NYPA Progressing Toward Becoming a Digital Utility

We’ve all been hearing about the so-called digital utility for years, but up until this point it has been more fantasy than reality.  But now, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), which generates approximately 20% of the state’s electricity, is nearly ready to stake its claim as the nation’s first all-digital utility.

How NYPA is Transforming into an All-Digital Utility

The goal of digitization is to make utilities more resilient, as well as more efficient during outage restoration activities.  In New York, this is largely being driven by Governor Cuomo’s “Reforming the Energy Vision” initiative, a component of the NYPA 2020 strategic plan.

The latest NYPA initiative toward achieving this goal was the recent deployment of 100 sensors at its Moses-Niagara Power Plant, which are designed to monitor life expectancy of key components to proactively plan for replacement activity, and to proactively identify and address problems and/or maintenance issues in real time so that personnel can be efficiently deployed in a way that prevents equipment failures.

The company has deployed similar sensor technologies in other facilities as well.  The sensors feed into the company’s Integrated Smart Operations Center in White Plains, which provides a bird-eye view of all systems and facilities.

I applaud the NYPA for taking steps to become the nation’s first all digital utility.  My hope is that the company is so successful in this regard that it ultimately becomes as a benchmark for other utility digitization efforts.  This would be beneficial for everyone, especially the emergency restoration decision makers who are under increasing scrutiny to meet or exceed rising customer and regulatory expectations.