User Manual

THE FUTURE OF BIG DATA
AND ANALYTICS HOLDS
GREAT PROMISE
There are certainly more than three myths when it
comes to the current state of big data and analytics
for enterprise energy management. The market is
functioning in a similar manner to past technology
booms, where there will be winners and losers
and, in some cases, innovations we can’t even see
today.
MGM’s Chris Magee looks at it “like you’re at a
big outdoor concert and you’re trying to hear
somebody whispering from the back of the stage.
That’s kind of what we’re doing when we look at
these sometimes years’ worth of data points and
try to figure out where these little anomalies might
be. Maybe it’s at two o’clock in the morning every
night and we need to pull that out and find out — it
might be an operator, or some programming that’s
turning on exhaust fans. And then we can pinpoint
that and find out why it’s being done and then either
alter it or refine it.”
General Motor’s internal dashboard is an early
example of what others can expect as well. As Al
Hildreth relates, “Data really drives our business.
Without looking at energy use data alongside
production and climate data and all the other
factors that affect our energy use you really can’t
manage the business. So we do that to the most
12
Three Big Myths About Big Data © 2014 GreenBiz Group Inc. www.greenbiz.com.
granular level that becomes cost effective for us.
Typically that’s at a department level, sometimes
a business unit level. If a facility is fairly small
then we might just do it at the facility level. So we
look at energy and water use as the information’s
available on really a real time basis to provide us
with information that we can use to manage the
business.”
Grainger’s Jeff Rehm concurs, “Data has allowed
us to make investment decisions and be more
specific in our recommendations.”
James Gray-Donald adds, “We’ll start seeing more
sophisticated correlations of how sustainability
programs correlate to financial value. Right now,
it’s mostly conjecture. But I see in the next three
years basically getting better breadth, depth
and quality of data such that the correlation
to financial performance in three to five years
will become clear. There will then be a very
high degree of detailed data transparency right
through to the investor on ESG [environmental,
social and governance] metrics. Then people like
me won’t be the intermediary. They won’t call
me up and say, ‘How are we doing on this and
that?’ They’ll have access to the data and have
tools to run intuitive analysis.”
49%
44%
6%
No
Yes
I don’t know
Are you satisfied with quantity and quality
of the data you are collecting?