Severe weather is the top cause of power outages in the US, creating over 679 wide-spread outages between 2003 and 2012, and the situation is getting worse.

Since 1980, 144 storms have caused over a billion dollars in damage – totalling in excess of $1 trillion (U.S. Department of Commerce 2013). Moreover, seven of the ten costliest storms in U.S. history occurred between 2004 and 2012 (U.S. DOC 2012). More than being of paramount concern to state and federal regulators, these “billion dollar storms” have had a devastating toll on both the U.S. economy and the lives of millions of Americans.

This is getting worse. Aging infrastructure, distributed energy resources, the increase in billion dollar storms all in the face of complicated state and federal regulation.

This needs to change and CAN change through leveraging the right technology and analytics saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fundamental advancements in systems and technologies are offering opportunities for utilities to transform their operations and actually ‘end the era of the outage’. It requires a shift in thinking, the right short term digital decisions that will drive optimum results.

Providing faultless service availability is soon to become a reality.  While many utilities providers are re-evaluating their strategy for emergency management from the ground up; digital innovations now able to provide real time, predictive visibility of threats, a reactive approach is no longer good enough.

So, how can digital transformation move the modern utilities provider to a predictive, proactive approach to emergency management? How can this strategic shift offer the maximum potential to field workers? And with safety and reliability as key industry watchwords, what part can automation play? Join this roundtable to find out.