Michelle Fay, Bridge Energy Group
Photo/Matt pilon
Michelle Fay comes to Marlborough-based Bridge Energy Group at a crucial time for the 9-year-old utility consulting and integration services provider. National Grid recently revealed that it had selected Bridge to lead its Worcester-based smart-grid pilot project, which was approved by state regulators in August. Bridge, which sees its electricity grid digitization capabilities as a growth area in the coming years, hired Fay that same month to lead those efforts. Fay, who most recently worked for Aclara Software Applications in Wellesley, sat down with MetroWest495 Biz at Bridge's Marlborough headquarters to discuss her new role.
What does Bridge Energy do?
It's a mix of providing business consulting as well as systems integration expertise. We're fortunate to have a really great team of subject matter experts and a lot of domain expertise. We focus solely on the utility space, which I think is a bit unique compared to some of our competitors.
What does your role, which is new at Briddge, involve?
One of the reasons I came here was to really help the company to grow. We're in a very significant growth phase. We're adding people and we're adding new programs and projects all the time. I was brought in to help us build the foundation and infrastructure to support that growth. In addition to that, I've had an opportunity to work on the National Grid project as a way to help us take a program like that and grow further into that space.
What does it mean to be the project leader and primary systems integrator for that pilot project?
It involves everything from defining how we're going to run the program to providing all the governance and management around the program on an ongoing basis. In addition to that, we're also helping them to develop their business requirements and helping them develop the solution architecture. It's a technically complex project. We're supporting all of their end-to-end program testing and then finally defining all of the processes and procedures that will support a successful transition into an operational phase (which will come in 2014).
What does smart grid mean?
I don't know if it's a good term. "Smarter grid" may be a better way to phrase it. Some think of it as just an automated metering infrastructure deployment. But to me, it's much bigger than that. The AMI piece is just a foundational element you need in order to support a smart grid program. It's is more than just putting infrastructure in place. It's bringing benefits to both the utility and the customer.
Bridge has been providing smart-grid related consulting for some time. What about the National Grid project is different or new?
They really brought some new technology to bear as part of this project. An example is having a hosted head end and meter-data management system. You can think of it as, rather than having utility hosting the infrastructure to support the program, they're utilizing their vendors to support that infrastructure. So vendors are actually hosting or have the infrastructure in place for the technology. It's a little bit of a different model in the utility industry — software as a service.
Why are utilities needing or wanting to move towards a smarter grid?
There are some obvious operational benefits to the utility, but the benefits this brings to a customer is very exciting. It's an opportunity for a customer to get involved in how they're managing their energy usage. It gives them more timely information and an opportunity to react and do something before they get their bill.
Smart grid feels like it's in the earlier stages. How will it advance?
I think we're still in the infancy stage. There are other parts of the country where we've seen full-scale deployment of AMI systems and we've started to see the beginning of that next phase of the smart grid. I see us starting to get to that point where utilities are taking that next step and thinking about: Where will we be several years from now?
What are a few other growth areas Bridge is pursuing?
We're really focusing on picking those areas where we have strong expertise where we can continue to grow. One area is around grid optimization, another is around asset management, another is around customer enablement and business intelligence. n
This article was edited for length and content by Matt Pilon.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments