Lessons Learned from Replacing Highly Customized Legacy Systems at ODEC

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC), a generation and transmission provider based in Richmond, Virginia, relied for years on highly customized—but very stable—meter data management and wholesale power billing systems. When vendor support for those platforms was coming to an end, we faced the challenge of replacing systems that were deeply embedded in our operations while continuing to meet settlement, reporting, and reliability requirements. We embarked on a multi‑year effort to transition from legacy platforms to Itron’s IEE solution.

In this session, we share an honest look at what it takes to move off long‑standing custom systems and implement a modern enterprise solution. We discuss the key challenges we encountered, the opportunities we identified along the way, and the lessons learned from an 18‑month implementation. Topics include our configuration and requirements alignment process, running shadow billing and parallel operations, and managing operational risk while making significant system changes. Attendees will gain practical insights into what worked, what we would do differently, and what to consider when planning a similar modernization effort.