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A collaboration between WMAC and Smartco gives EDBs even more low voltage network insights in a single solution.
Two-way flows and a host of new loads were never allowed for in network design. When investment was ‘cheap’ and New Zealand’s low voltage distribution networks could overspecify transformers and other infrastructure, it was perhaps inconceivable that the day would come so quickly when they could not accommodate decarbonisation and electrification with available resources. As the predicted bow wave approaches, the same ‘gold plating’ approach to distribution infrastructure is this time simply unachievable for EDBs, and more sophisticated operational and planning decisions are the only way forward. These decisions rely entirely on a class of asset that network managers are a lot less familiar with. The asset is not physical infrastructure, the asset is DATA.
For more than 10 years New Zealand EDBs have used Smartco’s HIKO platform to receive highly enhanced ICP derived data and geospatial reporting, relying on it to confidently manage their LV asset risks and make real-world future-focused decisions. Raw smart meter data is topologically validated, contextualised, and visualised, bringing together not only meter data insights but also other important data points from network side systems and other data sources including transformer sensors.
LV Transformers are a favourite focal point for many network engineers and planners despite the common ‘overspecification’ of these assets when they were first installed. HIKO has helped bring reality into sharp focus and demonstrates that in most cases the risks to future services and to end-customers are associated more with voltage than with capacity, and that networks have a much broader range of options than they may think to efficiently future proof network areas. It is also proving that using these alternatives it is entirely possible to safely defer a number of previously anticipated major upgrade investments.
HIKO builds a high integrity network picture up from ICP, circuit, feeder, transformer and beyond, and the collaboration between WMAC and Smartco now offers New Zealand EDBs an even richer and more holistic solution.
WMAC operates a fleet of transformer sensors across New Zealand networks and the collaboration sees this data able to be included and conveniently visualised by WMAC customers within HIKO.
To some in the industry, transformer sensor data could be seen (at least partially) as a duplication of critical information already available through HIKO’s upward aggregation of data from each ICP, but CEO Guy Marquet sees the opportunity for New Zealand EDBs differently:
“Our role with HIKO is simply to use new data to give EDBs the answers and actionable insights they need to make the best possible network decisions. Alongside smart meter derived data, performance data at the transformer (and about the transformer) provides a valuable layer of information and helps our customers gain context and easily correlate ‘cause and effect’.”
Marquet goes on to comment:
“Not all EDBs have purchased raw smart meter data from their MEP and remember that they may also have network areas without smart meters and that could be serviced efficiently with transformer sensors. Our holistic approach alongside WMAC allows HIKO to be the ‘one-stop-shop’ tool for planners and engineers regardless of the underlying data sources.”
For more information please contact Rowan Olckers at Smartco on 022 654 8315.