At UTC 2016, utility companies and thought leaders discussed how to tackle many issues impacting IT and telecom initiatives in the water, electric, and gas utility industries. To continue the conversation from the event, I hosted a #CiscoChat on Twitter with Bob Lockhart (@BobLockhartUTC), Eric Ehlers (@egehlers), Peter Granger (@PGrangerCISCO), and Jenny Gomez (@JRGoGreen).
We were joined by many industry analysts and thought leaders to discuss the themes from the event, the challenges facing the industry, and the future of the grid.
If you missed the chat, the full recap is here and I’ll share a few of the highlights:
We kicked off the chat by asking: What themes did you hear at UTC 2016?
Since security was a hot topic at the event, we asked: One big trend is that compliance is not enough to thwart cyber threats- what are your thoughts on this?
We had an insightful discussion when we asked: Where do you think utilities are going in IT/OT Convergence?
We then followed up with the question: What approaches are you seeing companies take when it comes to cyber & physical security in utilities?
We received another rich dialogue when we asked: What’s the future of the grid?
Finally we finished the chat with the question: What’s the value of Digitization for Utilities?
Overall we had an exciting hour of conversation and I encourage you to check out the full chat to see everything we discussed and a funny back and forth with a surprise guest. If there is something you’d like to add or would like to see in our next #CiscoChat, leave me a comment below.
And if you’d like to learn more, we invite you to join us at Utility Day at Cisco Live.
We look forward to seeing you in the next #CiscoChat!
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More Micro-Grid discussions. With the continued retirement of utility executives, I was pleased to hear from several companies more analysis on micro-grids to solve the distributed energy generation and distribution issues. As an example, Green Mountain Power is initiating a policy that requires new solar panel installations to purchase a (powerwall) battery to smooth out the stochastic nature of solar electricity. This joint policy also enables an IT-OT integration.