utility itself, through lower costs, improved reliability and enhanced decision-making
• Customers, through improved service, faster response to outages and new products and services
• Regulators, through improved visibility of energy demand data, forecasted needs and utility performance
• Technology vendors, through access to data and trends that can be used to develop “smart home” standards and technologies

The digital twin is also starting to play a key role in modeling and predictive analysis of extreme weather events, such as wildfires or tornadoes. This is a major step forward in preparing for and minimizing the impacts of storms and other natural disasters.

From the simple idea of monetizing enterprise data, Xcel Energy has been able to manage and focus disruptive technology to achieve results far beyond its original objective.

Today, the utility’s digital twin strategy – and the achievements it has unlocked – resemble those of a tech giant rather than a traditional, staid utility. With assistance from EY US, Xcel Energy has captured the benefits of AMI and transformed itself into a modern, digitally powered service provider.