One of Australasia’s largest enterprise software providers has foreshadowed the imminent technological transformation of the electricity sector to a digital utility.
TechnologyOne ‘s Annual New Zealand Electricity Survey, 2017 of more than 250 industry players predicts a transition to changes in energy use driven by technologies such as electric cars and home generation by prosumers.
The survey report shows that almost 60 per cent of respondents believe the sector’s current assets and management systems need major changes to address these trends and meet future needs over the coming years.
Further, 44 per cent of electricity players see distribution companies as most affected by disruptive technology in the coming decade.
TechnologyOne’s General Manager for Strategic Asset Management, Jeff Roorda, says the sector will invest in new infrastructure such as ‘intelligent assets’ in response to changing user demand.
“In the coming years, the electricity sector will redesign its business and delivery models in response to the rise of prosumers,” Roorda predicts.
“Both prosumers and electric vehicles change the levers of demand predictability for the sector.
“As the sector adjusts, the kind of data that electricity network providers need to access and manage will change very quickly.
“The ability of the electricity sector to adopt new, smart, integrated software that will provide data on electricity usage in real time will be critical to traversing these changes.
“We will see the electricity market move away from a reliance on fragmented point systems which react to what is happening with assets and customers; towards analysing real time trend data about asset usage and performance.
“These new systems will interpret emerging usage trends that will be made available via intelligent systems that collect data from multiple sources and pull it altogether into a single source of truth– that’s the game changer.
“TechnologyOne provides secure, intelligent Software-as-a-Service solutions in the cloud that are capable, scalable and flexible to enable utilities to manage a torrent of fluid consumer data.
“TechnologyOne are working with leading energy companies to enable them to respond to this changing, connected world and become the digital utility of the future,” Roorda adds.
Check out the full report here:
Energy News and ABB Annual New Zealand Electricity Survey
