WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO UTILITIES

WHAT INNOVATION MEANS TO UTILITIES 

 

Utilities are historically conservative by nature. Our mandate is to ensure we can supply services for customers on demand, regardless of external factors that can sometimes be out of our control.

To encourage innovation, firstly we set up a network venture development group designed to look beyond our engineering platforms with the understanding of new technology frontiers that are available in many industries - beyond utilities.

This led to development of the our Network of the Future strategy, to help staff embrace change and new ideas, swapping concepts with overseas and the progressive roll-out of a new Internet-Protocol communications network which will transform the electricity distribution network.

The integration of these new technologies into the electricity distribution network represents the biggest changes to the network in 100 years. It will deliver greater operational efficiencies and benefits to customers including greater reliability of electricity supply and greater control over their energy use and bill.

One successful outcome has been swapping of concepts between countries. Collaborating with Hong Kong and New York, we are swapping staff between energy providers so they can learn from how we all work on things differently with new processes that can improve our services. These have also been supported by events in Australia with delegates invited from overseas that have built on our international relationships and shared concepts that can be replicated on a municipality level.

Focusing on network communications and technological advancement will enable us to provide an almost seamless service in the future. When the innovation rollout is complete, if there is an unexpected interruption to customer services, our network be able to automatically detect the fault and immediately re-route the power supply to ensure customers are rarely interrupted.

Technology for the home has also been adopted eagerly, such as Smart meters and time-based billing which enable customers more control of their bills by being able to switch energy use from peak to off-peak times of the day.

Following recent events with overseas partners, we see the future of energy utilities will incorporate much more communication between service providers and our customers as we work together on developing energy efficient options that can be readily reviewed by our consumers.

George Maltabarow, Managing Director, Energy Australia

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