Snowflake Data Warehouse Implementation for Utilities Data Cooperative

The Situation

A cooperative providing enterprise data solutions to approximately 300 electric distribution utilities across the US had outgrown its existing Oracle data warehouse. A shift to smart grid metering technology had caused data volumes to explode — from roughly 600,000 manual meter readings per year for a mid-sized utility to 1.7 billion automated readings annually. Query performance in Tableau had degraded significantly, and a statewide partner organization needed simultaneous access to that same meter data. Key challenges included:

• Oracle data warehouse unable to handle the volume and speed required for timely Tableau reporting
• Poor query response times creating a poor user experience for member utilities
• A need to enable simultaneous multi-organization access to large meter datasets
• Pressure to prove out a solution quickly without a long implementation cycle