Counties Energy switches to new energy distribution management system

South Auckland and northern Waikato electricity provider Counties Energy says it has successful transitioned to GE Digital’s Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), enabling it to operate the Counties electricity distribution network more effectively in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.

The move sees the company transition from its legacy Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, iFix, to ADMS PowerOn Advantage, which Counties Energy says is proven at scale and in production at utilities worldwide.

Counties Energy network general manager Paul Blue says the transition will enable the company to manage the entire distribution network more efficiently, ultimately providing customers with a smarter, safer, more reliable and innovative network, along with the resulting benefits.

“The system has been specifically designed for energy distribution and enables increased network visibility and control across our wide and diverse network,” he says. “This delivers enhanced management across the entirety of our network systems, leading to improved service for our customers.

“We’ve integrated ADMS with our Geographic Information System, providing us with ‘one source of truth’ where all GIS updates now flow through to the new ADMS.”

“We also have the ability for additional modules for outage management, enhancing management and customer visibility, along with a range of other advanced applications,” says Blue.

“These will bring new benefits such as optimised network visibility, increased situational awareness and reduced outage durations for our customers.”

Implementing the ADMS system will help progress Counties Energy’s transformational journey to an innovation-led low carbon future by enabling more effective grid operations, says Blue, adding the ADMS system has several new capabilities, efficiencies and value-adds which will elevate the company’s current operations and set strong foundations for the future.

“Electricity distribution networks like Counties Energy are at the heart of our transition to decarbonisation as we facilitate the integration of decentralised low carbon technologies,” he says.

“This requires us to fundamentally reimagine the role that we play and how we serve our customers, communities and Aotearoa New Zealand.

“A key part of our energy future is dependent on the decarbonisation of electricity and transport, and to achieve this, we need to adopt new energy technologies – including our distribution management systems,” says Blue.

“We’re future proofing our ADMS design by providing the necessary infrastructure for monitoring, controlling and optimising distributed energy resources such as solar PV, EVs and wind turbines.”

The enhanced network capability forms a key component of Counties Energy’s transition to a Distribution Systems Operator.

Phase one of Counties Energy’s ADMS programme has focused on establishing the new system’s foundations, while subsequent projects will further develop its capabilities.