Digital CENTLEC. It may eventually be possible for a distribution utility to do everything that it needs to do on the public internet provided that it is ubiquitously available throughout. If it’s not, it should be the starting point for CENTLEC’s technology plan to enable a successful business strategy. Put differently, the internet is impossible without electricity, however soon a modern, intelligent grid will be impossible without the Internet. That means CENTLEC if it still wants to be around 10 to 20 years from now, CENTLEC must transform itself to a digital enterprise. The latter should not be misinterpreted to mean a website, but rather transformation into a virtual enterprise. This means being able to do any of our business activities online better than in person. It means being on social media in a big way, being bigger in the cyberspace than in the physical world from an after sales, marketing and communication point of view. The EDI’s new competitors will come into existence as digital enterprises, not constrained by the need to overcome an incumbent, non-digital business structure and culture. There is no way our bricks and mortar culture will be able to compete successfully with a digital one. For CENTLEC becoming digital is non-negotiable, because a modern, intelligent grid will be a digital grid. Information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) are expanding and merging. The modern distribution grid is a convergence of the electric grid with the Internet of Things. To stay competitive, CENTLEC MUST transform into a fully digital enterprise. Only digital enterprises will be able to operate 24/7/365 with the optionality, customization and responsiveness that customers are already accustomed through the internet of things.
