New Zealand’s seventh largest energy distributor, Aurora Energy, engaged WSP to carry out an independent review of its electricity network. Aurora Energy supplies electricity to more than 80,000 homes, farms and businesses in Dunedin, Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes.
Aurora Energy requires a comprehensive assessment of the status of the network so that they can share this with their stakeholders, including customers, regulators, local Councils and the communities that host their assets. Aurora Energy operates an ageing network and has a major renewal program planned over the next decade.
Collaborative Approach
Our team of electrical engineers and technical experts from both New Zealand and Australia will complete the review. It begins with a desktop review of existing asset data. Then, the team will complete a more detailed assessment of assets, including physical inspections and testing in the field.
The review has a consumer focus in respect of public safety, reliability, resilience, environmental risk, post-fault restoration times, future planned outage volumes, investment, and the likely timeframes for addressing identified risks.
Effective Asset Management
Key aspects of the independent review include:
- Identifying critical assets and their underlying physical condition
- Assessing the Aurora Energy’s understanding of the performance and health of its assets
- Identifying potential and probable failure modes, and the underlying potential consequence of the failure of critical and other assets
- Assessing the extent to which network assets are constructed to appropriate design standards
- Considering the extent to which network topology mitigates (or otherwise) the risk of service failure in significant urban areas of the network, and in rural zones
- Estimating the overall risk profile for the Aurora Energy network
Powering a Resilient Network
The review will assist Aurora Energy and its stakeholders to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. It will also help inform Aurora Energy’s asset management plan and future investment priorities for the next 10 years.
