New Approach Needed for Meaningful Improvement
Power companies have access to some of the greatest minds in the world, to the most innovative approaches and technologies available, and to the latest improvements in quality management methods to maximize the value of their investments.
What if utilities were to take a systems approach to grid improvement? Inherently a systems approach is designed to find leverage — small changes that produce significant improvements. It helps to create new thinking and innovation. One example is the Village of Naperville, Ill.8 Fifteen years ago, this municipal utility was faced with a takeover bid by the large investor-owned utility serving the Chicago area. Municipal utility leaders leveraged continuous improvement methods to achieve dramatic improvements in reliability without raising costs.
In 2005, former Motorola CEO Robert W. Galvin formed the Galvin Electricity Initiative to design and promote a power system that cannot fail the end user. It leverages Six Sigma quality principles to enhance the efficiency, reliability and security of a dynamic power system. The Initiative intends to demonstrate that it is both economically plausible and practical to deliver “Perfect Power” to the consumer. The ultimate goal is to meet the needs of the end-user — perfectly.
The Initiative has applied systems thinking and approaches to improving the electricity system for two separate sites with similar results.5 The path to Perfect Power begins with defining the customer’s needs along with a comprehensive set of performance metrics that provides evidence that the system has improved.
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5. Galvin Electricity Initiative Perfect Power prototype design reports for the Illinois Institute of Technology and Mesa del Sol development, http://galvinpower.org/projects/perfect-power-illinois-institute-technology
8. Galvin Electricity Initiative Naperville Case Study, http://galvinpower.org/media/news/initiative-conducts-naperville-case-study
