VIEWPOINT

5G POWERED UTILITY
TRANSFORMATION

The rise of renewable energy and the digitization

of the grid are significantly transforming energy
and utility companies. The emergence of 5G
wireless transmission will further accelerate this
transformation and make a profound impact on
revenue models, employee health and safety,
costs of asset management and field workforce
operations.
5G will drive the new Figure 1. Utility companies are actively defining 5G use cases and
service portfolios
world digital economy
Energy and utility companies are 3%
leading the pack in actively developing
Define use cases with
ecosystem partners
business cases, services and 4%
partnerships around 5G. Fifty-six Actively investigate and
percent of energy and utility develop a business case
companies are defining use cases for 17%
5G and 20% are already defining their
56% Define service portfolio
5G service portfolios along with and establish supply
ecosystem partners, according to a chain partners
recent Infosys Knowledge Institute
survey.1 (Figure 1) It’s not surprising 20% Wait and observe as the
given that the technology can help technology and industry
utilities better “sense and respond”
mature
across their networks and customers, a No active strategy in place
key component of what Infosys has
termed Live Enterprise. Source: Infosys
Over the past few decades, we have Base: 75
seen a major transformation in the
telecom networks, opening new 100 times more connected devices act now, 5G can make a profound
possibilities and paradigms. Mobile (mMTC: massive machine-type impact in the near future by improving
phones were first launched in 1980 communication), transmitting up to the health and safety of employees,
over the 1G network (otherwise 1,000 times more data at much faster creating new revenue models,
known as first-generation wireless speeds. (Figure2) 5G capabilities can reducing costs of asset management,
technology), offering voice-only be leveraged by energy and utility speeding up maintenance and
solutions. companies to help address some key repairs, and facilitating remote field
issues faced by the industry. If utilities workforce training.
2G came about in the 1990s — making
texting and MMS a reality. 3G was
launched in 2001 with data rates Figure 2. Predicted 5G improvements that could help utilities
of up to 2Mbps. Seeing this as an
opportunity, Apple launched its first
iPhone in 2007, and life has never
been the same. The 2009 launch of
Massive Machine-Type
the 4G network, supporting high-
Communications
speed multimedia with data rates 1/10 th
of 100Mbps, gave birth to multiple Expectation of
price per GB
10-100x
new industries and business models. Connected devices
The combined need to support new
business models, superior experiences
and ever increasing devices has
Ultra-Reliable and
driven the constant evolution of the
Low-Latency Communications
telecommunications network. That
brought us to the launch of 5G in 2018. 20-50x 10-100x
Low-Latency Connected devices
5G is a big step up from the previous
generations. It provides up to 100 Enhanced Mobile Broadband
times more bandwidth, 20-50 times
lower latency and extremely high
reliability (URLLC: ultra-reliable low
10-100x 1000x
Low-Latency Connected devices
latency communication). As a result,
it has the ability to support up to Source: Feedback Insights

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited
5G use cases for the All of this needs very high bandwidth
to support 4k/8k videos, which are
buildings and smart neighborhoods.
5G is just the right network to be
utilities industry among the core value propositions of able to support these requirements
the 5G network. via high bandwidth, URLLC and the
ability to provide network slicing
Use case 1: Digital (Figure 3), since it is a software-defined
field workforce Use case 2: Smart network (SDN).

