Posted on by

Interest in Combining Control Systems on a Common Platform Among North American Electric Utilities

The following is excerpted from the Newton-Evans Research study, “World Market Study of SCADA, Energy Management Systems, Distribution Management Systems and Outage Management Systems in Electric Utilities: 2013-2015.” Read more about it on our reports page here.

Do you have any interest in combining EMS and DMS on a common platform?
In 2013, utility interest in combining these two systems was observed to be about the same as it was in 2010. A total of 26% of respondents had interest or had already combined their EMS and DMS systems. In 2010, 27% of utilities surveyed expressed an interest in doing this. Cooperatives showed less interest in combining, while Investor Owned utilities had more interest.


(Summary from the 2012 survey)

In the 2010 survey, there was some interest in combining EMS and DMS on a single platform; 27% of respondents answered “yes” they had an interest in combining the two. There was more interest among Canadian respondents (36%), IOUs and public power utilities (each at 32%), compared with only 13% of cooperatives (this sub-group of distribution cooperatives is less likely to use EMS technologies). Similarly, larger utilities were somewhat more interested in this combination of EMS and DMS than were smaller utilities.

Do you have any interest in combining DMS and OMS on a common platform?
Similar to what had been reported in the 2010 study, the 2013 study indicated that 41% of utilities either have interest in combining DMS and OMS (36%), or have already combined them (5%).

Do you have any interest in combining DMS and OMS on a common platform?
(Summary from the 2012 survey)

Overall, 40% of the 92 utilities responding to this part of question 3 expressed interest in a combined DMS/OMS platform. The highest level of interest was noted among Canadian respondents (64%); the lowest amount of interest was among U.S. cooperatives (17%). Fifty percent of utilities serving more than one million customers were interested in combining DMS and OMS capabilities on a single platform. Questions 3a and 3b are new questions added to the 2010 survey.