University of Texas at Austin professor and energy-water nexus expert Michael Webber moderated a discussion on resiliency solutions at Itron Inspire, Oct. 12-16, in Houston, Texas, where utilities explored how digital technologies and integrated planning can help them prepare for disruptions.

Utilities can no longer plan for extreme weather based primarily on the seasons they have traditionally considered most dangerous. As electricity demand grows, infrastructure ages and weather patterns become less predictable, resilience requires a broader view of the systems, technologies and people that keep essential services running.

“Cold climates utilities tend to focus on the winter and hot climate utilities tend to focus on the summer, but they will all need to be ready for every season,” said Michael Webber, the Sid Richardson chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Webber moderated the Big Picture Session, “Resiliency Solutions: Planning Smarter, Responding Faster and Operating Safer,” at Itron Inspire. The session  introduced Itron’s Resiliency Solutions business unit, which includes the recent additions of Urbint and Locusview, and examined how technologies supporting worker safety, damage prevention, emergency preparedness and response, and digital construction management can help utilities strengthen resilience and improve operational efficiency.

The session also featured utility perspectives from Emeka Igwilo, chief data officer at Southern Company Gas, and Monica Karuturi, executive vice president and general counsel at CenterPoint Energy, alongside Itron representatives Matt Crye and Danny Petrecca, both vice presidents of Resiliency Solutions.

Beyond Poles and Wires

Webber's research spans engineering, public policy and commercialization, with a focus on energy systems, grid reliability, electrification and the connections among energy, water, transportation and other essential infrastructure. His experience includes serving as chief science and technology officer at ENGIE from 2018 to 2021 and chief technology officer at Energy Impact Partners, a $5 billion venture fund focused on deep-technology energy startups, from 2021 to 2024.

Demand Growth Creates an Opportunity

The rapid growth of electricity demand presents another challenge for utilities working to maintain reliability while investing in infrastructure improvements. Electrification and expanding loads are increasing pressure on the grid, but Webber sees an opportunity in that growth.

“This is an opportunity!” he said. “The growth in demand helps generate revenues that can be used for investments. It’s much harder to improve the grid with declining demand, but growth in demand should make it more straightforward.”

Turning that opportunity into greater resilience will require utilities to anticipate emerging risks and use available resources effectively. Data and digital technologies can support that effort by helping utilities identify vulnerabilities before they become problems and diagnose failures after they occur.

“Data and digital technologies can help anticipate problems before they emerge and can help forensically diagnose problems after-the-fact to enable faster response times and greater overall reliability,” Webber said.

These capabilities are increasingly important as utilities manage more complex networks and face rising expectations from customers. Investments in reliability are not measured against a fixed standard, Webber noted; customers expect performance to keep improving.

“One key trend that is overlooked is that customers become more demanding as time goes on,” he said. “Last decade’s performance in terms of outages and overall reliability are no longer good enough. That means utilities are racing against a moving benchmark that gets stricter with time.”

Managing a More Distributed Grid

Looking ahead five to 10 years, Webber expects distributed energy resources to play a larger role in how utilities respond to disruptions. Microgrids, generators, batteries, demand response and solar panels can provide additional options when conventional infrastructure is compromised.

“Utilities will have more distributed resources to call upon when disruptions happen (including microgrids, generators, batteries, demand response, solar panels, etc.),” he said. “This is good news.”

However, those resources will also add complexity to utility operations. As the number and variety of assets grow, utilities will need effective ways to monitor their status, understand their capabilities and coordinate their use during an emergency.

“But it also means they have a more complicated network of assets to monitor and potentially manage, which will be difficult,” Webber said.

That tension—more resources to support resilience, but greater complexity in managing them—will remain an important consideration as utilities plan for future disruptions.

At Itron Inspire, Webber's session brough these broader challenges into a practical discussion of resiliency solutions and utility experience. The utility panel provided an opportunity to examine how technologies and operational strategies are being applied in the field, connecting the systems-level view of resilience with the day-to-day work of protecting infrastructure, workers and customers.