[Leslie Cook (Adm)]

I enjoyed reading your story, @Beth. Thank you for sharing and thank you for all you do for the UAI community!

Cheers!

     Leslie​

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Leslie Cook
Membership & Digital Engagement Manager
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
719-203-8650, lcook@utilityanalytics.com
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2021 11:12
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: August (2021) Member Spotlight: Beth Massey (The Energy Authority)

Beth Massey 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 and/or leadership in monthly Community Conversations, and/or speaking at UAI events, plus so much. As thanks, we are featuring her in the UAI Member Spotlight.

Dr. Beth Massey brings over 20 years of experience in research and development including leading-edge technology innovation and full lifecycle project delivery for the energy sector. Her specialties include demand-side energy research, data science, machine learning algorithms, computer vision techniques, software development, project management, and technical proposal writing. She has also significant experience in strategic programs planning, having delivered on large-scale projects for the US Department of Defense and NASA.

Kevin: How did you get into the utility analytics industry?

Member: After completing the PhD in England, I Initially thought that the field of medicine would be where my career path would take me. However, I took a job with an American company working on HVAC diagnostics (using the statistical analysis and computer vision skills used in medical image analysis). This took me into the energy services research area, which led to energy efficiency in buildings and it grew from there.

 

Kevin: What project have you enjoyed working on most in your career?

Member: Being in applied energy research in Europe was some of the most exciting work.  We were building multi-disciplinary teams to produce pre-commercial outcomes that the commercial partners could then further develop into their product lines.  It is very satisfying to develop a product or process that stakeholders (such as utilities) can then turn into products and services for their customers.  We were also analyzing policy and making recommendations to the local and national governments.

 

Kevin: What has been your biggest professional challenge and how did you work through it?

Member: Working in another country with their local customs, professional protocols and expectations.  Clearly, not everyone thinks or acts like Americans.  Even small differences in things such as the time to arrive at work or the number of days off for vacations and holidays, to what food stuffs are available at the grocery store, the different perspectives can be overwhelming. For example, the local pub served food but no takeaway containers.  It wasn’t until I started to bring in my own plastic containers that they decided others might want to do the same. One works through these changes, little by little.  Being patient, doing a bit of research on the local customs and having contacts at the consulate are all helpful.

Kevin: 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: A bit of advice that I was given, and took, early in my career is to take every opportunity to expand your skill set.  This is applicable across any industry.  And, for scientists and engineers, the solution-oriented, critical analysis skills are transferrable to many disciplines and applications.  Companies, the world over, are always looking for talent with these skills and a proactive work ethic.

 

Kevin: 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: Diversity in the energy and data sectors.  It is important, I believe, that we keep diversity (of roles, teams and gender, for example) as a part of our everyday lives.  I would like to see how utilities in general and specifically data analytics teams are working to increase diversity in their working environments. 

I would also like to see more discussions around energy communities and how utilities are developing deeper engagement strategies with their customers as individuals and as communities.  Are energy communities a real-world idea for utilities and will the growing micro-grid market be a change agent for this trend?

 

Kevin: 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: Be open-minded, take every opportunity to improve and be kind.

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
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[Ron Capute]

Thanks Beth, it was great to read about your experience and interests.

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Ron Capute
Sr Project Manager
Florida Power & Light
Jupiter FL
5619043273
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——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2021 11:12
From: Kevin Praet
Subject: August (2021) Member Spotlight: Beth Massey (The Energy Authority)

Beth Massey 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 and/or leadership in monthly Community Conversations, and/or speaking at UAI events, plus so much. As thanks, we are featuring her in the UAI Member Spotlight.

Dr. Beth Massey brings over 20 years of experience in research and development including leading-edge technology innovation and full lifecycle project delivery for the energy sector. Her specialties include demand-side energy research, data science, machine learning algorithms, computer vision techniques, software development, project management, and technical proposal writing. She has also significant experience in strategic programs planning, having delivered on large-scale projects for the US Department of Defense and NASA.

Kevin: How did you get into the utility analytics industry?

