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Results of an Oracle Utilities survey released this morning show that electric utilities in Canada and the US are only in the early stages of putting smart meter data good use. But they could be doing a better job of using the data they are collecting. The survey was of 151 utility executives in Canada and the United States. The study, Utility Transformations - Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Plans and Preparedness for the Data Deluge, shows that utilities on both sides of the 49th Parallel are collecting significantly more interval data from smart meters. The frequency at which they are gathering smart meter data is 180 times more than in the past - every four hours compared to once a month. And the vast majority of them are collecting information such as outage and voltage data. Linda Jackman, group VP of industry strategy for Oracle Utilities, tells Canadian Green Tech in an interview that despite the improvement on the data collection front, utilities aren't using the data as effective as they could be. She was surprised to find utilities collecting certain types of data, but then not using that data to inform business decisions. According to the results, 78% of utilities surveyed are collecting outage data with 59% of them using, meaning nearly 20% aren't correlating outage data with customer communications as an example. For voltage data, the levels are 73% and 57%, respectively. "In outage and voltage data, the fact that everybody is not collecting that data, I think is surprising. You've rolled out a smart meter and you're not collecting outage data when it has the ability to talk to you around outage data? Why am I not collecting it? But then only 60% of them are using it once they have collected it, I think is also surprising," says Jackman. "So what we're seeing is that utilities are still in this very early stage and very formative stage of collecting the data but actually don't know what [they're] going to do with

The October issue of Utility Products includes the following bylined article by Oracle Utilities' Linda Jackman the benefits utilities can gain from mobile workforce (MWM) technologies. The article notes that although smart meter deployment is perhaps the most complex and daunting undertaking a utility can pursue, by automating scheduling, dispatch and vehicle location tasks, MWM can ease the burden. The article also notes that MWM replaces inefficient manual processes with a transparent integrated system that reduces operational costs while increasing customer satisfaction.

The Aug. 15 edition of GreenTechMedia includes the following article discussing the future of the smart grid. The article highlights smart grid expert Andres Carvallo's presentation from The Soft Grid 2012 conference, and notes his comments regarding utilities' adoption of cloud computing and the utility "big data" challenge. The article mentions that Austin Energy is working on with Oracle on an IT-based project. The article also includes a comment from Oracle Utilities' Linda Jackman noting that utilities have their own reasons to keep as much of their IT work in-house as possible, but investor-owned utilities in particular are under pressure to spend on IT capital expenses, which they can recover in rate cases, rather than on operational expenses like cloud services that do not offer such guaranteed payback.

Highlighting that Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.3.1, running with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2, processed an unprecedented 16,500 bills per minute or 993,240 bills per hour. The article notes that in tests, a typical night's billing run for a utility with one million customers-47,600 bills- was processed in 2.87 minutes. The article also includes comments from Linda Jackman, group vice president of industry strategy noting that this benchmark demonstrates that Oracle software and hardware systems-engineered to work together, and available today-can process routine customer bills in a fraction of the time traditionally used by most utilities.

Highlighting that Oracle announced that Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0.1, running with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2, processed 1 billion meter reads per hour. The release also notes that Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management running on Oracle Exadata helps utilities process data at unprecedented rates -- turning data into real intelligence that improves operational efficiency across every department while enabling utilities to provide their customers with information that helps them monitor and manage their energy and water use. The release includes comments from Linda Jackman, group vice president of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities noting that Oracle hardware and software can process the huge volumes of data arriving from interval reads and ensure the usability of the data to produce the accurate, timely bills customers expect.

Highlighting that Oracle's recent testing has demonstrated that the Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0.1 system, running in tandem with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2, can successfully process 1 billion meter reads per hour. The article notes that the test used data from 5.5 million smart meters measuring consumption in 15-minute intervals. The article also includes comments from Linda Jackman, group vice president of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities noting that the test assures utilities that Oracle hardware and software - engineered to work together, and available today - can process the huge volumes of data arriving from interval reads and ensure the usability of the data to produce the accurate, timely bills customers expect.

Highlighting the performance of Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0.1, running with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2. The article notes that running Oracle's utilities meter data management software through its database machine and cloud platform processed the equivalent of four consumption measurements per hour coming from 250 million advanced energy meters. The article also includes comments from Linda Jackman, group vice president of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities noting that new utilities technologies are bringing with them huge increases in data volumes and residential smart meters alone will increase the consumption data processed for billing purposes from 12 meter reads per year to 35,000 or more.

Highlighting that Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing 2.3.1, running with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2, processed an unprecedented 16,500 bills per minute or 993,240 bills per hour. The release notes that in tests, a typical night's billing run for a utility with one million customers-47,600 bills- was processed in 2.87 minutes. The release also includes comments from Linda Jackman, group vice president of industry strategy noting that this benchmark demonstrates that Oracle software and hardware systems-engineered to work together, and available today-can process routine customer bills in a fraction of the time traditionally used by most utilities.

Highlighting the most discussed topics at DistriubuTECH 2011. The article includes comments from Linda Jackman, vice president of product strategy and management, Oracle Utilities regarding unstructured analytics. The article also includes comments from

Highlighting that Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0.1, running with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2 and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2 processed 1 billion meter reads per hour. The article notes that Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management also responded to 19.3 million requests for bill determinants per hour. The article also includes comments from Linda Jackman, group vice president of Industry Strategy of Oracle Utilities noting that the testing assured utilities that Oracle hardware and software can process the huge volumes of data arriving from interval reads and ensure the usability of the data to produce the accurate, timely bills customers expect.