Powering the Future: Lessons from Two Decades in the Utility Industry
By Jai Jayaraman, SoCal Tech Forum Member
April 2025
When people flip on a light switch, they rarely think about what makes it possible. Behind that simple act is one of the most complex and fascinating engineering and operational feats of modern civilization: the electric utility value chain. After 20 years in the industry—first as a technologist and now as a strategic delivery leader—I’ve witnessed firsthand how technology is reshaping utilities, and I’m excited to share these insights with the next generation of innovators.
The Journey into Energy
My entry into utilities wasn’t planned. I was working as a technologist when I was asked to lead a project for a major utility company in Southern California. That experience opened my eyes to a sector rich with complexity and in desperate need of digital transformation. What started as a short assignment became a career fueled by curiosity and a desire to bring modern tech into a legacy-heavy industry.
Utilities operate at the intersection of hardware, software, and public infrastructure—each with their own unique constraints. Over the years, I’ve led programs focused on safety, reliability, and grid modernization, often bridging the gap between engineering teams, IT, and business stakeholders. These aren’t typical tech projects. You’re often working across 100+ year-old infrastructure while integrating next-gen tools like digital twins and AI-driven monitoring.
Understanding the Utility Value Chain
The electric utility value chain spans four core stages:
Generation – Electricity is produced at power plants, including hydro, nuclear, solar, and wind. Often, these plants are located far from where power is consumed.
Transmission – High-voltage electricity is transmitted across thousands of miles via lattice towers and overhead lines. Voltage is stepped up to minimize loss over distance.
Distribution – Electricity is stepped down at substations and distributed through local grids, which feed neighborhoods and homes.
Consumption – Power finally reaches consumers, where it’s used for everything from charging an EV to powering critical infrastructure.
Take Southern California Edison (SCE) as an example. They operate over 125,000 miles of high-voltage conductors, delivering power across 50,000 square miles to over 15 million customers. It’s an engineering marvel—and one we often take for granted.
When you flip a switch, you’re triggering an entire cascade of networked systems—physical and digital—that have to work flawlessly, in real time.
The Balancing Act: Legacy Meets Innovation
One of the biggest challenges in utilities today is managing the tension between legacy infrastructure and modern demands. Much of the grid was built in the early 20th century, designed for a level of consumption that pales in comparison to today’s needs—especially with the rise of AI data centers, EVs, and renewable integration.
The U.S. electric grid has a generation capacity of about 1,200 gigawatts. But modern devices and workloads are pushing that capacity to its limits. Compounding this issue is the fact that electricity must be consumed almost immediately after it’s generated. Unlike compute cycles, power can’t be stored at scale—yet.
To meet growing demand, utilities are tackling three major fronts:
Grid Expansion: Transmission networks are being upgraded with federal and state investment.
Digital Modernization: Technologies like SCADA systems, smart meters, and predictive analytics are enabling better visibility and control.
Workforce Transition: As veteran engineers retire, utilities are investing in digital tools to onboard a new generation of tech-savvy professionals.
Real-Time Operations: More Server Room Than Switchboard
You might think of a utility’s control center as the electrical equivalent of a DevOps war room. Operators monitor grid health, predict load, manage outages, and dispatch crews based on telemetry fed by thousands of field sensors. These control rooms resemble NASA mission control more than your neighborhood power company.
Load forecasting, for example, is a mission-critical task. Engineers model demand based on seasonality, usage patterns, and local development projects. A sudden spike—say, from charging a Tesla (which can draw as much as an entire household)—can cause strain if not anticipated.
Poor forecasting can have devastating consequences. During the 2021 Texas freeze, rolling blackouts lasted for days because the system wasn’t prepared for the surge in heating demand. A more granular, real-time approach to capacity planning could have mitigated the impact.
Planning a Connection: A Complex, Tech-Driven Process
Let’s say you want to install a new EV charging panel at your home. That request kicks off a well-defined utility workflow:
Initiate – Your request enters the utility’s customer information system (CIS).
Plan – Engineers assess whether the local grid can handle the added load.
Design – Technicians map out upgrades or extensions using GIS tools.
