Ticking All The Boxes - Smart Integration For Energy Customers

Recognised globally as an early adopter of this new technology, energy company Powercor Australia and Citipower (PCP) called on a long- time relationship with CSC to assist in the design and deployment.

The Challenge

Success will depend on the deployment of not only metering infrastructure and technologies to capture and monitor power consumption data, but also integration with operational and enterprise systems.

Legacy systems have to be transformed so that outage, billing, meter management systems and business functions can make use of large volumes of more descriptive data being captured and processed in 30 minutes.

Collaboration was key. An AMI program requires co-ordination of multiple solutions and vendors to deliver a single enterprise wide solution. PCP's program included smart meter manufacturers Landis+Gyr and PRI Australasia with Silver Spring Networks providing network infrastructure, communications devices and software to connect the smart meters to PCP’s core business systems.

It was vital that PCP maintained the existing standards of reliability, performance and security in the distribution and management of power.

The Solution

PCP reached out to CSC for assistance in managing the technical integration layer, developing architecture design, ensuring security and business continuity standards were met and contributing to the program management and planning functions.

Together, PCP and CSC adopted a pragmatic approach to application integration employing integration technology based on an Oracle SOA suite.

Taking the lead in systems integration, PCP pursued a hosting model not previously used for the AMI technology suite and set precedents in deploying the selected technology to Australian industry requirements.

In constructing the AMI system architecture, CSC overcame a number of architectural design challenges to map business functions to the application landscape, define data requirements and carry out performance testing.

PCP drew on CSC’s project management experience to assist in the development of program management office governance, reporting and collateral.

Responsible for PCP’s disaster recovery program over several years, CSC performed extensive review and revision of the infrastructure and application disaster recovery strategy to ensure compliance to regulatory standards.

PCP engaged CSC to assess security risks, develop an ongoing information security management system, and validate the effectiveness of existing security controls, prior to implementing the full suite of its AMI Security Program.

CSC now hosts the AMI solution for PCP and manages all supporting infrastructure.

The Results

With its ami program, PcP has established a technology framework upon which the marketplace and regulators can introduce Smart metering solutions, appliances and pricing that will change the shape of power consumption within Victoria. PcP now has a firm base from which to explore technologies to further optimise their power distribution and management.

The program has brought PcP:

• Robust middleware platform and capability to effectively manage application integration
  
  
• Scalable and secure architecture upon which downstream technology solutions can be deployed
  
  
• Program management capability and methodology to scale for future technology challenges