The utilities industry is asset driven

“everything” All of these are potential new revenue
and spends significant time and For a city to be smart, it will need streams for utility companies. The
money on managing and maintaining to view and control millions of IoT smart home market is expected to
its assets. Today, most of this is done devices and machines remotely. For grow 7.5% a year — hitting $262.63
manually by thousands of trained field example, deploying an AI-enabled billion in 2025.3 According to one
technicians inspecting each site over traffic management grid needs report, smart cities will create $100
vast geographical spans and complex collection of real-time data from billion in revenue for utilities.4 As
urban neighborhoods. millions of beacons and sensors across electricity distributors run poles
the city and an ability to control the and wires to all parts of the cities
This is both expensive and a major risk and neighborhoods, they could
traffic signals in real time, based on
to health and safety. In addition, lack leverage their assets to provide
predictive algorithms. The current
of adequate technician training could smart surveillance solutions or smart
wireless networks (Wi-Fi or 4G) are
have a severe impact on customer lighting solutions to communities, law
unable to cater to this volume of
experience, leading to low first time enforcement agencies and enterprises.
devices and data, and do not have
resolution of faults. 5G will be a key enabler for utilities to
the reliability or latency to support
All these issues can be addressed if real-time, mission-critical operations. commercialize these revenue models.
the field technician is digitally enabled Similarly, for a city to be able to In addition, 5G allows utilities the
with the help of 5G-powered AR/VR/ deploy remote video surveillance, opportunity to improve customer
MR solutions. Imagine a field force it needs a network that can support experience, including by reducing
technician on-site, needing remote extremely high bandwidth with very costs to serve and improve health and
help from an expert. If equipped low latency. Also, different types of safety, since many operations can be
with a VR headset and an ability to services may have different needs managed remotely and in real time by
stream high definition video of the for quality of service (QoS). The same leveraging a 5G network.
equipment, the technician will be able concept applies to smart homes, smart
to seek expert guidance remotely and
fix the issue in a single truck roll.
Figure 3. 5G network slices create networks tailored to meet different
industry requirements
5G gives utilities the ability to roll
out digital training using VR/AR or 5G Network Slices
mixed reality, so workers can use
a digital twin to learn new skills Mobile Broadband
or diagnose faults without coming 1 5G mmWave, Wi-Fi, Lte, C-Plane,
back to base U-Plane, Mobility Management

C2X-Automotive
Training new or existing workers is 2 Intelligent control, Safety, Opportunistc
another problem for utilities. A utility D2D Comms, Autonomous cars,
can have 10,000-20,000 workers in the Mobile Edge Cloud
field workforce. It’s difficult to get that 3
many people back to base for training. Massive IOT
Also, according to a 2017 study by the Home Management, eHealth,
U.S. Department of Energy, 25% of Meters, CCTV, Sensors, Drones,
Energy, U-Plane, C-Plane, App-server
the U.S. workforce in electric utilities
will be ready to retire within the next
five years.2 Source: Infosys

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited

 Use case 3: time. 4G brought these opportunities
closer to reality, but data transmission
monitor electric lines passing through
millions of miles of forest, desert
Distributed energy speeds and bandwidth limitations are and mountains.
resources currently preventing these possibilities
from reaching their full potential.
It generally takes years for a utility
company to survey its entire territory.
Today, renewable energy accounts
The inspections are done manually by
for a third of global power capacity.
5G, with its capabilities of following the electric lines on the road
According to new data from the
or by helicopter/UAVs/drones. This
International Renewable Energy ultralow latency and large makes for very slow preventive action.
Agency, renewable energy capacity
bandwidth, can accelerate grid LiDAR (light detection and ranging)-
grew globally by 171 gigawatts
in 2018. Sixty-one percent of new modernization. 5G enables based technology and aerial imagery
to capture data are not being used
renewable energy installations were real-time collection and analysis to their full potential. In most cases,
in Asia. Renewables contribute 17% of large amounts of data from drones capture information that is
of the energy generated in the U.S.
In more than half the states, electric
various devices such as power then inspected offline. If there are any
issues, the drone or helicopter goes
companies are required to produce a plants, transmission lines, meters
back to get additional information,
percentage of energy using renewable and many more by which time it may be too late. With
resources. Governments around the
5G, a large amount of data can be
world are encouraging citizens to use
transmitted at very high speed. Drones
renewable sources of energy. More This can help the grid predict energy
can transmit high-definition videos
than 2 million homes in Australia are demand and detect outages. Ultralow
and images in real time, which can
solar powered5 — that’s 20% of all the latency can help automate power
be compared with the older images
homes in Australia. Sweden gets 54.5% flow switching, load management and
using sophisticated AI/ML algorithms.
of its energy from renewable sources. voltage stabilization, making it truly
If an anomaly is detected, the drones
Finland isn’t far behind, with 41%. intelligent and efficient. Real-time
can zoom in immediately to capture
data management through 5G will
As millions of consumers and 360-degree images of the impacted
also enable flexible billing systems
enterprises turn into small electricity area for further assessment and
using two-way power flows. 5G will
producers, they would like to share the corrective action.
play an important role in the scaling
excess energy produced with the grid
of community participation and This could save millions of dollars for
or among each other. This presents an
integration of renewable resources in utilities in maintenance costs and by
opportunity for utility companies to
seamless energy distribution. preventing catastrophic damage to
create and run a distributed energy
environment and life.
grid. Currently, net metering is used to
accommodate two-way power flows. Use case 4:
Utility companies require a distributed
energy resource management
Aerial imagery
platform. This platform should be for vegetation
able to manage energy flows from
different sources and accommodate
management
two-way power flows — homes to Faulty electric infrastructure is one of
grid and homes to homes. The next- the major causes of wildfires.6 The 2017
generation smart grid will send back California wildfire that claimed 44 lives
data that utilities can use to optimize and burned at least 245,000 acres was
their operations. The current 4G caused by faulty electric lines coming
network will not be able to support in contact with dry vegetation.7 The
all of those devices at scale. There will utility company involved agreed to
be billions of devices communicating pay $11 billion to resolve insurance
with each other and sharing data every claims from wildfires in 2017 and
millisecond. The energy management 2018. In addition, power outages cost
system should be able to handle all billions of dollars to the economy.8
these requirements and do so in real However, it is physically impossible to

