Unison Awarded Top Smart City Initiative for Smart Grid by IDC Government Insights

IDC Smart City Asia/Pacific Awards (SCAPA) recognises the 18 most outstanding smart city initiatives in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) across 14 functional smart city award categories.

Electricity distributor, Unison Networks was recognised as a Top Smart City Initiative in the Smart Grid category by IDC Government Insights.

Unison has been developing its Smart Network over the past seven years to help the Company operate its assets more efficiently and improve reliability for customers without increasing costs long-term.

Unison GM Networks & Operations, Jaun Park, said the Company was delighted.

“We’re thrilled to receive this recognition from IDC. It’s an honour to be selected as one of the top 18 smart city initiatives for the region. The ultimate reward for us, however, will be returning the benefits of our Smart Network investment to customers in the years ahead.”

The Smart Network will enable Unison to reduce capital investment by 30 percent over a 10-year period, while maintaining network performance, keeping costs down for customers long-term while enhancing quality of supply.

The project has involved the installation of advanced technologies, communication systems and the development of complex algorithms on Unison’s network across Hawke’s Bay, Taupo and Rotorua to gain greater insight into the condition and performance of underlying assets. This allows Unison to make better decisions around asset use and investment.

Now in its third year, SCAPA recognises the most outstanding smart city projects in APeJ across a total of 14 functional smart city award categories. Unison’s smart city project was among the 46 high-quality smart city initiatives submitted for this award by local governments, vendors and the public across the ApeJ region.

IDC Government Insights went through a rigorous six-phased benchmarking exercise to determine the Top Smart City projects for 2016-17. These included identifying and cataloguing the key Smart City projects in Asia/Pacific by IDC Analysts across APeJ (25 percent), online voting to determine public opinion (50 percent) and the assessment of an International Advisory Council (25 percent).

For more information on SCAPA, visit http:///www.idc.asia/IDCSCAPA/.

More information about Unison’s Smart Network can be found on Unison’s website: http://www.unison.co.nz/tell-me-about/electricity/smart-network

-Ends-

For more information, contact:
Danny Gough
Unison Relationship Manager
021 739 461