Eloise Young is the chief information officer for Philadelphia Gas Works. She provides insights on the impact that information has on the Utilities industry during her presentation at the Jan 2013 program meeting hosted by BDPA Philadelphia chapter. Here is the .ppt presentation she used during that meeting.

1. BDPA State of the Chapter Meeting
Presented by : Eloise N. Young
PGW VP & CIO
January 16, 2013
IT in the Utilities Industry

2.  Exploration and Production
 Transportation
 Storage
 Distribution
Natural Gas - From Wellhead to Burner Tip
Source:
www.northeastgas.org/aware/images/pipelines.jpg

3. PGW – In Brief
 Largest Municipal LDC in US
 1700 employees
 Customer Base – 503,000
477,000 Residential
26,000 Comm./Indust./PHA/Municipal
503,000 Total Customers
 Revenues ($000) – 2011 - $766,279
$ 749,268 Natural gas revenue
17,011 Other revenue
$ 766,279 Total revenue
 Customer Support Programs
LIHEAP/Crisis – 79,000 Grants
City & State Grants – 1,150
Customer Assistance (CRP) – 76,235
Conservation Workshops
- 2,700 Homes/Year
-50 Weatherization
Senior Citizen Discounts – 42,000
 Customer Services
Gas Delivery – 74.5 Bcf (Firm & Transportation)
Parts & Labor Ins. Plan (PLP) – 57,822
Mission Statement
A financially viable enterprise providing safe, reliable gas service.
Vision Statement
Industry leader in customer service and operational excellence.

4. IT Spend as a Percent of Revenue
2.8%Utilities

5. Business Challenges
• Safety and Reliability
• High Availability (24 x 7)
• Cyber security
• Customer Satisfaction
• Operational Excellence
• Consumerization
• Aging Workforce – looming retirements
• Funding

6. Customer Systems
Field
Technologies
From Smart Meters to Smart Phones
Technology Designed to Meet Business Challenges
• Billing
• Self-service via web & IVR
• Lien delinquent residential
and commercial customers
• Collections
• Cash Remittance
• Customer Choice
• Radios
• Cellular phones
• GPS
• GIS
• AIMS
• Smart phones
• Tablets
• AMI
• SCADA
Infrastructure

7. Field Technologies
Optimize Workers, Service and Assets
Flex Maps
• ArcMap Desktop
• Oracle geodatabase
Telogis OnTrack
• Tracking 526 vehicles
• SAAS
AIMS
• .NET with Oracle
backend; MSMQ
• Custom app
• View/Modify order

8. Mobile Voice Communications
Cellular
• 938 phones (100 iPhones)
• 2012 BYOD program
Radio
FCC mandated move to narrow band by 1/1/2013
Legacy system unreliable
– 20+ years old; no longer manufactured; spares not available
– Investment required to mitigate current system roughly $5.2m
2012 City Radio System
 Backup to current communications
 Able to use in plants and hazardous situations
 Managed by larger, professional City staff
 Potential for future coordination with City emergency agencies

9. Meter Technologies
Advanced Meter Infrastructure
• 2-way communications
• Remote reads, turn-ons, shut offs
• Real time energy usage data for consumer
Automatic Meter Reading
• Drive-by meter reads
Collector
Gas Meter
with ERT

10. Office Systems
Innovation Blog -
Employees submit
suggestions, accumulate
points and are eligible for
cash awards.
Knowledge Center –
Interview soon-to-retire
employees
Metrics –
Monitor and publish
corporate stats