By Lumi Kojcini, senior director, information technology, and Raymond Lewis, IT manager, American Public Power Association
Technology deployment often starts with simple questions: Is it time to replace our aging outage management system? How do we improve reporting? Should we explore artificial intelligence applications?
Each decision may be justified on its own; the challenge is determining which investments should take priority, which capabilities must precede others, and how technology decisions will support the utility’s broader mission.
As utilities become more dependent on technology, decisions about business systems, operations, customer service, cybersecurity, and workforce productivity can no longer be made in isolation. Without a plan, organizations can find themselves managing disconnected systems, competing priorities, redundant applications, and growing complexity.
More than a project list, a technology and data roadmap connects technology decisions to business objectives, operational needs, customer expectations, and organizational priorities. The American Public Power Association developed its three-year technology roadmap in 2025 to align technology investments and capabilities with the association's strategic plan. Individual utilities also create plans that take their priorities into account. Seattle City Light’s strategic plan, for example, connects technology with infrastructure, workforce development, customer needs, and long-term utility objectives.
Start with the Current State
Before evaluating future technologies, utilities need an understanding of their existing environment, including business and operational systems, infrastructure, data, integrations, processes, staffing, and vendor relationships. Electric Power Research Institute’s Digital Transformation Framework recommends utilities catalog current digital assets and assess the organization before developing initiatives and foundational investments. This work can reveal redundant applications, aging platforms, manual processes, integration gaps, and data quality issues.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Products
One of the most common planning mistakes is to center around a solution instead of the problem. Rather than asking, “What technology should we buy?” leaders should ask, “What are we trying to accomplish?”
If the ultimate goal is to improve reliability or enhance customer service, then technology should be evaluated according to how effectively it supports that goal. For public power, technology is an enabler of reliability, resilience, sustainability, or customer service rather than an end in itself.
Define the Future State
A roadmap will define where the utility wants to go over the next three to five years. The purpose is not to predict every project, but to define the capabilities the utility will need and determine the investments required to achieve them. EPRI’s Information and Communication Technology Roadmap describes a similar process: Define future states, assess gaps in capabilities, and create sequenced action plans.
Make Data Part of the Strategy
Outage response, engineering analysis, financial reporting, customer service, asset management, and AI use all depend on accurate, accessible, and trustworthy data. Yet critical data often reside in multiple systems, follow inconsistent standards, or lack clear ownership and governance. An effective roadmap addresses governance, data ownership, quality, integration, access, and lifecycle management alongside system investments.
Consider Both IT and OT
Utility planning must include information technology and operational technology. IT supports finance, human resources, customer service, communications, and business operations. OT includes systems directly involved in delivering electricity, such as advanced metering infrastructure, outage management, SCADA, and distribution automation.
Historically, these environments were often planned separately. Today, they are increasingly connected through shared data, integrations, analytics, and business processes. A successful roadmap recognizes these dependencies and considers interoperability, support requirements, and investment timing across both environments.
Prioritize and Sequence Investments
Most utilities have more worthwhile projects than they have available budget, staff, or time. A roadmap helps utility leaders compare initiatives based on business value, operational impact, customer benefits, resource requirements, organizational readiness, risk, and dependencies.
Not every initiative belongs in the next budget cycle. Foundational systems, data, integrations, and processes might need to be strengthened before advanced capabilities can succeed. Public power utilities such as Northern Wasco County Public Utility District in Oregon and Traverse City Light & Power in Michigan use scoring to establish priorities.
Make It an Enterprise Effort
Technology planning is an enterprise-wide effort, not an IT-only exercise. Operations, engineering, finance, customer service, communications, executive leadership, and other stakeholders all bring perspectives. Their participation improves the roadmap, builds support, and identifies changes to processes, roles, and skills that technology alone cannot solve.
Keep the Roadmap Current
A roadmap is not a one-time exercise. Technology, customer expectations, regulations, workforce needs, and utility priorities will continue to evolve. Regular reviews allow leaders to reassess priorities, adjust timelines, measure progress, and incorporate new opportunities.
Public power utilities have long recognized the importance of planning for substations, distribution systems, and other physical infrastructure. Technology and data deserve the same discipline. A well-developed roadmap moves the utility beyond reacting to individual requests and toward coordinated investments that improve reliability, customer service, operations, and readiness for the future.
