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  December (2023) Member Spotlight: David Patrick (Santee Cooper)

  Posted by Kevin Praet (Adm) on December 5, 2023 at 10:21 am

  @david is an active UAI member and provides outstanding influence and contributions to the UAI community through many 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. As a thanks, we are featuring him in the UAI Member Spotlight. David, a seasoned technology leader, brings eighteen years of expertise in the utility sector, specializing in data analytics, process automation, DevOps, and enterprise architecture as the Senior Manager of Technology Support at Santee Cooper. With a dedicated focus on business process re-engineering, David aligns his teams with organizational goals, leveraging technical excellence. A native of Charleston, SC, he balances his professional drive with a love for golf, family beach outings, and enjoying movies with his wife and kids.

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

  David: My father worked for and retired from the utility sector, so I always had a closeness to this space and along the way knew I wanted to work in the utility sector as well. After some summer internships during college, I was onboarded at Santee Cooper in the application development department, working my way up to Senior Application Architect. During the pandemic I transitioned to the role I have now. Although, specifically as it pertains to analytics, it just kind of happened… all the “new” and “shiny” technologies or current trends always tend to find their way to me.

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

  David: The project that I have enjoyed the most is deployment of our cloud hosted Meter Data Management project. This coupled with our deployment of AMI meters helped to create a catalyst for driving the organization to a data centric mindset and to understand the power, benefit, and value a mature data analytics department can bring to the organization. This project has helped to generate dozens and dozens of use-cases for our Data Analytics team, which has helped to lay the foundation for a center-of-excellence for data analytics inside the organization.

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

  David: Organization culture surrounding data and data quality. Educating and helping business partners understand why high quality and accurate data matters; and taking the time to show the business partners visualizations of “dirty” or “gaps” in data. Until recently as well, the sheer volume of data made it difficult to deliver some of the use cases most desirable to the business, but that has recently been overcome through our transition to our new cloud environment for our data pipeline and framework.

  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?

  David: Embrace the cloud sooner. It isn’t as “scary” as you thought it would be, and the viability of scaling vertically and horizontally will pay off immensely for the organization.

  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?

  David: Generative AI and Large Language Models. How does the AI and AI toolsets move from a “toy” to a business critical component of the data pipeline?

  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?

  David: Never stop being curious, always ask the “why” question

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

  Kevin Praet (Adm) replied 11 months, 3 weeks ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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