Utility service providers have increasing opportunity to mix and match different technologies
and supplier services to improve profitably whilst maintaining or improving their levels of
service. For example, delivery of telecommunications services can be through fixed, mobile,
satellite and wifi networks. The cost and effectiveness of each delivery method varies
differently with geography, environment and time. Similarly, electricity service suppliers have
a range of generator types in their network, from conventional power stations to microgeneration
sources such as wind turbines, as well as storage devices. Each electricity
generator has different characteristics and electricity storage adds flexibility to supply. The
service provider needs a new set of rules on how to manage this hybrid network to maximise
profit and ensure security of supply so that they can offer a competitive Service Level
Agreement (SLA) to their customers.
The use of technical IT policies by IP network managers to specify network configurations is
well-established. Policies are automatically deployed from the centre into the network to
achieve large-scale deployments reliably. We will investigate the attractiveness of an
extended policy framework which is innovative in that it will: define rules in business terms
not technical terms; adapt to real time events such as on-demand tariffs; and use simulation to
predict the approach most likely to deliver maximum profit to the service provider whilst
maintaining the SLA.
There will be technical challenges to this solution but the key enabler is in understanding the
nature of the service level agreement that utility service providers want to offer and the timing
of network enhancements that will present opportunity. We plan a series of interactive
workshops with service providers to define an outline concept that will realise value for the
provider in the time frame of one to three years.