Many utilities are transitioning from strictly “metering-oriented suppliers” of gas, water, and electricity to “customer-oriented full-service providers” with a diverse variety of services ranging from e-mobility and smart home solutions to fast data connections for private houses and even Industry 4.0.

Meeting the needs of the above industry requirements needed a modern IT infrastructure, ideally in the cloud in whole or in part, dynamically deployable applications, and seamless connectivity. Most utilities cannot make a complete transition to the cloud at this time, owing to the lack of a comprehensive, native cloud solution.

Time to know more about how the Utilities Industry can drive its pace of digital transformation with RISE with SAP’s business transformation as a service!

Let’s begin by unveiling the strategic priorities;

Strategic Priorities for the Utilities Industry:

• Drive operational excellence
• Support regulatory compliance and security
• Explore new revenue streams
• Build customer intimacy

This writing details the benefits of focusing on Regulatory Compliance and Security for the Utilities Industry.

What does Regulatory Compliance and Security for the Utilities Industry mean?

Many laws, compliance, and sustainability standards must be met during the lifespan of a utility asset, such as a substation, a power plant, or a gas pipeline. This begins with strong engagement of authorities throughout asset design and construction and extends with license and work clearance requirements throughout asset operation and decommissioning – financial and sustainability regulations must be fulfilled.

SAP enterprise asset management solutions support the whole asset lifecycle as well as the ISO 55000 Asset Management standard. This allows for digital planning and maintenance operations as well as real-time access to all asset-related data, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, safety, and security.

What impact does Regulatory Compliance and Security create for the Utilities Industry?

In order to analyze the impact created let us give brainstorm two different scenarios and finally identify the one with more efficiency;

Scenario:

Let’s assume that a project portfolio manager of a gas distribution organization is assigned with the task of identifying the possibilities of accidents and prioritizing them with the recent information gathered from project details and project managers. Now let’s list out the steps involved and their pros and cons in the version of existing industry’s best practices and next-gen practices to identify the best one:

Industry Best Practice: 

• The project portfolio manager prepares projects utilizing standardized and aggregated information, as well as manual distribution of project burden, equipment, and replacement parts.
• Portfolio managers must factor in the new security and environmental goals when assessing current projects. They must identify high-priority opportunities to improve target delivery.
• The portfolio manager must contact many stakeholders and gather information in order to get insights into prospective scenarios.
• Project managers are assigned by the portfolio manager. They track the project managers’ actions with an assistant during regular conversations to receive the most recent updates.
• Before communicating project portfolio updates to the board and regulator, the portfolio manager needs some time to process and formulate the pieces of information gathered.

Next-Gen Practice:

• Project portfolio managers plan projects by highly-coupled integrated project and maintenance systems for entirely digital workload, equipment, replacement parts, and logistical services.
• The portfolio manager incorporates the new security and sustainability criteria into the project rating to identify chances for improvement.
• Based on geographical data, they assess a variety of scenarios to understand pipeline materials, sensitive locations, and traffic. This aids in the adjustment and optimization of project planning.
• The portfolio managers detail the financial and capacity requirements, as well as the estimated leakage reduction, for each scenario. As a result, during the next portfolio review meeting, the projects may be budgeted, scheduled, and authorized.
• The initiatives included in the enhanced security program have been approved for execution. Project managers are tasked with initiating planning and overseeing project implementation. Portfolio managers can promptly see project delays and their influence on other projects.

After looking into the scenarios, hope your answer is to choose the Next-Gen Practices to drive operational excellence for your industry. Now let’s look into the tools offered by SAP to Regulatory Compliance and Security;

Intelligent tools of SAP for Regulatory Compliance and Security in the Utilities Industry: 

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud for projects, and project collaboration – for working with authorities and other stakeholders during the planning and construction phases.
• SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management – for all utility project planning and management.
• SAP S/4HANA – an asset management system that supports the ISO 55000 standard.
• SAP Asset Performance Management – to evaluate asset risk.
• SAP EHS Management– tool for standardizing health and safety management procedures.
• SAP Cloud for Energy– a solution for open and secure energy data management
• SAP Market Communication for Utilities – for safe, dependable, and robust data exchange process support
• SAP S/4HANA Utilities solution – for meter-to-cash procedures that are compatible

Benefits offered to Utilities Industry by Regulatory Compliance and Security: 

• Capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) initiatives should be optimized. Maintain adherence to market norms and flows.
• Maintain maintenance safety in hazardous areas.
• Incorporated market communication mechanisms enable rapid and accurate regulatory compliance support.
• Utilize scheduling and load management systems to control energy amounts across the value chain.
• Handling work permits while keeping employee accreditation, site specifics, safety standards, and scheduled activities in mind.
• Automatic master data development and changeover procedure in accordance with the regulatory framework.
• Algorithms for machine learning to verify and enhance metered data.
• A solid structure simplifies and accelerates the deployment of market messaging.
• The ability to run immediate and accurate billing.

Outcome-Driven Values:

• When compared to firms with low PPM maturity, companies with high PPM maturity reduce canceled projects by 8%.
• Reduced avoidable events by 52% after using the SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management (SAP EHS Management) application
• With the adoption of SAP EHS Management, employee involvement in safety initiatives increased by 104 %.

To conclude, RISE with SAP can accelerate the pace of digital transformation and your transition to green energy, optimize the environmental impact, increase asset utilization, reduce waste, build sustainable products, and increase compliance.  The SAP S/4HANA digital core and improved business analytic tools offer game-changing capabilities for utilities as they strive for more business agility, greater customer-centricity, and new business models and revenue streams.

Own your tomorrow with a guided journey and outcome-driven practices of RISE with SAP, to know more about the industry-specific solution, do get in touch with us!