For years, utilities have seen a growing need to enable a smarter electric grid, promote cleaner power sources, and replace aging infrastructures. These issues came into even sharper focus when United States President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Clean Energy Finance Authority (CEFA) programs included in the ARRA will drive the renewable energy industry and propose to double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years.

Read "Energizing Utilities for the Economic Stimulus Plan" to gain a clear understanding of how utility executives can tackle today's challenges. Learn how gaining greater business visibility and transparency can enable organizations to execute decisively and effectively by addressing concerns such as sustainability, government regulations, and technology.

In response to the ARRA, utilities must:

• Optimize efficiency and collaboration to quickly deploy stimulus funds that support programs to boost the economy – both from within and beyond the organization. Read "Enabling AMI Integration for Utilities" to learn how SAP AMI Integration for Utilities software enables cost-effective customer service, market efficiency, and optimized revenues and demand management.
• Increase accountability to support consumer demands and recovery program mandates for transparency and outcomes, as well as measure performance. Read "Risk-Adjusted Management of Enterprise Performance" to learn how you can proactively identify, analyze, respond to, and monitor risk.
• Adopt Smart Grid technologies and increase energy efficiencies. Read "Leading the Charge for Long-Term Energy Efficiency" to learn about energy efficiency, smart grid technology, smart metering, and advanced metering infrastructure for utilities.

To achieve clarity and transparency, best-run utilities use the SAP for Utilities solution portfolio to overcome functional silos and optimize performance throughout the organization. Read how PacifiCorp improves data analysis with SAP solutions by speeding up the delivery of many complex reports, enabling better analysis and quality of results.

Why SAP?

The SAP for Utilities solution portfolio delivers industry-specific solutions that help utilities close the gap between strategy and execution by delivering:

• Insight to improve performance, assess programs, and identify initiatives with the most impact
• Efficiency to optimize resources (people, time, funds) and fulfill program requirements
• Flexibility to respond quickly within and beyond the utility organization to ever-changing legislation, policies, regulations, and consumer expectations

SAP is ideally positioned, not only with a world-class solution portfolio, but with customers who are delivering outstanding performance today – and preparing for the road ahead.