Future Grid and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) have signed an MoU to complete a technology pilot of the Future Grid software. PEA is currently managing 20 million homes across 74 provinces with power lines extending 804,068 kilometers – almost 3 times as many households as in Australia.
The gateway to South East Asia
“The pilot project will be a gateway for Future Grid to enter the ASEAN market with the potential of serving up to 100 million homes in the future. Since we signed the MoU we have already had many pilot project discussions with electric utilities in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia,” says Chris Law, CEO, and co-founder of Future Grid.
“Thailand is leading the ASEAN transition to renewable energy and PEA is one of the largest distribution networks in the region. Working together will help PEA, Future Grid, and the region understand how to safely and reliably transition to renewable energy.”
Thailand’s future industry direction towards Thailand 4.0
Thailand is transforming towards a value-based and innovation-driven economy. This transformation includes shifts towards smart enterprises/start-ups, making technology instead of buying, high-value services, and increasing the skill levels of workers. One of the focus areas is also renewable energy and digital IoT.
The technology trial with Future Grid aims to support learnings from Australia as PEA transitions towards a digital Utility. PEA has already begun the deployment of smart meters (AMI) in Pattaya which will form the basis of the technology trial with Future Grid.
“We are looking forward to working with Future Grid to explore their technology and leverage their insights from the Australian market. Renewable integration at scale is a key part of Thailand 4.0 and will inform the future direction of PEA’s Digital Utility strategy”, says Mr. Sekson Sermpong, Deputy Governor (Planning and Power System Development).
What’s the scope of the technology trial?
The trial project will initially run for 6 months to demonstrate to PEA the benefits of using smart meter data to create visibility of the PEA Low Voltage (LV) network. Future Grid will then demonstrate to PEA how LV visibility using smart meters will enable targeted network investment and upgrades. It will also demonstrate how software and smart meters can support better management of network assets as increased levels of rooftop solar and electric vehicles are connected to the PEA distribution network.
Future Grid and PEA will work together to demonstrate how PEA can transform traditional operations into a human-oriented and data powered organisation. After the technology trial, the project has the potential to be rolled out to 20 million homes.
About PEA
The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) is a government enterprise under the Ministry of Interior. PEA was founded as an individual organization under the Royal Decree issued on 6 March 1954 and announced in the Royal Thai Government Gazette on 16 March 1954. The Board of Directors was appointed to control and manage under the Department of Public and Municipal Works, Ministry of Interior, and the government with the Minister of Interior holding general governing authority. Provincial Electricity Organization has legal capital of 5 million Baht with 117 electricity authorities under its purview. Subsequently, Provincial Electricity Authority was established under Provincial Electricity Authority Act of B.E. 2503 (1960) on 28 September 1960 and inherited ongoing missions from the Provincial Electricity Organization.
About Future Grid
Founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2012 Future Grid set out with the mission to support electricity distribution utilities through the energy transition. Future Grid’s cyber integrated utility software creates dynamic low voltage (LV) networks using smart meter data. Dynamic LV networks enable visibility and responsiveness to the power quality challenges created by distributed energy resources (DER).
Future Grid works with electric distribution utilities around the world to cleanse their network data and topology, react to network capacity constraints and manage the voltages issues caused by rooftop solar, electric vehicles and batteries. The software establishes a feedback loop by analysing smart meter data in real-time and integrating the results back into key business systems for actionable operational outcomes.
Future Grid’s innovative software has been successfully deployed in production to utilities across Australia and New Zealand and is available on the global SAP store.
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