Vector Brings the Internet of Energy

Innovation
- Bringing together diverse standards and complex systems through a single platform.

We’re using world-leading technology to manage multiple technologies on our network in revolutionary ways. We call this the Internet of Energy. Traditionally the energy system from generation to distribution has been uni-directional, but the introduction of distributed energy resources is seeing that rapidly evolve into a multi-directional dynamic system. As consumers assume greater control and choice over the energy they have in their lives, how we all interact with the energy that will be produced through large-scale generation and storage, micro storage and micro generation is completely changing.

Partnering with mPrest allows us to manage complex systems in much more sophisticated ways through unprecedented integration of information and operational technologies. It will also help us to integrate our systems with the wholesale markets more easily to manage and coordinate customers’ energy use and assets in real time. We are confident this will also enable our customers to access potentially lower energy costs more easily, and better enable automation to optimise energy use and cost.  
This project represents a new level of software control for the power utility sector. [It] will allow Vector to progress its goal of expanding access to participative energy markets for its customers, save capex and opex in developing its digital power grid, improve services and create new offerings for customers.

Ron Halpern, mPrest Chief Commercial Officer

Unprecedented awareness 

We see this ‘system of systems’ as the most comprehensive monitoring, analytical and control system available anywhere in the world. It will sit over our customer, market, distributed energy resources and network systems and manage their performance in real time. Through self-learning, it will be able to build ‘the story of the networks’ based on what has happened historically and to use artificial intelligence to optimise numerous objectives. 

Our goal is for the mPrest system to assess and predict multiple factors including loads in different parts of the network, market dynamics, storage, customer demand and capacity. 

Offering enhanced resilience, security and efficiency
 

The mPrest system will allow us to control not just how energy is used but also the assets required to connect energy with people in ways that we forecast will save Auckland many millions of dollars. It challenges the traditional mindset that has seen energy companies growing their networks to accommodate greater peaks. It also helps us defer network reinforcement costs, reduce the risk of stranded assets at the very time we’re seeing a slow-down in electricity consumption, and promote a rapid increase in new solutions to generate and manage energy.

The mPrest software will also enable Vector to bring together the acquisitions and developments we are making. Instead of adding more systems to achieve a more diversified energy network, the mPrest software allows us to bring all the moving parts together in ways that we can control and coordinate. That in turn will enable Vector to play a strong and proactive role in developing the networks best suited to the changing needs of customers. 

We expect the system to be fully operational by the end of FY18. As a partner in the project, having acquired the Australasian and Pacific Island rights for utility-related mPrest applications, we look forward to making the solution available to other companies in the region so that they too can gain greater synergies from their assets and deliver new solutions to their customers.