[Kevin Praet (Adm)]

Hello UAI Members,

Thank you to everyone who attended today’s call and submitted a question for the discussion! Today’s meeting surrounded load forecasting, discussing current challenges, AMI usage, strategies for regulatory recovery, and more. There are still a lot of questions and unknowns right now but this meeting was a great way to get the conversation going and hear strategies from other utility/industry members. If you were unable to attend today’s call, we recorded the discussion and have made available in our community library here. Please continue to let us know what questions you have so our team can do our best to supply content and facilitate discussion around the topic. 

We have one other meeting coming up in our COVID-19 roundtable series, Monday, 5/18/20 at 12:00 PM MT, which is going to be much more granular focused. Please use the link below to pre-register and let us know if you have any questions or issues accessing.

Real-Talk Roundtable: A Granular Focus on COVID-19
Monday, May, 18 at 12:00 pm MT (11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET)
PRE-REGISTER TODAY!

We look forward to regrouping with you all Monday.

Have a nice weekend!

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Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-14-2020 18:33
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: Your Invited to a Series of UAI Real-Talk Roundtables on COVID-19

Hello UAI Members,

Thank you to everyone who attended today’s call and submitted a question for the discussion! We used the full hour today to discuss COVID-19 strategy and how utilities are responding and preparing for the future. If you were unable to attend today’s call, we recorded the discussion and have made available in our community library here. If you’re having any issues accessing please reach out and let me know.

We have two other meetings coming up in our COVID-19 roundtable series, a load forecasting focus and a granular focus (more information is provided for both in the original post). If you haven’t already please get go ahead and get registered below:

Real-Talk Roundtable: A Focus on Load Forecasting for COVID-19
Friday, May 15 at 10:00 am MT (9am PT / 11am CT / 12pm ET)
PRE-REGISTER TODAY!

Real-Talk Roundtable: A Granular Focus on COVID-19
Monday, May, 18 at 12:00 pm MT (11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET)
PRE-REGISTER TODAY!

Again if you have any questions please let us know.

We look forward to seeing many of you in our next meetings!

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Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-12-2020 13:02
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Your Invited to a Series of UAI Real-Talk Roundtables on COVID-19

Hello UAI Members,

Don’t forget to register for the upcoming series of Real-Talk Roundtables on COVID-19 taking place on May 14, 15, and 18, 2020!  Learn more about the roundtables on my original post and register for one or all three member-exclusive roundtables. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to hold collaborative, candid conversations with fellow members regarding the COVID-19 pandemic to help you gain a better understanding of how each of your organizations are dealing with the situation.

Register today and I’ll see you online later this week!

Thanks!

     Leslie

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Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com

Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2020 17:06
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Your Invited to a Series of UAI Real-Talk Roundtables on COVID-19

Hello UAI Members,

You told UAI that you desire to hold collaborative, candid discussions with fellow members regarding the COVID-19 pandemic to help you gain a better understanding of how each of your organizations are dealing with the situation. UAI is delighted to bring you together during special member-exclusive Real-Talk Roundtables.

Learn more information about the Real-Talk Roundtables below and register today to attend these timely events!
In regard to these roundtables, some members said they want to maintain a strategic focus while other members want to get a little more granular during the discussion. After asking our members to submit questions on topics they want to discuss, we actually scheduled three different virtual Real-Talk Roundtables. Each virtual roundtable will be scheduled for 1-hour. Join us for one or all three of these interactive discussions to ask questions and get answers from partnered collaboration between UAI members. During each of these roundtables, we will start with the questions recorded below, each of which were submitted in advance by UAI members. We will then move on to your real-time questions, so be prepared to bring your questions to the table during these collaborative sessions.

What to expect during Real-Talk Roundtables?
Engage in lively discussions, exchange knowledge, share information, learn with each other and help one another move forward during these unprecedented times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. During Real-Talk Roundtables, we encourage you to get to know one another, turn on your video, and truly engage in the conversation (video not required, but encouraged). The more you put into the discussion, the more you will get out of it. We look forward to “seeing” you online soon!

