Big Data Analytics: Making the Smart Grid Smarter [Guest Editorial]

The articles in this special section examine how Big Data analytics is being used in the power industry. Energy and power companies are gradually moving up the analytics ladder, from descriptive analytics, to predictive analytics, and all the way up to prescriptive analytics. Meanwhile, many companies have accumulated large volumes of data from various sources for advanced analytics. Now big data analytics, or applying analytics to big data, has become an emerging field. The topics include data visualization, system operations and planning, energy markets, renewable energy integration, and education. This issue also covers a variety of data sources, such as household- level smart-meter data, synchrophasor data, distribution outage data, and high-resolution weather data. Data visualization is a crucial step in the analytics workflow. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, carefully designed image displays can help analysts identify the proper predictive models, offer comprehensive information to decision makers, and ease communication with stakeholders.