Utility energizes applications

摘要

CenterPoint Energy isn't accustomed to being an early adopter of new technologies. But when the Texas Legislature voted to deregulate the state's electric industry, the Houston electric utility faced big changes to its operating model — changes that exponentially increased the integration demands on CenterPoint's IT systems. Today CenterPoint does business in the deregulated energy market not as an old-school utility company with monolithic systems, but as a nimble energy-delivery company with a composite application framework that gives company management customized diagnostic dashboards for keeping tabs on everything from individual transactions to overall business performance. Before deregulation took effect in 2002, CenterPoint's electric utility business did it all — it generated power, sold and delivered power to customers, and collected payments. With deregulation, its focus shifted to electricity transmission and distribution, while competing providers sell the electricity to consumers.