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Member Spotlight: Amelia Badders
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Member Spotlight: Amelia Badders
Amelia Badders is an active UAI member and provides outstanding influence and contributions to the UAI community through any of our multiple channels, including, but not limited to engagement on UAI Connect, volunteering with UAI, involvement in monthly Community Conversations, and/or speaking at UAI events, and more. As thanks, we are featuring her in the UAI Member Spotlight. Amelia is the Director of Enterprise Advanced Analytics at CPS Energy, the largest municipally owned gas and electric utility in the nation that serves the greater San Antonio, Texas metropolitan area.
Leslie: How did you get into the utility analytics industry?
Member: I stumbled into the utility analytics space. I joined the utility industry in the mid 1990’s as an analyst in the regulated rates area. I enjoyed problem solving and applied my technical education to understanding cost causation and later regulatory impacts. By the early 2010s, I was originating wholesale power transactions and by the mid-2010s, I was asked to lead an analytics and engineering team to support the energy market operations function. In this function I hired data scientist, data engineer and advanced data analytics team members. In 2018, these key team members and I were pulled out of market operations to stand up an enterprise analytics function to support the company.
Leslie: What project have you enjoyed working on most in your career?
Member: My most exciting project was an effort in the early 2000s based on the work of Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. This was a Board and CEO driven effort to document the company’s core values and set out a Big Audacious goal. What I enjoyed about this is that the process we used was collaborative and cross functional and touched every part of the business. I see enterprise analytics in much the same way – cross functional and impactful. Though that early project was based on unstructured data and manual collection methods, the engagement with people at all levels throughout the organization continues to be essential to any effort. As essential as it is, it is also difficult to replicate. This is something I am trying to do for analytics.
Leslie: What has been your biggest professional challenge and how did you work through it?
Member: Standing up a new function (Enterprise Advanced Analytics) for the enterprise. Expectations for this function vary widely and resource constraints are very real for any organization. Defining the key objectives in a concise manner, aligning those objectives with what brings value to the business and customers and consistently communicating those objectives has been critical.
Leslie: If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before entering the utility analytics industry, what would it be?
Member: Don’t let a drive for the “perfect plan” get in the way of progress. In a space like utility analytics, strategies and roadmaps get better as they are socialized and we receive feedback. It is more important to have the right conversations and focus on the right outcomes than having the perfect plan.
Leslie: What would you like to talk to fellow colleagues and members about in UAI Connect? Or, what issues or topics would you like to see more discussions on in UAI Connect?
Member: How do you keep innovation seekers engaged in your organizations. What outlets do you provide to your data scientists to feed their need to discover, learn and experiment?
Leslie: Thank you so much for sharing with us and for being a highly engaged member of UAI! Do you have any final thoughts, ideas, or comments you would like to share with your fellow UAI members?
Member: Do what you can to get multiple people in your organization engaged with UAI – either in communities, working groups, webinars. There is much to be gained and the more people from your organization engaged, the better for the individual, your organization and for other UAI members.
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Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
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2 Replies
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Hi Ben,
We use Realwear at Burns & McDonnell. It has been a reliable tool that is growing in project use in our company. If you would like more information you are welcome to contact me. My E-mail address is ccarr@burnsmcd,com.Chrissy
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Chrissy Carr
Experienced Telecommunications Project Manager + Electrical Engineer
Burns and McDonnell
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-26-2020 12:57
From: Ben Ettlinger
Subject: Hard Hat Video CamerasAny recommendations on Hard Hat attached video cameras?
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Ben Ettlinger
Emerging Technologies
Enterprise Architecture & Engineering Group
New York Power Authority
White Plains, NY
914 681 6496
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Thank you very much for the information. Much appreciated.
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Ben Ettlinger
Emerging Technologies
Enterprise Architecture & Engineering Group
New York Power Authority
White Plains, NY
914 681 6496
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2020 11:57
From: Chrissy Carr
Subject: Hard Hat Video CamerasHi Ben,
We use Realwear at Burns & McDonnell. It has been a reliable tool that is growing in project use in our company. If you would like more information you are welcome to contact me. My E-mail address is ccarr@burnsmcd,com.Chrissy
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Chrissy Carr
Experienced Telecommunications Project Manager + Electrical Engineer
Burns and McDonnell
——————————Original Message:
Sent: 05-26-2020 12:57
From: Ben Ettlinger
Subject: Hard Hat Video CamerasAny recommendations on Hard Hat attached video cameras?
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Ben Ettlinger
Emerging Technologies
Enterprise Architecture & Engineering Group
New York Power Authority
White Plains, NY
914 681 6496
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