Mind over meter: how data can deliver smarter utilities
Data is power. And advances in data collection and analysis are helping Australia manage its power, says Jeremy Sung, head of policy at the Energy Efficiency Council, the peak body for Australia’s energy-management sector.
Among the businesses embracing energy monitoring to reduce costs and improve environmental performance are electricity providers themselves, Sung says. Long gone are the days when searching for electricity losses required sending out technicians armed with analogue meters.
Improvements in data collection and analysis are helping Australia manage its power more efficiently. iStock
“Today’s energy-monitoring systems… can be managed remotely via the cloud and provide unprecedented detail on what is going on through the plentiful data they collect,” he explains. “That data is then processed and analysed via algorithms that are becoming smarter and smarter with the rise of AI.”
Being able to see wasted energy in real time, and act on it, is going to be increasingly important as Australia transitions to net zero, Sung says.
“With the majority of electricity still sourced from fossil fuels in many Australian states, it’s crucial that electricity providers minimise electricity losses. Otherwise, we’re essentially burning coal and gas, creating greenhouse emissions and not even deriving any utility from the electricity created.
“Minimising wasted electricity through precise energy management and monitoring — particularly when that electricity is fossil-fuel based — reduces the tonnes of CO2 per kilowatt of electricity consumed.”
Sydney-based IoT-solutions provider Thinxtra works with Brisbane-based Luceo, which provides energy-data platforms, to provide real-time IoT-enabled energy monitoring for customers,
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