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited

Barriers and challenges investments. Selecting and prioritizing
5G use cases to deliver the desired ROI
Translating concepts to
Energy and utility companies is also a key challenge for utilities. reality
navigating the various stages of
Finding employees with the skills There’s a lot to do before utilities
5G adoption can expect to face a
needed to create and monetize use can fully realize the benefits of 5G.
few barriers and challenges. 5G’s
cases on 5G-related technologies will According to our research, energy and
significantly higher bandwidth and
be another challenge for the energy utility companies are leading the pack
low latency bring the unique ability
and utility industry. Most use cases will when it comes to use case definition,
to support mMTC and MIoT (massive
require skills in digital technologies with 39% involved in the prototype
IoT). The higher number of end point
such as AI/ML, AR/VR and SDN. These stage, a much higher percentage than
connections leads to quantum times
are still niche skills, and finding people in any other industry (Figure 4). But
more data being generated and
who have them will be key. in terms of commercial execution,
transferred across the 5G network.
The broader regulatory concerns utilities lag behind, with only 7% of
As most utilities support critical
around interoperability across companies at this stage of maturity.
infrastructure, ensuring data security
will be one of the biggest challenges standards and networks will remain Our research also found that systems
for the industry. across all industries. As with every integrators partners are considered
network evolution, governments, just as important as network operators
As utilities move toward renewable
industry forums and service providers when it comes to bringing the 5G
energy, they must become very
will continue to work through
careful about the return on capital
this challenge.

Figure 4. Energy & Utility firms need to move from prototype to commercial execution soon

MFG E&U
FSI CRL 28% 39%
27%
25%
H&LS CMT 22%
25%
29% 17%
23% 16%
18%
14% 16% 26%
14% 13% 18%
18% 18%
10% 22%
9% 13% 13% 17%
12%
7% 13% 12% 7%
7% 11% 13% 7%
11% 9%
Evaluating
business Business case Exploring service Seeking partnerships
Wait and watch Build use cases Prototype stage
Phase

opportunities formulation possibilities to explore service offerings

• No finalized strategy • Currently in the process of • Currently in the process of defining use cases • Currently in the process of developing service portfolio
Strategy

or wait and watch building business cases

Criteria for identifying opportunities

• Not clear on • Potential to • Evaluating • Assessing effective • Plan for effective • Defining innovative • Leveraging services to develop
opportunities and gain customers possible RoI use cases returns offerings brand image
would like to • Disruption • Build potential • Revenue generation • Project revenue • Building partnerships for
evaluate further capability pricing models avenues streams increasing profitability

