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December (2022) Member Spotlight: Tanya Mathur (TVA)
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December (2022) Member Spotlight: Tanya Mathur (TVA)
@Tanya 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.
Tanya Mathur has been with TVA for 20 years and leads the Enterprise Analytics department within the Technology and Innovation Organization. This team provides the company’s Enterprise Analytics Strategy that focuses on developing people, process, and technology positioning TVA to be a proactive body during this period of digital transformation. They enable and empower business units with analytics capabilities through a Data & Analytics Center of Excellence which promotes skillset development, best practice, and collaboration and they ignite innovation through solving industry challenges using their expertise in data science, statistics, machine learning, and AI. TVA is paving a path for modernized technology and intelligent insights, and the Enterprise Analytics Team is helping to drive that vision forward.
Kevin: How did you get into the utility analytics industry?
Tanya: While in college (two decades ago), I was interning at TVA and was immediately hired in after graduation. I began my analytics journey at TVA working in Operations using algorithms/neural networks to estimate power flow across busses, performing scenario analysis and providing load flow predictions. From further research and integrations with operational infrastructure like phasor measurement units (using synchrophasor waveform data) and relay data I published two electrical engineering papers: “Impact of PMU technology in State Estimation” and “Near Real-Time Analysis of Operating Conditions Affecting Protective Equipment Reliability Relay Compensation”. TVA embraced innovation which I fell in love with and that began my analytics journey. Over the years I’ve also had the opportunity to apply analytics in other areas of the company from Transmission with our smart grid projects and transmission inspection insights, data and predictive analytics for DERs (distributed energy resources) electric vehicle, and battery adoption, load forecasting and predictive analysis for long term planning, integrated resource plans, and financial plans. I’ve also supported supply chain analytics, customer analytics, safety and compliance analytics, and generation analytics. I now continue my analytics journey to innovate and lead the Enterprise Analytics function that serves all aspects of the business.
Kevin: What project have you enjoyed working on most in your career?
Tanya: It is the work we have been doing with our Nuclear organization and Boston Dynamic’s Spot the Robot. TVA is learning to use this robot to automate specific tasks around our plants. The Spot robot will be used to for inspections where safety is a concern. We are looking to automate (or augment) any job that is dull, dirty, or dangerous to reduce human error and improve employee safety. With nuclear in particular we are using spot and image analytics to help with inspections and insights to reduce human radiation exposure in radiologically controlled areas. What makes working with the robot so wonderful is that it gives us an ability to further learn and become experts in image analytics, IoT/edge analytics, safety analytics, predictive maintenance, and Robotics exploration all with a few use case applications.
If others are interested in learning more about how we are using the Spot robot and our use cases, please attend the UAI Safety Analytics presentation on December 13th!
Kevin: What has been your biggest professional challenge and how did you work through it?
Tanya: Standing up TVA’s Enterprise Analytics group that supports all aspects of the enterprise that didn’t exist before was a first not only for the company but for me as well. That meant creating our company’s analytic processes, operating/engagement models, developing TVA’s Enterprise Analytics Strategy, Technology Modernization Strategy, and Business Enablement Strategies. With a new group that also meant developing employees and setting up partnerships with other business leaders and getting their buy-in.
I had to build trust with our business partners and stakeholders and have inspired them to transform their business with data and analytics and modernized technology. To promote our business enablement strategy, I had stood up TVA’s Data & Analytics Center of Excellence that has been valuable since its inception. Within that I developed a Data & Analytics Steering Committee that meets monthly to help with communications across teams. The Data & Analytics Steering Committee is a coalition of business partners and IT. Creating this coalition was the most critical driver for bringing analytics initiatives to scale and success. As a group, it is communicated that the company’s need to compete with integrated capabilities in this hypercompetitive era and that silos-of data, business functions, or culture-will prevent them from doing so. It recognizes that integrating digital and analytics elements into nearly every existing product and service creates opportunities to offer entirely new products and services. The group understands success in these efforts is predicated on joint efforts, close collaboration, and shared ownership. The coalition shares in vision and strategizing, and coalition members rally around a common goal: gaining a share of value from advanced analytics and AI.
I have had to build powerful partnerships not only with other leaders and business partners, but also has with people external to our company. I’ve worked with state and local universities to promote and bring in talent and diversity of thought. We’ve partnered with universities on analytics projects. We’ve also partnered with EPRI, Databricks, Plotly, SAS, AWS, and Microsoft to build out several our use cases and to experiment with new technology. I try to help people answer the question across the enterprise of “What can data and analytics do for my group?” Where others may be afraid of change, it is important to see the opportunity for growth. This is all new and unchartered territory for the company, and we hope to pave the way for our company’s success.
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?
Tanya: The energy landscape is on the verge of a paradigm shift. Be a change agent, be a thought leader in a crowd of professionals that yearn for business as usual and then inspire them, show them value from the vision. The traditional utility is changing through competitive pressures, so look for those organizations that are embracing change. Success in TVA, unlike college, doesn’t come from having all the right answers. It comes from selling your ideas, creating consensus and having a network of support. Learn the business industry model. Learn to adjust to constant change, help make the changes. A wise engineer once said “Remember, that if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got…”
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?
Tanya: UAI connect is such a great way for all of us in the utility industry to share how we are overcoming obstacles and challenges and how we each are innovating with our data. We all share similar challenges so having the ability to connect with others of like mind through this resource allows us to build relationships that help us to continue to grow talent, expertise, technology, and purpose.
As far as future discussions, I would like to see how others are innovating in the area of IoT and edge analytics. Cybersecurity is becoming a bigger player in the realm of digital transformation, and I would also like to see how others are handling implementation of smart edge devices and deploying and scaling analytics at the edge – this includes maintaining and monitoring of analytics on edge devices while maintaining security around utility cyber critical assets.
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?
Tanya:
I want to thank UAI for giving us all a platform to come together, to share and to network with each other. I look forward to meeting you all in person at future events!
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Kevin Praet
Membership Coordinator
Utility Analytics Institute (UAI)
Boulder CO
315-440-3033
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