CLASS OF 2016
WORLD-GENERATION FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016
18
WORLD-GEN: PLEASE EXPLAIN VERIZON’S
NEW IOT PLATFORM,“GRID WIDE UTILITY
SOLUTIONS.”HOW MANY METERS ARE WE
TALKING ABOUT?
Jay Olearain:
Commercially launched
in July of 2015, Verizon’s Internet of Things
(IoT) platform service offers utility compa-
nies an easy, secure and reliable on-ramp to
grid modernization. Specifically, Verizon’s
Grid Wide Utility Solutions offers an inte-
grated as-a-service solution for smart
metering, demand response, meter data
management and distribution monitoring
and control. With an estimated market of
147 million electric meters and 330 mil-
lion water and gas meters in service in
the U.S. today, the opportunity for intelli-
gent solutions and services in the utilities
market is enormous.
WORLD-GEN: ARE YOU INTERESTED IN ALL
THE UTILITIES, IOU’S, MUNI’S, CO-OPS?
HOW DOES IT HELPTHEM?
Jay Olearain:
By rolling out Grid Wide,
Verizon is aiming to transform the delivery
and consumption of energy nationwide for
investor-owned, cooperative and municipal
utilities and their customers. Designed to
leverage the benefits of smart meters and
distribution monitoring and control, the
solution comes equipped with a wide range
of cloud-based applications intended to help
utility companies improve operational reli-
ability and reduce costs as well as increase
efficiency, drive incremental revenue and
improve customer experience.
WORLD-GEN: HOW DOES ‘GRID WIDE’WORK?
Jay Olearain:
In addition to the tradition-
al smart metering and Advanced Meeting
Infrastructure (AMI)/Meter Data
Management (MDM) services and functional-
ity, Grid Wide provides a wide array of addi-
tional capabilities to support secure and reli-
able grid modernization efforts. For example,
when a power outage occurs, the smart meter
communication card leverages Verizon’s 4G
LTE high speed signaling channel to notify
the utility of an outage via the Grid Wide plat-
form. The utilities can then pinpoint each out-
age at an exact address and can see if it’s one
person that’s affected or if it’s a widespread
outage. And they know exactly where to send
crews to restore power.
Another Grid Wide feature that can
help save time and money is the ability to
remotely disconnect and connect service.
For example, utilities no longer have to
send out a truck and worker to manually
switch off the electricity at a house or
apartment if someone is moving. With Grid
Wide, they can do this remotely, through
the hosted application, across the LTE net-
work, right to the meter — it takes about
10 seconds to kill the service and elimi-
nates two truck rolls.
WORLD-GEN: PLEASE DEFINE“SMART
ENERGY AS A SERVICE?”
Jay Olearain:
What is really game
changing about our Grid Wide technology
is that we have created it as an as-a-service
model. We are offering a solution that
doesn’t necessarily require a large capital
budget so that utilities can consume these
services as they need them. By purchasing
this as-a-service model, utilities don’t have
to swap out the entire meter population;
instead, they can immediately begin to
solve for problem areas such as hard meter
reads, power quality monitoring and exist-
ing AMI stranded meter fill-in on a per-
month, per-meter cost basis.
WORLD-GEN: WHAT SHOULD
ORGANIZATIONSTHAT ARE INTRODUCING
SMART GRID INITIATIVES CONSIDER WHEN
IT COMESTO SECURITY?
Jay Olearain:
Securing the smart grid
must go beyond brand reputation to issues
of public safety. As grid modernization proj-
ects are adopted, the significance of inte-
grating a fail proof cybersecurity program
from the inception cannot be overstated.
The energy and utilities sector handles
large amounts of proprietary customer data
including social security numbers, birth
dates, bank account details and credit card
numbers. This data, when combined with
the critical mandate to protect national
infrastructure from external threats, rein-
forces the imperative for organizations to
double down on security measures.
Vulnerability to cyberthreats grows as
an increase in systems results in more
potential entry routes to customer data.
This is especially true as energy and utili-
ties companies roll out web-based solutions
such as online billing and IoT devices such
as smart meters to deliver efficiencies and
enhance the customer experience.
Therefore, managing risk while disrupting
traditional business models must go hand
in hand.
Organizations must understand the
security risks and implement plans and sys-
tems to safeguard all devices, sensors and
things connected to their networks. The
goal is to help maintain a safe environment
for customer information while also helping
protect public safety.
WORLD-GEN: WHAT DOESTHE ROAD MAP
FOR GRID WIDE LOOK LIKE AHEAD?
Jay Olearain:
We have a detailed road
map of enhancements to support other
electric, gas and water meter manufactur-
ers that we will be introducing in the com-
ing months.
Jay Olearain is Director of Internet of
Things for the Energy and Utility verticals
working in Verizon’s Product and New
Business Innovation organization.
JAY OLEARAIN
Director of Business Development,
Energy and Utilities
Verizon