Source: Infosys
Base: 850

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited

 ecosystem together for commercial computing, SDN/NFV, and security, The utility industry is testing 5G, but
execution of the use cases. This making the role of systems integrators the utilities that get there first are the
makes sense when one considers the even more prominent. ones that will make the most gains
number of different technologies, transforming their operation. The
This is where collaborative innovation
business strategies, and operating faster utilities make the move to 5G,
initiatives such as Infosys’ 5G Living
models and processes that have to be the more competitive they will be.
Labs can help. These labs provide
designed and implemented to make By leading the pack with 5G, a utility
a platform for industries to come
5G effective. Utilities will need to work company will lead the market in new
together and experiment using a fully
with a wide range of key digital skills business models and reduction of
simulated 5G network to establish
such as experience design, data, AI/ operating costs.
desirability, feasibility and viability of a
ML, IoT, blockchain, cloud and edge
use case.

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited
 References
1 “State of 5G — The Road Ahead,” Infosys, March 2019, https://www.infosys.com/services/engineering-services/insights/state-of-5g-road-ahead.html
2 “Preparing for the Aging Utility Workforce,” IBM, January 2018,
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/insights-on-business/energy-and-utilities/preparing-aging-utility-workforce/#_edn1
3 “Future of Smart and Connected Homes, 2019-2025 Partnerships Between Smart-Home Product Providers and Utility, Telecom, Insurance, and Online Retail
Companies are Crucial for Mass Market Adoption,” researchandmarkets.com, October 2019,
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/future-of-smart-and-connected-homes-2019-2025-partnerships-between-smart-home-product-providers-
and-utility-telecom-insurance-and-online-retail-companies-are-crucial-for-mass-market-adoption-300934024.html
4 Smart cities to generate $100 billion in revenue for utilities, Smart Energy International, February 2019,
https://www.smart-energy.com/industry-sectors/smart-grid/smart-cities-to-generate-100-billion-in-revenue-for-utilities-by-2027/
5 “Number of Australian homes with rooftop solar tops 2 million … and counting,” Clean Energy Council, December 2018,
https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/news/number-of-australian-homes-with-rooftop-solar-tops-2-million-and-counting
6 “Rethinking Utility Vegetation Management, POWERGrid International, May 2018,
https://www.elp.com/articles/powergrid_international/print/volume-23/issue-5/features/rethinking-utility-vegetation-management.html
7 “PG&E equipment and power lines caused Northern California wildfires, says Cal Fire,” Curbed San Francisco, June 2018, \
https://sf.curbed.com/2018/6/8/17443508/santa-rose-napa-fire-wildfire-pge-report-findings
8 “Berkeley Lab estimates sustained electric power interruptions cost the U.S. approximately $44 billion annually — a 25% increase since 2006,” Electricity
Markets & Policy Group, October 2018, https://emp.lbl.gov/news/berkeley-lab-estimates-sustained-electric

Authors
Gaurav Gopal Semra Barutchu Christine Calhoun
VP – Regional Head VP – Head of Engineering Services, APAC Senior Consultant – Infosys Knowledge Institute
Communications, Utilities, Resources [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]

External Document © 2020 Infosys Limited

About Infosys Knowledge Institute
The Infosys Knowledge Institute helps industry leaders develop a deeper understanding of business and technology trends
through compelling thought leadership. Our researchers and subject matter experts provide a fact base that aids decision
making on critical business and technology issues.
To view our research, visit Infosys Knowledge Institute at infosys.com/IKI

For more information, contact [email protected]

© 2020 Infosys Limited, Bengaluru, India. All Rights Reserved. Infosys believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Infosys
acknowledges the proprietary rights of other companies to the trademarks, product names and such other intellectual property rights mentioned in this document. Except as expressly permitted, neither this
documentation nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of Infosys Limited and/ or any named intellectual property rights holders under this document.

Infosys.com | NYSE : INFY Stay Connected