In conversation with Mike Ballard on addressing energy sector ‘chaos’ and advancing grid modernisation

In this interview, Mike Ballard, Vice President for Utilities Industry Strategy at Oracle, discusses some of the company’s solutions, including the Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) and the Utilities Digital Asset Cloud Service (DACS). He also talks about how Oracle’s global presence and collaboration with thousands of utilities enable the exchange of innovative practices, which is beneficial, particularly for the Middle East.

The modern energy landscape is complex in the sense that it faces a web of challenges, from balancing the unpredictability of renewable energy sources to modernising grids to meet rising demand. A common ground among these issues is the need to gather and analyse data. 

Oracle, with its world-leading expertise in data management and advanced technologies, helps utilities in the Middle East and other regions address such challenges.

In this interview, Mike Ballard, Vice President for Utilities Industry Strategy at Oracle, discusses some of the company’s solutions, including the Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) and the Utilities Digital Asset Cloud Service (DACS). He also talks about how Oracle’s global presence and collaboration with thousands of utilities enable the exchange of innovative practices, which is beneficial, particularly for the Middle East.

Interviewer: In your work with governments, regulators, and utilities globally, what are the most significant challenges you see utilities facing today? How about in the Middle East, specifically?

Mr. Ballard: Chaos is the most significant challenge utilities face today. By chaos, I mean the unpredictability brought about by intermittent energy resources, volatile weather, and variances in human behavior. 
For hundreds of years, the energy system was stable and deterministic: A grid operator knew how much energy they needed to produce and distribute, how much coal or gas to burn, and how many turbines to spin up. But today’s grid operators must be more probabilistic. Fluctuations in weather or consumer behaviour mean the actual energy load may differ greatly from what was forecasted. And with intermittent wind and solar energy, generation is less predictable, too. A responsive approach is required.

In the Middle East, this “chaos” is compounded by the diversity of the region’s population. The region’s prestige attracts an influx of migrant workers and tourists. Different ages and cultures bring a range of attitudes to energy efficiency, while discrepancies in wealth lead to a variety of energy-consuming habits and devices. Utilities face the challenge of communicating with consumers who have an almost infinite combination of attitudes, lifestyles, and devices. What topics should they prioritise? Which channels have the most impact? How can they best motivate customers to act? Utilities cannot treat everyone the same. Personalisation is more important than ever before.
Data will help utilities navigate this chaos. Thankfully, Oracle is a world leader in managing and interpreting the world’s most complex data.

Interviewer: With the growing focus on renewable energy and sustainability in the region, how is Oracle assisting governments and utilities in their energy transition and grid modernisation efforts?

Mr. Ballard: The energy transition and grid modernisation go hand-in-hand, because yesterday’s linear energy networks were not designed for today’s distributed, intermittent energy resources. They’re outdated. 
Managing renewable energy resources requires a two-way power flow. However, this brings new operational challenges: Assets failing sooner, shifting demand patterns, and geographically dispersed devices. Our Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) equips utilities to combat these challenges and orchestrate renewables owned by the utility at scale. 

Yet, customer-owned devices add further complexity. Part of the chaos utilities must navigate is the plethora of different customer-owned devices joining the network, from residential solar panels to electric vehicles (EVs) and battery systems — and how people use them. Oracle’s solutions help utilities work with these unfamiliar devices, too. 

Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Cloud Service (DACS) supports the enrollment of customer-owned devices to boost their generation capacity through virtual power plants. But, first, utilities need to understand these devices to avoid overloading their network, damaging customers’ property, or underutilising assets. DACS helps by demystifying these devices. It analyses the asset to determine properties, such as availability, output, and safe operating limits, and feeds this data into DERMS so grid operators can achieve a cohesive, orchestrated energy system of both utility-owned and customer-owned assets. 

Interviewer: Given your global experience, what key trends and best practices from other regions can be applied to the Middle East's utility sector to enhance both operational efficiency and customer service?

Mr. Ballard: Because Oracle works with thousands of utilities around the world, each facing different challenges and government regulations, we can apply lessons learned internationally to solve Middle East-specific issues and vice versa. This is tremendously important to fostering innovation among our community of customers.

Our grid modernisation work with Northern Ireland Electric (NIE) Networks has attracted site visits from all over the world, including utilities professionals from the Middle East. Another example is the virtual reality (VR) community engagement experience we built to uplift energy efficiency in the USA. One Middle Eastern energy agency was so impressed with the experience that they borrowed it for two weeks. 

This interrelationship within our community of customers is accelerating the rate of change within our industry. Utilities are building on each other’s breakthroughs, rather than starting from zero individually. This fosters greater innovation, which feeds back into the community to create a virtuous circle that fuels progress.

Interviewer: How can new technologies improve the way energy companies in the Middle East serve their customers and manage operations?

Mr. Ballard: Earlier, I spoke about chaos. Technology has the power to help energy companies navigate this complexity and unpredictability that characterises the modern energy sector. More specifically, data does. Thankfully, Oracle is a world leader in managing and interpreting the world’s most complex data. AI is an important aspect of that.

AI is very good at making sense of complex and seemingly disconnected information. It’s capable of looking at the past and predicting how things might be in the future. We’re already seeing energy companies using AI to change how they forecast energy use. The chaos the industry is experiencing will be mitigated and managed through the ubiquitous deployment of AI in all its forms — such as machine learning and large language models, which allow utility professionals to interrogate data without needing to become data scientists first. 

But AI is only as good as the data it interprets. A lot of utilities’ data is fragmented and stored deep within legacy systems. Each utility has a different data architecture, too. This is a barrier to how successfully AI can access and interpret data. In today’s interconnected energy system, where utilities need to interact with devices sold and managed by private companies, the ability to interpret others’ data is essential. 

Fortunately, ontologies have the power to make sense of this data. They provide a framework for describing information that allows AI to build connections between disparate data sources. Plus, they’re dynamic and evolve as the data they represent does. In today’s rapidly evolving energy industry, ontologies have the potential to help diverse consumers, devices, and companies interoperate cohesively, allowing utilities to serve their customers and manage operations successfully. 

 

Mike Ballard is one of the speakers at the 49th Middle East Energy, happening from April 7 to 9, 2025, at the Dubai World Trade Centre. 

The event, held under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, convenes leading energy experts, innovators, and key players from around the globe to spark innovation, foster collaboration, and shape the future of energy. It’s a premier international trade event for the power industry, covering various topics, such as energy generation, transmission, distribution, and storage. Register now!