Enterprise architecture will be important for the success of smart grid deployments, according to Pike Research (News - Alert).

In the wake of accelerating smart grid deployments, the utility industry is set to face challenges of effective business analysis and strategy development, Pike Research said in its report “Smart Grid Enterprise Architecture.”

These kinds of challenges will pose new demands on utilities' supporting information infrastructure. Utility industries will be prompted to scale up related system and network performance requirements. As a result, business and technology transformations will become necessary to make smart grid deployments successful.

Leveraging Enterprise Architecture (EA), an established methodology and discipline for meeting these challenges, utilities can align business strategy, processes, and information assets.

Enterprise Architecture can offer better overall business decision-making, business-IT synergy, resource utilization, governance control, and speed to innovation. The discipline, methods, and tools offered by EA are essential to utilities' efforts to create a long-term roadmap and adjust effectively to the future state of the smart grid, according to Pike Research.

“Significant transformation requires different modes of thinking and methods of problem solving,” said Bob Gohn, research director at Pike Research, in a statement.

“Utility executives will have to make better business strategy choices more rapidly, requiring them to better understand and predict the outcomes of business choices before acting. EA offers a way forward for utilities to build a smart grid that can be responsive to rapidly changing industry conditions,” Gohn added.

Recently, Northeast Group said that the total smart grid market in Mexico will exceed a cumulative $8.3 billion by 2020. Mexico will have more than 21 million smart meters to be deployed by the end of the decade. Distribution automation, wide area measurement, and home energy management will grow significantly over the forecast period.