How Small Data Can Inform Big Decisions

Utility managers often rely on high-level summary data to make important decisions about a utility’s programs, projects, and financial policies. Revenues, budgets, and bulk customer data drive decisions about rates and rate structures, while utility costs typically drive decisions about organizational structure and internal processes. In recent projects, Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. (RFC) has successfully partnered with several utilities to use transaction-level billing data analytics to inform utility managers on issues ranging from rate structure impact assessments to the identification of needed policy and process improvements. This paper presents three case studies, each for a different utility, where the power of raw billing data was harnessed to ask and answer important utility management questions. These cases highlight how a variety of high-level utility management decisions can be informed by patterns and findings gleaned from the smallest scale utility billing data.