From Big Data to Actionable Analytics

For many utilities, this world is not far off. For PECO Energy Co., a subsidiary of Exelon Corp., this world is here now as a result of the Exelon Utilities Analytics Academy. This program is aimed at enabling employees to adopt digital skills, such as machine learning, operational analytics, visual storytelling and automated analysis. This ensures the people who are most familiar with the meaning behind the data also can conduct their own analysis, rather than having to rely on a central group of analysts. Launched as a pilot in 2018, the program received overwhelming support and engagement from the business, which led to a full corporate-wide rollout in mid-2019. Although the program has been in existence only since 2018, there has been a vast improvement already in the understanding and utilization of analytics in employees’ day-to-day jobs. Most recently, PECO experienced two successes in distribution automation (DA) work when employees fully leveraged rich performance data. Using tools such as Python, PowerBI and ArcGIS, PECO engineers were able to identify electric equipment issues successfully using radio frequency (RF) noise readings and prioritize maintenance by aggregating email alerts.