INDUSTRY
Energy & Utilities
GOALS
- Reduce O&M Spend While Asset Count Grows
- Accelerate Grid-Modernization Projects
- Increase Reliability & Lower MTTR
- Embed Continuous Compliance (NERC-CIP, cyber mandates) Into Every Change
- Create Clean, Trustworthy Data to Enable AI / LLM Initiatives
- Enhance Service Quality with New Features
- Lay the Groundwork for Self-Healing, AI-Orchestrated Grid Operations
USE CASES
- Zero-Touch Device Onboarding & Offboarding
- Software Patching & Image Upgrades
- Automated Compliance Validation
- Network & Infrastructure Test Automation
- AI-Agent Invocation of Workflows
INTEGRATIONS
Key Results
Compressed site turn-up from weeks to same-day Zero-Touch Provisioning.
Cut per-device software-upgrade time from 6 hours to under 20 minutes.
Eliminated 1,000+ engineer hours every month — 15,000+ hours saved to date — to redirect talent toward modernization projects.
Drove 80–90% fewer manual change steps, slashing configuration errors across all network domains.
Activated self-service workflows for provisioning, patching, and compliance, giving operations teams instant, catalog-based access to network services.
Delivered real-time ROI dashboards (time saved, MTTR trending down, policy-audit pass rates) that secured executive funding for multi-year automation expansion.
The Grid at a Tipping Point
Southern California Edison (SCE) keeps the lights on for nearly 15 million Californians across 50,000 square miles. New field‑area networks, AMI 2.0 rollouts, wildfire‑hardening projects, and ever‑tighter cybersecurity rules were adding tens of thousands of devices to an estate that already included 600 substations and 200 telecom sites.
Scripts and spreadsheets could no longer keep pace.
- Device onboarding took weeks, with every mis‑typed IP address risking an outage.
- Quarterly compliance audits meant after‑hours CLI sessions and copy‑paste config checks.
- Data lived everywhere — and nowhere trustworthy enough for the AI initiatives leadership wanted to fund.
The mandate was clear: modernize operations without inflating O&M spend.
Data required for automation was not always available — and when it was, we discovered quality issues that hampered our efforts.
Matt Deibel, Manager, Grid Automation Services
From Chaos to Clarity
Inside the new Grid Automation Services team, SCE mapped the true blockers: scattered data, vendor silos, and a culture that treated automation as isolated quick fixes rather than an enterprise capability. The breakthrough was realizing that standardization had to precede automation. A handful of approved LAN designs became the first starting point; once designs were consistent, workflows could be codified.
Why SCE Chose Itential
A hands‑on bake‑off in WWT’s Advanced Technology Center pitted multiple solutions against SCE’s multi‑vendor reality. Itential emerged as the clear front‑runner because it could do more than run scripts — it could knit the entire ecosystem together.
Itential was the only platform that could orchestrate across our multi vendor landscape and plug straight into Remedy and NetBox.
Matt Deibel, Manager, Grid Automation Services
True Vendor Neutrality: One API‑driven layer for Cisco, Nokia, OT firewalls, cloud, and future technologies.
Built‑In Governance & Compliance: Every workflow logs to NetBox and validates against policy before a single config is pushed.
Low‑Code Speed, High‑Code Depth: Drag‑and‑drop for rapid wins; Python, Ansible, and Terraform when deeper logic is required.
Enterprise‑Grade Integrations: Native connectors to Remedy ITSM, IPAM, CMDB, telemetry, and cyber tools — crucial for utility audit trails.
Accelerated Time‑to‑Value: WWT reproduced SCE’s environment and demonstrated zero‑touch provisioning in two weeks, giving executives the ROI proof they demanded.
Measurable Results — Minutes Instead of Months
SCE targeted its highest‑volume pain points, turning brittle scripts into policy‑driven pipelines.
Metrics that Transformed the Business
The orchestration layer lets our AI agents trigger safe, compliant actions — that’s our roadmap to a self-healing grid.
Matt Deibel, Manager, Grid Automation Services
Automation that Supports Building an AI-Ready Grid
Automation is now the on‑ramp for Project ORCA, SCE’s initiative to blend Large Language Models with live operational data. Clean, orchestrated data streams let AI agents:
- Detect anomalies in telemetry.
- Generate remediation aligned to policy.
- Invoke Itential APIs to execute changes safely and audibly.
Lessons for Utility Leaders
SCE’s journey offers a repeatable pattern:
✅ Start with design discipline — automate consistency, not chaos.
✅ Choose a platform, not point scripts — governance and reuse make wins durable.
✅ Automate for data quality — structured data is AI’s oxygen.
SCE Shares Their Automation Journey @ UTC 2025
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