In this podcast, Carvallo goes into detail about building the enterprise architecture for the Smart Grid based on service-oriented architecture and cloud computing.
He also talks about his involvement in driving the IT Leadership and CTO Best Practices Collection, a 700-page document that describes essential IT processes, such as how to manage a data center to how to run a project management office. He also provides some takeaways for CIOs who might be interested in moving to Smart Grid technology. Despite the economy, Austin, Texas, has seen a spike in major businesses, such as google.com and Hewlett-Packard, moving into the area, as well as more people relocating there to find jobs. Meanwhile, Austin Energy, the nation’s ninth largest community-owned electric utility, is making sure it can meet the power demands of its one million residential customers and 41,000 businesses, and continues to return more than $1.5 billion in profits back to the community.
If all goes as planned, Austin Energy could become the country’s first electrical utility to deliver Smart Grid technology. A Smart Grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost, and increase reliability and transparency.
Perhaps, the credit for putting Austin Energy on its Smart Grid journey belongs to Andres Carvallo, the organization’s CIO. In fact, this year Computerworld Honors Program’s recognized the outstanding significance of Carvallo’s Smart Grid work in the energy field. Carvallo just could become the first CIO to deliver the country’s first Smart Grid for a public utility.
The genesis for the Smart Grid began in 2003 when Carvallo was working on automation and efficiency and optimization of the business. In 2004, after reading the Electric Power Research Institute’s white paper on the Intelligrid, Carvallo thought it would be possible to use similar technology for Austin Energy. In fact, not wanting to infringe on the Intelligrid trademark, he coined the term Smart Grid. In 2007, he gave his first speech about the Smart Grid. With the support of executive management, Carvallo’s team began working on Austin Energy’s Smart Grid, which seamlessly integrates four disciplines: energy, communications, software, and hardware.
He says, “Together these four disciplines help to redefine how we generate, distribute, and consume electricity. The project goes beyond how we collect data and move it, and how safely we do it. The decisions will be able to make about that data will affect production, distribution, and consumption of energy, from turning on and off devices, to managing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the house. “
Of course, as a public utility Austin Energy must abide by the North American Electrical Reliability Council’s standards and regulations for infrastructure protection and cyber security. Carvallo says, “We will become compliant this year.” Meanwhile, he has been one of eight people working on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cyber security standards for Smart Grids. He says, “We are awaiting the publication of the interim Smart Grid standards.”
Bio
Andres Carvallo is the chief information officer at Austin Energy. In addition to his CIO responsibilities as CIO, Carvallo sits on an eight-person executive team, as well as on the Innovation and Opportunity Development executive board. Outside of Austin Energy, he is vice chairman for the Large Public Power Companies’ CIO Task Force. Carvallo is a frequent speaker at both IT and energy industry venues, such as CleanTech.
His outstanding work in IT has earned him many awards, including IT Executive of the Year by the Association of Information Technology Professionals in 2005, Premier 100 IT Leader by Computerworld in 2006, Best in Class of Premier 100 by Computerworld in 2006, CIO 100 Award by CIO Magazine in 2006, InformationWeek 500 by InformationWeek Magazine in 2007, and Computerworld’s Top 12 Green IT Companies in 2008 (First Ever).
Before joining Austin Energy, Carvallo held key positions at four start-ups and large companies, such as Philips Electronics, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Microsoft. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas, and has completed executive management programs at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Resources
Austin Energy Delivers Opportunity - Smart Grid News
Exec Calls for Smart Grid Policies - EE Times
Top 10 Smart Grids - GreenTech Media
Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis
