Energy firms take lesson in efficiency

LAS VEGAS - When IT professionals from around the country gather here for the 50th Annual Energy IT Conference and Expo they'll get the usual news and insight about the best technologies for the utility industry, but they'll also take a hard look at budgeting and productivity.

While issues such as security - which topped the agenda last year - outsourcing and wireless technologies will be discussed, the primary thrust is expected to be about doing more with less. Like most U.S. markets, the utility industry has felt the effects of the tightening economy. Combine that with fallout from Enron's collapse and deregulation snafus in California, and energy companies find themselves facing a tough economic picture.

"There are a lot of financial pressures on companies and that translates back to the IT folks," says Jon Arnold, formerly CIO at Edison Electric Institute and now editor in chief of Energy IT magazine.

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LAS VEGAS - When IT professionals from around the country gather here for the 50th Annual Energy IT Conference and Expo they'll get the usual news and insight about the best technologies for the utility industry, but they'll also take a hard look at budgeting and productivity.

While issues such as security - which topped the agenda last year - outsourcing and wireless technologies will be discussed, the primary thrust is expected to be about doing more with less. Like most U.S. markets, the utility industry has felt the effects of the tightening economy. Combine that with fallout from Enron's collapse and deregulation snafus in California, and energy companies find themselves facing a tough economic picture.

"There are a lot of financial pressures on companies and that translates back to the IT folks," says Jon Arnold, formerly CIO at Edison Electric Institute and now editor in chief of Energy IT magazine.

Conference organizers expect about 500 IT professionals to attend the conference this week, a drop from the 700 that took part last year, Arnold says.

"One of the big things we'll look at is how do you survive the budget crunch and cost-cutting," he says. "How do you make money with what you have. . . . How do you drive the cost out of doing business? [Utilities] are trying to get a lot smarter about managing their assets."

At Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), budgeting has become a priority.

"We had a five-year IT strategic plan that we were implementing to refresh our systems to try to pick up some savings in terms of system integration and so forth," says Ken Cohn, vice president and CIO of Pepco Holdings in Washington, D.C.

Specifically, the utility is using enterprise application integration to link its SAP, PeopleSoft and legacy financial systems.

Energy companies are getting back to basics, analysts say. Instead of looking at innovative e-business projects, the focus of IT investments these days is on transmission and distribution; energy trading and risk management; generation and supply; and CRM, specifically in the areas of analytics and collaboration, says Terry Ray, vice president of energy information strategies at Meta Group.

Sessions and speakers at the conference reflect this focus. Issues discussed will include the importance of integrating outage management and work management systems; the benefits of business process outsourcing; and who is using customer information systems and with what degree of success.

A panel discussion titled, "IT Budgeting: Making Do with Less While Achieving More," will provide examples of how utility companies are coping in a tough economic climate.

"IT executives are having to take a look at how they're working together with the business more closely. It's really going to be business that's going to drive any new projects. And being able to make a solid business case for new projects will be important," says Jill Feblowitz, service director of the energy practice at AMR Research, who is moderating the panel discussion.