White Paper: Convergence of IT & OT to Build a Successful Smart Grid

Build a successful Smart Grid with IT and OT technologies

Utilities have found that the newest technological advancements can help achieve significant progress towards the requirements of those three drivers. These advancements appear most visible in the areas of communications, sensors, control and protection apparatus, remote operations, near real-time metering, distributed and renewable generation, electric vehicles, demand response management, customer interaction, operations and optimization software applications, and enterprise business intelligence. Some major challenges emerge in this context. The first set of challenges refers to the adoption of these new technologies, which are, for the most part, untested and unproven in the field. The second set of challenges refers to the lack of industry standards, protocols, and operational guidelines that should be required in an industry that has very high requirements for reliability and control.

The final set of challenges refers to the existing gap between technical operations and business decision-making within the utility’s organization. This gap reflects on the business process, information technology infrastructure and integration, workflow consistency, and timely interaction.

The gap is between business applications (IT realm) and operations and control systems (OT realm).