Execute – Field crews install the necessary equipment.
Close – The system validates completion and updates asset records.
What sounds simple involves multiple departments, from asset management to customer service, all powered by enterprise-grade software like SAP and Esri. SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems provide real-time telemetry, helping control rooms see and respond to events like voltage spikes or outages.
Smart Meters and the Rise of AMI
Smart meters have transformed how utilities monitor consumption. The first generation enabled remote billing and outage detection. The upcoming AMI 2.0 systems offer near real-time data, empowering both utilities and consumers with actionable insights.
Companies like Itron and GE are building advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) that communicates usage patterns in granular detail. In the future, smart meters may allow dynamic pricing, demand-response programs, and improved outage prediction—all while feeding anonymized data into machine learning models.
Regulation: The Backbone of Utility Accountability
Because utilities operate as regulated monopolies, oversight is extensive. At the federal level, bodies like FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) ensure grid reliability and compliance. States, like California, have their own Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) that monitor rate cases, investment plans, and service delivery.
By law, utilities must deliver power to any customer within their service area—regardless of location or infrastructure availability. That’s a powerful mandate, requiring immense coordination and accountability.
Microgrids: Decentralized, Resilient, and Rising
One of the most exciting developments in the industry is the rise of microgrids—localized energy networks that can operate independently from the central grid. Powered by renewables, batteries, or even small modular nuclear reactors, these systems are ideal for remote areas or critical infrastructure.
In California, we’re seeing microgrid pilots for entire communities, with minimal reliance on the main grid. Australia has gone further, with Tesla building entire neighborhoods powered by solar and battery technology.
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G): Your EV as a Power Plant
With EV adoption soaring, cars are becoming more than just transportation—they’re mobile power banks. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology allows parked EVs to feed electricity back into the grid during peak demand.
Pilot programs by Pacific Gas & Electric are exploring how aggregated EV batteries could stabilize local loads, particularly in emergencies. Each EV stores enough energy to power a typical household for a day. Multiply that by thousands of vehicles, and you’ve got a distributed energy resource ready to serve.
Digital Twins and Vegetation Management: AI at the Edge
Digital twins are virtual representations of physical assets—poles, transformers, substations—enabling better asset management, maintenance planning, and risk mitigation. GIS platforms like Esri help utilities maintain accurate geospatial models of millions of field assets.
These models are also used for vegetation management—a top cause of outages and wildfires. AI-powered tools like AI-DASH analyze satellite imagery and LiDAR data to predict vegetation growth and dispatch crews for proactive trimming. With climate risk rising, these innovations are essential.
The Workforce Shift: From Clipboards to Cloud
The utility workforce is undergoing a generational shift. Seasoned field engineers are retiring, taking undocumented tribal knowledge with them. Meanwhile, digital-native professionals expect cloud-first systems, mobile apps, and real-time data.
This transition is being eased through:
AI-assisted knowledge capture from legacy workers
Adoption of field-friendly digital tools
Investment in training programs tied to modern software and IoT systems
Utilities that embrace this shift will be better equipped to modernize while maintaining grid reliability.
In-Demand Skills for the Next Generation
For professionals looking to enter the utility space, the opportunities are vast:
Data Science & Forecasting – Load planning, consumption modeling, outage prediction
Cybersecurity – Protecting critical infrastructure from rising threats
Enterprise IT – Platforms like SAP and GIS tools like Esri
SCADA & Control Systems – Real-time monitoring and automation
AI & ML – From predictive maintenance to vegetation analytics
Utilities are recession-resistant and mission-critical. If you’re a technologist looking for impact, this is an industry worth your attention.
Final Thoughts: Old Grid, New Future
The utility industry may seem slow to change, but it’s undergoing a silent revolution. The next decade will see more transformation than the past fifty years combined—driven by data, automation, and a new generation of software-minded professionals.
To close with an industry anecdote: if Alexander Graham Bell returned today, he’d be astonished by how far the telephone has evolved. If Thomas Edison came back, he might say, “Hey, not much has changed.” But that’s finally starting to shift—and we need your help to make sure it does.
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