Enabling digital transformation with innovative solutions for a more sustainable energy future.

Vector is the largest electricity distributor in New Zealand, serving nearly two million homes and businesses across Australasia with energy and communication services. The company offers customised electricity and gas metering solutions for large energy users through its smart metering business, Vector Metering, and includes Powersmart and HRV in its group of companies. As a leader in the energy sector, Vector is committed to innovation and sustainability, challenging the status quo and working with partners to accelerate its digital transformation.

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In 2016 our people helped Vector implement an important distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) . A DERMS is a software platform that allows real-time communication and control across edge devices that typically lie outside grid operators' direct control. Built with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the system manages a group of distributed energy resource assets to deliver vital grid services and balance demand with supply. During the project we identified software constraints and provided recommendations on how to improve its speed, reliability, and security. With their feedback and insight, Vector was able to roll out a comprehensive monitoring, analytics, and control system.

• Enhanced Grid Resilience and Reliability: Vector's ability to predict, plan for, and respond to network issues, particularly during storms and natural disasters, is significantly improved through a fully integrated GIS and DERMS capability.
• Reduced Investment Requirements: The advanced grid management capabilities will enable Vector to substantially reduce its capital investment plan, saving billions of dollars,  otherwise needed to manage the increasing demand on the Auckland energy grid from electric vehicles, fast chargers, solar, and other DERMS under a traditional, less sophisticated grid management model.
• Support for NZ Emission Targets: Vector can leverage smart grid capabilities to combine its own grid-scale batteries with private sector and consumer investments in DERMS to support advanced grid management use cases like Virtual Power Plant. This approach facilitates load smoothing throughout the day, reducing the need for developing new, environmentally harmful generation capacity and curbing emissions through better utilization of off-peak capacity.
• Increased Operational Efficiency: By adopting a fully cloud-native hybrid infrastructure and a DevOps and SRE-based operating model, Vector has achieved significant gains in operational efficiency. This includes reducing human effort in system operation and maintenance, avoiding costly upgrades by shifting to a continuous improvement process, and virtually eliminating production system incidents that could disrupt grid operations and lead to regulatory fines.

• A reference architecture template to align internal teams and technology, boost performance, and increase security.
• Support for their Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) project to provide automated outage restoration, improve network performance, and support distributed energy resources.
• Development of their New Energy Platform (NEP), an internet of things and analytics solution that leverages machine learning to provide customers with more affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy options.We continue to work with Vector, helping them become a digitally enabled business that improves grid reliability, meets demands, and stays ahead of the curve.