The Microsoft/OSIsoft Worldwide Utility Industry Survey 2012 shows a 25 percent increase over last year in the number of utilities companies that have implemented smart-grid technology. The survey also shows that 28 percent of companies surveyed are in the planning phase, but 24 percent still have not started adopting any smart-grid technology. However, 63 percent of participants expect their budgets for these technologies to increase over the next two or three years.

The survey, which was a collaboration between Microsoft Corp. and OSIsoft LLC, polled 216 professionals within electric, gas and water utility industries around the world and highlights the challenges utilities face as they move from planning to actual smart-grid implementation. Nearly 20 percent of those surveyed said technical issues kept them from moving forward, which was a larger group than in last year's survey.

"This year's survey shows that more and more utilities companies are adding new devices to the grid and incorporating new data sets into their operational capabilities," said Jon C. Arnold, managing director for the Worldwide Power and Utilities Industry at Microsoft and a member of the Smart Grid Advisory Committee to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "However, many of these same organizations are encountering significant interoperability and integration challenges. Leveraging technology and architectures that are adaptable removes many of the technology risks."

The survey indicated that 72 percent of respondents do not have an enterprisewide scalable architecture in place to support current and future smart-grid deployments.

Smart-grid technologies provide access to large amounts of smart data, which can inundate organizational systems. When asked how they are addressing the big data challenge to the smart grid, nearly one quarter of surveyed companies referenced the importance of business intelligence solutions. Business intelligence tools and systems are critical to managing and analyzing large amounts of data, which in turn enables companies to make smarter and more proactive business decisions based on actionable information.