Redefining the Future of Electric Power!
The journey of modernizing electric power networks has been marked by both challenges and opportunities, reshaping the industry. With large-scale deployments of sensors and IoT devices introducing larger datasets and expectations for more real-time operations, the electric power industry is undergoing a significant transformation.
In this transformative movement stands key figure Matt Piper. Starting his career as an Electrical Engineer, Matt was instrumental in streamlining legacy workflows and implementing digital transformation strategies.
As a Global Director of Industry Solutions at Esri, his leadership roles lie in managing strategy, innovation, and project delivery teams that have been crucial in the transition of industry towards a modern grid. His insights and expertise have been instrumental in navigating the complexities of managing and operating an Electric Power Network.
Central to Matt’s mission at Esri is the integration of cutting-edge Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, modifying the way utilities operate and manage their infrastructure. Through his leadership, GIS has transcended its traditional role as a mapping tool, emerging as a multifaceted platform driving efficiency, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making.
Matt’s endeavors underscore the transformative power of modern GIS in reshaping the future of infrastructure and ensuring the resilience and sustainability of vital utility networks.
The Journey of Modernizing Electric Power Networks
Matt began his career as an Electrical Engineer at the largest Electric Power company in Australia. From the very beginning, he was provided with many opportunities to work in different departments within the organization to develop his engineering skills and understand the complexities of managing and operating an Electric Power Network. What was evident at this time were the constraints that existed within the organization due to a large number of antiquated systems and processes.
Data capture was done on paper, information was stored in MS Access databases or spreadsheets, and individual knowledge was power. Much of his early career was about extracting this knowledge from long-term employees, streamlining legacy workflows, and looking to implement Digital Transformation strategies to modernize the organization without impacting its core mission of delivering safe, reliable power.
For a decade, he was involved in projects to move the organization forward to more digital solutions and technologies, but the core way the grid was operating was still the same as it had been operating for the previous 100 years.
But in the last 15 years, things began to change; there were new drivers to move from being asset-centric to customer-centric; consumers became prosumers; and large-scale deployments of sensors and IoT devices were introducing larger datasets with expectations to move to more real-time operations. It became clear that the way the grid had been operating would not be sustainable for the requirements of a modern grid.
As a result, innovation hubs and departments were formed, requiring new skills and analytical thinking; data needed to be shared across departments; and projects turned into large programs of work connected to business transformation objectives. It was during this transition that Matt moved into senior leadership roles, managing the strategy, innovation, and project delivery teams, taking ownership and oversight of enterprise systems and information governance for ERP, GIS, Field Operations, and Emergency response.
As part of this business transformation, in 2016, they introduced some new technology to make the business innovative, agile, and able to meet the changing demands of the market. The cornerstone of this was modern Enterprise GIS. In 2017, a category five cyclone hit the coast, catching the organization by surprise and creating an urgency on how to respond and recover from the widespread impacts.
Using the new GIS, they were able to analyze impacts, schedule work to the areas of highest priority, capture defects, track restoration, and communicate with employees and external stakeholders. By applying this geographic approach to all workflows, they were able to restore power in record time.
It was at this time that Matt realized the true power of GIS and how this would be an essential technology to help organizations, and not long after, in 2018, he moved his family to Esri headquarters in California to be the global industry lead for Infrastructure and Digital Twins for the world’s largest GIS company.
Overcoming Technological Challenges in Business Units
Having led many business units, Matt has endured the frustrations of having business requirements that are not met by existing technology, resulting in capable engineers creating custom solutions to solve these challenges. It is what engineers do—they solve problems.
But often, despite the best intentions at the time, these custom solutions can come at a cost to future upgrades, migrations, or system updates, becoming an anchor to future enhancements and preventing the organization’s ability to move forward. What excites him, though, is when technology keeps pace with innovation and meets the demands of a transforming business.
And this is where GIS and the evolving role of location intelligence are so important. While many of the challenges that utilities are facing are new, significant investments have been made in core technology to keep pace with this change and the business needs of a modern utility. This means that organizations can take advantage of COTS solutions that can be configured, not customized, to solve utility problems today and for the next 20 years.
When customers, both existing and new, realize what the capabilities of a modern Enterprise GIS are, it is like a light bulb goes on, and the possibilities are endless. Legacy GIS was typically seen as just the mapping team, but it is so much more now. It is the imagery management system and the field operations system; it bridges the gap between IT and OT and provides world-leading modern network management capabilities.
The investments that have been made are unparalleled and have redefined the definition of what an Enterprise GIS is today on desktop, web, and mobile devices.
Leading Industry Experts
Matt is fortunate to lead a team of subject matter experts from each industry discipline, with an average of 20 years of experience per industry. These managers have worked in the industry, experienced the constraints and challenges, and have a real-world understanding of what is needed to make these organizations successful. As a leader of thought leaders and strategic thinkers, he believes it comes down to just a few things.
- Relevance: They need to stay connected to how organizations are working, understand changes in policies and regulations, and ensure that they are always working to help solve the challenges of today while also working on creating a vision and strategy for future programs and business goals.
- Recognition: Matt believes that people who come to work every day for 40–50 hours a week have every intent of doing a good job. But like anything they do, they need to feel valued, and the work they do should be recognized and rewarded. It is this recognition that fuels the spark to inspire new ideas and creates an inclusive and rewarding work environment.
