The Energy Industry's Point Solution Problem: Why Utilities Keep Reinventing the Wheel

At Distributech last week, one theme echoed across nearly every conversation: utilities are drowning in redundant connectivity work. Time, money, and talent are being spent solving the same system interconnection challenges again and again. This repetitive work delays innovation, wastes resources, and erodes customer trust. The rest of the tech world has embraced platforms; the energy sector remains tangled in point solutions.

So why does this keep happening? And more importantly—how do we break the cycle?

#Point Solutions Are Slowing Innovation

Energy utilities operate unlike any other industry. Historically, they’ve solved problems by connecting system A to system B—without considering the broader ecosystem. These short-term fixes create what engineers call a "local maximum": a solution that works for a single problem but makes the overall system worse.

This persists for several reasons. Utilities are regional monopolies, so competitive pressure to innovate is minimal. Contrast this with retail: if Zappos or Nike delivers a bad experience, customers switch with a few clicks. Utilities don’t face that threat.

System lifetimes stretch decades. Some utilities are only now sunsetting 40-year-old CIS platforms. And their focus remains on their core mission—generation, transmission, and distribution—not system interoperability. Software is a means to an end, not the product.

The result? A fragmented landscape of siloed systems and manual data transfers. CSVs over email or SFTP remain the norm. Coming from fintech or mortgage, where customer data is fiercely protected, it’s jarring to hear customer PII casually shared over email. It’s insecure, inefficient, and often leaves critical systems out of sync.

#Why Utilities Struggle to Modernize

A perfect storm of constraints explains the fragmentation.

Talent focus. Utilities hire incredible engineers, but they’re rightly focused on grid operations and infrastructure—not modern data pipelines or software platforms. Just as tech companies aren’t experts in running power plants, utilities haven’t prioritized cutting-edge software development.

Cultural conservatism. Utilities are stewards of critical infrastructure. Risk aversion is part of the DNA—for good reason. But that caution often bleeds into back-office systems and data flows, where innovation poses far less operational risk.

Perverse incentives. Regulatory structures reward capital expenditures over operating expenses. That leads to bespoke builds instead of reusable platforms.

Cybersecurity concerns. Rightfully cautious, many utilities choose closed systems. But modern platforms offer more robust security through uniform APIs, consistent patterns, and comprehensive monitoring.

Add it up, and system connectivity becomes everyone’s problem—and no one’s priority.

#The Hidden Costs of Siloed Systems

The most insidious effect of this fragmentation is what we call the connectivity tax: the hidden costs of maintaining hundreds of point-to-point connections instead of a cohesive platform.

This tax shows up everywhere:

Standards fragmentation. Without common protocols, every new device requires custom connection work.
Vendor incentives. OEMs optimize for their own silos. Interoperability isn’t a priority.
Delayed innovation. Exciting new capabilities—load flexibility, customer insights, real-time outage management—take 12–18 months to deploy. Half that time is just system connection work.

Consider this: Utilities have deployed smart meters nationwide. These meters are capable of sending detailed, frequent readings back to the utility. In theory, a utility should instantly know if a home stops drawing power—an obvious signal that something is wrong.

But that’s not how it works in practice.

If your power goes out, the utility won’t know until you call them and tell them. Yes, they have a meter on your house. Yes, it’s sending data. But because most utilities lack the real-time data infrastructure to process and route that information, it sits unused. Worse, even if some analytics identify the outage, that insight rarely reaches the CRM system that supports the call center.

So the customer calls. The agent pulls up your account and says: “Hmm, we weren’t aware your power was out.” And yet the data was there all along—just trapped in the wrong system, or arriving too late to matter.

#In Summary: Why This Keeps Happening

In short, utilities face:

Talent and incentive structures not aligned to solve modern data challenges
Risk-averse cultures that slow innovation—even where it's safe
A landscape of fragmented systems and legacy infrastructure
A "connectivity tax" paid on every new system interconnection

The system wasn’t designed to be interoperable. And without a platform approach, every new project means reinventing the wheel.

#How Texture Eliminates the Connectivity Tax

This is why we built Texture.

We're not replacing your core systems. Your CIS, ADMS, OMS, and other platforms stay exactly where they are. Texture is the connective tissue—the central nervous system that ensures every part of your utility communicates in real time.

We designed Texture to meet the energy sector's unique challenges:

Complementary talent. Utilities know grid ops. We know secure APIs, scalable platforms, and modern data architecture. Together, we build more than either could alone.
Non-disruptive integration. Texture enhances your existing stack with a modern connectivity layer.
Pre-built connectors. We've already integrated with major OEMs and platforms. What took months now takes days.
Focus on innovation. Stop writing adapters. Start building the next breakthrough in grid management or customer experience.

With Texture, meter data showing an outage is routed automatically to your OMS and customer service tools—in real time. No more delays. No more disjointed experiences. No more reinventing the wheel.

#The Future Belongs to the Connected

The energy landscape is changing fast. Systems that can’t talk to each other will hold you back.

Utilities that embrace platform thinking will innovate faster, serve customers better, and operate more efficiently.

Let’s build that future together. Get in touch to see how Texture can modernize your connectivity layer.