Five for Friday: COVID Resources and Van Gogh’s AI-Driven Selfies

Earlier this week, TCS and Zinier released a field service automation solution designed to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. That announcement inspired several of this week’s collection of five bullet points from the worlds of field service, enabling technologies, and startup life.

1. IEEE Spectrum asked electric utilities for their self-assessment of what’s worked and what hasn’t in their responses to the pandemic. In 1918, the last time the electrical grid was challenged by a pandemic, only a third of American homes even had electricity, and none of them depended on it for their daily dose of TikTok.
2. That same article mentions a collection of COVID-19 best practices, an ongoing work in progress being compiled by the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council. It includes a wealth of suggestions that will be relevant for field service professionals in other industries as well.
3. The Edison Electric Institute offers some energy-saving tips for folks who find themselves working from home (and, as a result, paying for more of the electricity they use during work hours). You may already know (and practice) many of these – but did you know that your microwave consumes less energy when you keep it clean?
4. You’ll find some helpful guidance on “The Path to a More Resilient Energy Grid” in a report from the Critical Consumer Issues Forum. Many utilities focus on reliability but, as the report explains, resiliency is a distinct (and essential) goal.
5. On the lighter side, if you’ve always wondered what Van Gogh’s selfies might have looked like, this AI-generated self-portrait finally offers an answer.
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