Member: After completing the PhD in England, I Initially thought that the field of medicine would be where my career path would take me. However, I took a job with an American company working on HVAC diagnostics (using the statistical analysis and computer vision skills used in medical image analysis). This took me into the energy services research area, which led to energy efficiency in buildings and it grew from there.

 

Kevin: What project have you enjoyed working on most in your career?

Member: Being in applied energy research in Europe was some of the most exciting work.  We were building multi-disciplinary teams to produce pre-commercial outcomes that the commercial partners could then further develop into their product lines.  It is very satisfying to develop a product or process that stakeholders (such as utilities) can then turn into products and services for their customers.  We were also analyzing policy and making recommendations to the local and national governments.

 

Kevin: What has been your biggest professional challenge and how did you work through it?

Member: Working in another country with their local customs, professional protocols and expectations.  Clearly, not everyone thinks or acts like Americans.  Even small differences in things such as the time to arrive at work or the number of days off for vacations and holidays, to what food stuffs are available at the grocery store, the different perspectives can be overwhelming. For example, the local pub served food but no takeaway containers.  It wasn’t until I started to bring in my own plastic containers that they decided others might want to do the same. One works through these changes, little by little.  Being patient, doing a bit of research on the local customs and having contacts at the consulate are all helpful.

Kevin: 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: A bit of advice that I was given, and took, early in my career is to take every opportunity to expand your skill set.  This is applicable across any industry.  And, for scientists and engineers, the solution-oriented, critical analysis skills are transferrable to many disciplines and applications.  Companies, the world over, are always looking for talent with these skills and a proactive work ethic.

 

Kevin: 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: Diversity in the energy and data sectors.  It is important, I believe, that we keep diversity (of roles, teams and gender, for example) as a part of our everyday lives.  I would like to see how utilities in general and specifically data analytics teams are working to increase diversity in their working environments. 

I would also like to see more discussions around energy communities and how utilities are developing deeper engagement strategies with their customers as individuals and as communities.  Are energy communities a real-world idea for utilities and will the growing micro-grid market be a change agent for this trend?

 

Kevin: 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: Be open-minded, take every opportunity to improve and be kind.

——————————
Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
——————————

[Travis Metcalfe]

We are working on many of the items on this list and are at various states of progress. Would be happy to help connect anyone with a specific question on one of them with someone from our organization.

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Travis Metcalfe
Strategy, Innovation, and Engagement Manager
Tacoma Power
Tacoma WA
2535028149
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2021 09:57
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Are You Working on Use Cases in the Enclosed Categories?

…If yes, we want to hear from you! 

Hello UAI Members,

Your fellow members are asking if you are working on use cases in the following categories or if you have more information to share on these hot topics. If you are working on use cases in the following categories or have information to share, please let us know by replying to this post or reaching out to me directly at lcook@utilityanalytics.com. Thanks so much for helping each other!

• Substation asset analytics
• Asset Optimization 
• Asset Life for Vehicles
• Transmission Smart Grid Journey
• Condition-based maintenance for substation equipment
• Integrating drone data with historians & analytics around drone data
• IR data integration into asset health analytics
• Tableau Mapping
• Best practices on and how to tune modeling
• Various Architectures
• Share data science tools you are using and how you are using them: Azure, Azure Data Brick vs Machine Learning Studio vs Containers – how are members actually using Azure?
• What models are you doing in the public cloud? 
• Productionalization of models
• Machine learning operations 
• Team Orgs
• How AMI has enhanced the operations of utilities – hearing from those experienced in developing an enterprise system and using the AMI to support it
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Customer Analytics
• I would like to find out how other utilities are getting HR to provide a wage that allows them to retain people with desired skillsets
• Unfortunately, safety is a smaller data set. Telematics from driving is the only exception. How can one work with smaller data sets?
• Project tracking, Displaying trends, Navigating data analytics in a non-analytical role
• Visualizations
• User engagement
• Data Engineering

I look forward to seeing your replies and input on this post. Once I hear back, we can get some separate posts going on the individual topics and/or use cases.

Thanks so much!

     @Leslie

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