Transforming a major Australian utility through an innovative digital twin solution

To better serve both current and emerging customers while keeping electricity affordable, an Australian transmission and distribution company set itself an ambitious vision to become an industry leader in digital transformation.

The objective was to reinvent the operation as a cutting-edge ‘digital utility’, pioneering new technologies that would enhance the network’s data quality, improve asset maintenance and workflow management, increase operational efficiencies and deliver superior service to its 2.4 million customers.

By innovatively combining existing and emerging technology with new data sources, the utility wanted to transform itself fundamentally into a more intelligent, sustainable business that would be future proof and deliver greater long-term for customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

Enzen responded by developing an innovative digital twin and analytics solution for the customer’s overhead assets. This consists of a digital 3D virtual world model representing a total real-world area of 24,000 sq km.

Through light-based radar (LiDAR) technology, the model captures real-world spatial information of all overhead line assets, adjacent infrastructure and surrounding vegetation and terrain, giving the customer a more efficient, accurate and accessible view of its network.

Moreover, this solution enabled Enzen’s knowledge practitioners to perform a comprehensive business diagnostic of all the overhead line assets, integrating existing data, new data and advanced analytics. From this, the team developed a compelling business case for transforming the utility through digital asset management, which would ultimately enhance asset performance, reduce risk and improve customer service.

Through Enzen’s digital transformation solution, the customer was able to streamline its asset management processes and recover its investment within nine months. The utility can now access more detailed productivity insights and dashboards, using a series of geospatial, scope and scheduling tools to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of work allocation in the field.

Enzen’s solution was invaluable when it came to managing risk during the devastating Australian bushfires of 2019-20. Due to the remote network accessibility and visibility created by the digital twin, the customer needed much less field visits than usual and could keep its employees out of harm’s way. Equipping employees with the tools to work on the network remotely has also benefited consumers. The utility’s network designers can now improve connection services and ensure greater reliability of power supply more quickly and efficiently.

Because of its collaboration with Enzen, the customer is now able to provide smarter, more sustainable and more affordable power to millions of Australians, while benefiting from reduced operational expenditure and more sophisticated insights into its complex network of overhead assets.