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Before AI Comes Asset Intelligence: Building the Utility Data Foundation for Modern Asset Management
Utilities are under pressure to modernize asset management, integrate DERs, support flexible connections, evaluate non-wires solutions, prepare for energy markets and apply AI to planning and operations. But AI and analytics are only as reliable as the data beneath them. If asset, topology, loading, inspection, outage, reliability and connection data are fragmented or manually reconciled, advanced tools can produce faster answers without producing better decisions.
This session will use Alectra Utilities’ Integrated Network Management program as a utility-led case study in building the business foundation for AI-ready asset management and grid modernization. The focus is not on a technology pilot or vendor platform. It is on how a utility can move from disconnected data and one-off extracts to governed, reusable, standards-based datasets embedded into everyday workflows.
The session will cover how Integrated Network Management supports traditional asset management by improving data quality, traceability, lifecycle planning, risk-based decision-making and repeatable evidence for capital planning. It will also show how the same foundation supports grid modernization use cases, including flexible connections, DER integration, non-wires planning, energy-market readiness and operational analytics.
A key theme is that digital transformation must be owned by the business, not treated as an IT science project. The presentation will discuss how to define business rules, map processes, identify systems of record, engage cross-functional teams, align to industry standard data models/concepts and build governance so the resulting data model becomes part of business-as-usual. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for making asset management AI-ready before deploying AI at scale.
