Asia-Pacific utilities improve in sp group’s 2019 smart grid index

Utilities in Asia-Pacific nations made significant improvements in the 2019 Smart Grid Index (SGI) rankings with an overall improvement by 10 percentage points from 2018. Improvements were most notable in areas of integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), security, and customer empowerment and satisfaction. The SGI is the world’s first industry framework that measures and benchmarks grid smartness across 75 utilities from 35 countries. Here are the key findings from the 2019 results:

• Asia-Pacific utilities have made significant improvements in DER integration, security and customer empowerment and satisfaction. This reflects the increasing importance of enhancing renewable energy penetration into the grid, cyber security defence and a greater focus on customer satisfaction.
• State Grid Beijing was the most improved utility in this year’s results, increasing its score by 29 percentage points – from 50 per cent in 2018 to 79 per cent in 2019. Ranked #9 on the SGI, it made significant improvements in the areas of data analytics, DER integration and security. Key contributions include its first large grid-connected energy storage system, use of predictive analytics for Asset Health Index, adoption of the National Cyber Security Protocol and providing real-time energy consumption monitoring to customers.

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North American utilities continue to lead in smart grid development. As a region, they improved by 8 percentage points in data analytics. This can be attributed to increasing smart meter coverage and wider data analytics application to their grid system. It makes planning, operating and maintaining the network more efficient, thereby providing better value to customers.
• Globally, there is increasing focus on security, which on average increased by more than 13 percentage points. This comes on the back of greater emphasis on strengthening against cyber security threats to utilities.
• SP Group, ranked 33, scoring 66 per cent this year, an improvement of 16 percentage points from its 2018 score, mainly in the areas of green energy, data analytics and customer empowerment and satisfaction.

SP Group developed the SGI last year to advance its own grid development and encourage the sharing of best practices. The SGI benchmarking results identify best practices in smart grid development by utilities to enhance service offerings, save cost, and be more sustainable.