Informix News: IBM's Big Data For Smart Grid Goes Live In Texas

Highlights

Oncor Electric Delivery...says it is teaming up with IBM on a new data management project designed to give consumers a better look at their electricity usage. The online service works with advanced "smart" meters and other networked devices installed at homes and businesses to provide a nearly real-time monitor of consumption, the companies were set to announce today. The system also gives Oncor automatic alerts on power issues and outages. — Fort Worth Star Telegram

When IBM came on board, Oncor was expanding its project to more than 3 million advanced meters, each of which sends information every 15 minutes to Oncor's offices — a dramatic increase over a traditional electric meter with its monthly readings. The logistics posed a classic big-data challenge. How could Oncor process and store all of that data in a cost-effective way? Oncor needed to upgrade from its relational database management system, which was efficient at managing modest volumes and velocities of data, but was too inefficient for the new smart grid. So Oncor installed IBM's Informix database software to run its smart grid. The new Informix system loaded meter data 20 times faster, and performed queries up to 30 times faster than the system it replaced, IBM claims. In addition, it reduced data storage needs by 70%, an improvement that remained linear over time and therefore allowed Oncor to accurately predict its storage requirements. — InformationWeek

IBM is a giant in smart grid big data, with partners around the world using its IT heft to link up power meters, grid sensors, leak detectors for water networks, and other end devices into the back-end systems that make them run. — Seeking Alpha

IBM and big Dallas-area utility Oncor announced the latest achievement on this long-running relationship - a big data platform that's analyzing Oncorb's 118,000-plus miles of power lines, crunching data from its 3 million or so, smart meters from Landis+Gyr and meter data management software from Ecologic Analytics (both owned by Toshiba), and rolling out the results for both utility operations staff and to customers via the state's smart meter web portal. — GreenTech Media

In its big data initiative with Oncor, the largest electric delivery company in Texas, IBM points to a list of benefits... Oncor now has pinpoint access and insight into billions of data measurement points, from advanced meters and networking devices, to transmission sensors, power lines and generation plants. Many Texas households have noted a 10 percent decrease in energy usage since the implementation. — Smart Grid News

(15 November 2012)