Australia's Horizon Power Selected Silver Spring For Advanced Metering Project

Silver Spring Networks has been selected for an advanced metering program by Horizon Power in Western Australia most sparsely populated region covering approximately 2.3 million square kilometers (approximately 888,000 square miles).  Horizon power, a government owned entity would like to provide the area's 47,000 customers with a pre-payment energy solution.

Silver Spring will implements its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution, a multi-application, IPv6 network platform.  This said Horizon Power will help to reduce cost by removing the need to manually read meters in one of the most sparsely populated in the world.

“Silver Spring’s multi-application smart grid platform will help us deliver benefits to our customers and set up a platform for future benefits to allow customers to better manage their energy use,” said Frank Tudor, Managing Director, Horizon Power.

The technology should also allow us to reduce the cost by automating the reconnect and disconnect process when customers move, which now can take our crews a number of days given the vastness of our service area, said Tudor.

The contract awarded to Silver Spring is part of a $34 million project funded by the Western Australian Government to reduce operating costs associated with customer services costs and the servicing of meters in remote locations.

Silver Spring was selected for the AMI program following the completion of a successful pre-payment program leveraging technology from Silver Spring partner SmartGridCIS to enable customers to pay for electricity in advance and better monitor their electricity use.

Silver Spring’s smart grid networking technology has already connected over two million homes and businesses in Australia and New Zealand in partnership with CitiPower and Powercor Australia, Jemena, United Energy and Western Power in Australia, and SmartCo, Metrix and WEL Networks in New Zealand.