- Retention: Matt was taught very early that people don’t leave their jobs; they leave their managers. As a manager, there are things that we all need to do to mitigate the potential loss of good staff.
- Communication: Communicate from the top down; be transparent and informative.
- Empowerment: Empower staff with clear goals and allow them to achieve them.
- Growth: Ensure there is a succession plan and career paths. Work with your staff to set them up for success and provide adequate training to achieve their goals.
Shaping the Future of Infrastructure
To stay ahead of these trends, it is essential for Matt to keep connected with his user base and work closely with industry analysts like Gartner and IDC. These third-party organizations provide the context of market analysis, forecasted spending, and who is working in a similar technology space.
Traditionally, the utility industry has been slow-moving, change-resistant, and risk-averse. But things are now changing at a speed never seen before. New business challenges, new operating models, and new technologies are redefining the way many organizations need to do work. In addition to this, there is a significant investment that is happening to modernize and build new infrastructure.
One trend, while not new, is the deployment of Digital Twins. 3D is now becoming mainstream with the integration of technology for reality mapping, BIM and GIS, and real-time connected data sources.
What Matt has seen around the world is that a lot of this innovation is coming from these AEC industries. AEC firms are used to working in 3D; they have streamlined the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of lifecycles, and these approaches are now being transferred to utilities. This adoption is happening on an unprecedented scale to meet the demand for building all the new infrastructure. While utilities own the projects, in most cases, AEC firms will do the work. This is also driving a greater need to share and collaborate between organizations.
It is exciting to see how these organizations are influencing each other.
The Evolution of Enterprise GIS
As an industry leader in GIS, a significant part of his role is to educate and inspire. His expertise predominantly comes from working as an Electrical Engineer at an Electrical Utility. Most utilities have had some version of a GIS for as long as they have had computers, and GIS has been essential in modeling complex connected networks. However, a modern Enterprise GIS is so much more than just putting points, lines, and polygons on a map.
A modern Enterprise GIS provides the capabilities and tools to improve decision-making by providing accessibility to data, creating a single coordinated operations view with real-time data, fostering collaboration between departments and stakeholders, and integrating with other IT and OT systems. It has become the ultimate integrator of disparate data sources. GIS is the platform to access, analyze, and share spatial data from anywhere, enhancing data-driven decision processes.
One of the most exciting capabilities and adoptions has been the evolution of Digital Twins. Digital Twins is not a new term, and over the past two decades, many organizations have implemented some version of a Digital Twin, creating a virtual representation of the real world, whether for an asset, a facility, or a network. However, these representations had typically been static twins, a representation at a point in time. What is exciting now is how technology has evolved to enable the vision of a Digital Twin to evolve as well.
A Digital Twin is not just about a representation at a point in time; it is dynamically connected and allows one to simulate and predict historical and future scenarios and models. So much of this comes from connecting systems together with the ability to access, integrate, and share information at scale.
The Power of Modern GIS
Matt still remembers his first large-scale Digital Twin project. Vegetation management was the most expensive operational maintenance program in the organization—double that of any other program. The power network was extensive, covering an area 2.5 times the size of Texas. Ensuring the rights of way were clear of vegetation was essential to reducing outages during storms or high winds and achieving reliability targets. To reduce this expenditure, a vision to create a Digital Twin of the entire network in 3D showing vegetation encroachment was approved.
The scope of work was to fly the entire network and capture imagery and lidar, process this data, and perform analytics on what areas of the network required tree trimming or clearing. The result was, as scoped, a very detailed, accurate representation of the network in 3D, with all areas analyzed and prioritized. However, there was an issue: the entire end-to-end process from the time the first plane was airborne to when the final model was made available took longer than 12 months.
This meant that the areas that were classified as ‘High Risk’ and needed trimming were now ‘Extreme Risk,’ and the areas that were of ‘Moderate Risk’ were now ‘High Risk.’ While the output of this project delivered the outcome, what was missing was the ability to deliver these capabilities in a timely manner and keep the datasets current.
Because the only way they could update this Digital Twin was to fly the entire network again. Now, utilizing the power of a modern GIS, organizations have the ability to capture imagery, process these big data sets, connect to enterprise systems, and automate much of the decision-making process, reducing the time from months or years to minutes and days. These technological advancements have redefined what a Digital Twin is today.
Transforming Work Processes
For problem solvers, there is no technology as powerful as modern GIS. Many industries are in uncharted territory, looking to solve new problems, which will require new ways of thinking. Consider how often a map is used in our everyday lives. Whether ordering a ride, planning a holiday, looking for a new house, or even simply driving to a new location, it all starts with a map.
Geospatial is at the core of almost all daily decision-making because it allows for the interpretation of complex data sets in an easily digestible manner. Now, take that same approach and consider how operations are conducted within organizations. If spatial thinking is not the first approach, then there is a significant opportunity for improvement.
GIS is the technology that will transform existing processes and the way work is done. GIS has evolved from a back-office system to the cornerstone of many industries. Starting a career in GIS is exciting, as it is believed that GIS will play a significant role in ensuring a resilient and sustainable future.