Real-Talk Roundtable: A Strategic Focus on COVID-19
Thursday, May 14 at 10:00 am MT (9am PT / 11am CT / 12pm ET)
PRE-REGISTER TODAY!

• What information is helpful for leadership at your organization to view or monitor as we begin talking about returning to work? Do you have any examples of how you are providing this information you could share? What are some strategic questions that leadership are asking you in regards to analytics related to COVID-19?
• What is your organization doing analytically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
• How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting certain types of utilities?
• Do you plan to develop strategies for regulatory recovery – meaning building the case for rate increases to cover the impacts of these changes?
• How has Covid-19 affected development projects? Has your company circled the wagons and are just keeping the lights on? Have projects been put on hold and/or is money/resources being reallocated?

Real-Talk Roundtable: A Focus on Load Forecasting for COVID-19
Friday, May 15 at 10:00 am MT (9am PT / 11am CT / 12pm ET)
PRE-REGISTER TODAY!

• What are your challenges with load forecasting and workforce optimization. The load and the workforce both “look” different in the current environment; so it would be interesting to see how utility leaders are managing this change and, where applicable, applying analytics to get ahead of these challenges.
• In regard to Corporate Energy Forecasting (CEF), where have you been able to use real-time AMI data to study how energy usage has changed and create forecasts of what things might look like as the community at large transitions back to work?
• How has your utility adjusted its short-term and long-term load forecasts to account for a stay-at-home order and/or economic recession?
• Impacts on Forecasting:

• How are load forecasts being adjusted for the impacts of COVID-19 given the fact that there is very limited data available – are you waiting for more data, or are you making assumptions based on current knowledge? 
• What sort of assumptions are you making regarding the persistence of COVID-19 impacts – are you assuming a “new normal”, meaning that you expect permanent changes to your load; or do you expect that load should “revert to the mean” after 2, 3, 5, years? 
• Do you expect revenue to be a direct function of loads, or are you factoring in greater defaults/deferrals as a result of large portions of the economy potentially facing financial hardship or, even, bankruptcy?   
• Do you plan to develop strategies for regulatory recovery – meaning building the case for rate increases to cover the impacts of these changes?

Real-Talk Roundtable: A Granular Focus on COVID-19
Monday, May, 18 at 12:00 pm MT (11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET)
PRE-REGISTER TODAY!

• What data modeling are you doing for COVID-19 analytics?
• Will this event result in expansion of your resiliency team?
• What system or service-class load impacts are utilities seeing under stay-at-home orders?
• How have these impacts changed with changes in the weather?
• For utilities, who has suspended disconnections for non-payment? How have you adjusted your revenue forecasts to account for arrears?
• What use cases can you share in regard to your load analytics, payment analytics and workforce planning in regard to COVID-19?
• Has your company developed any specific dashboards, reporting, or predictive analytics related to COVID-19?
• Questions not specifically related to analytics, but still questions that members want to discuss with other members:

• What will be the residual effects of the COVID-19 work at home environment?  More people will be working from home permanently? Will your company have people working from home once a week, twice a week?
• With much of our workforce now tele-working, how is the reliability (or lack thereof) of your various interconnection technologies, such as WebEx, Zoom, Slack, etc.? 

• In addition to those third party technologies, we are also very reliant on our own corporate networks to be able to access our work-related files and communicate with our colleagues. While I have experienced very little in the way of issues personally, I know that has not been the case for some of my colleagues. So, my question for the group is, what steps, if any, are your firms taking (or investments that you are making) to either improve these technologies, or to provide additional alternative technologies, so that if one tech fails, your associates have the option to use a different solution?

We look forward to seeing you online soon for UAI Real-Talk Roundtables!

Thanks!

     Leslie

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Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@endeavorb2b.com
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