Q&A with Jack Curtis: Why 3D digital network models are the way forward for risk mitigation

In this interview, Jack Curtis, Chief Commercial Officer, Neara, goes beyond the concept of the digital twin to discuss the crucial role 3D digital network models can play in mitigating a multitude of risks for utilities.

ECD recently covered Endeavour Energy’s use of the Neara digital twin in disaster response management during the 2021–2022 Hawkesbury River floods, for which the utility received an Innovation Award from Energy Networks Australia. This is obviously cutting-edge stuff. Are you doing similar work with other utilities?

Our work with Endeavour Energy during the Hawkesbury River Floods definitely enabled similar work with other network utilities by illuminating ways that networks can better prepare and recover from extreme weather events, from major floods to bushfires. As extreme weather events increasingly become part of our reality, there’s more urgency than ever among our customers to prepare a strong response.

Our partnership with Endeavour has not only raised the bar for how utilities manage severe weather, but it has also opened the aperture for utilities to reimagine how they manage all kinds of risks. Our platform essentially boils down to helping utilities understand how their networks will be impacted by anything, not just severe weather — the very same functionality helps utilities answer an exhaustive list of critical ‘what-if’ questions, from everyday clearance concerns to the best way to optimise network availability and bring more clean energy online.

Are we essentially talking about digital twins for every project Neara is involved with, or do you develop other types of platforms as well?

While Neara grew up with the “digital twin” terminology and we can trace our beginnings to new network design, the majority of our current customers rely on our 3D digital network model to help them with everything from severe weather management to accelerating their decarbonisation journey. The 3D network model differs from traditional digital twins in that it’s not simply a visualisation — it behaves exactly as the physical assets do in real life, which enables our customers to simulate the scenarios they care about, using hundreds of variables so that they know exactly how their network will respond and prepare accordingly.

The 3D digital network model is the foundation of every project and can be leveraged for any of the myriad ‘what-if’ scenarios today’s utilities face — while we serve a variety of use cases, we do so using the same single platform that is built from the same data source. Fortunately, this makes it easy for utilities to scale up their risk reduction efforts and achieve great outcomes even faster than they would across a series of disparate products and data sources. For example, if a vegetation team is excited about their colleagues’ success with flood management, they can easily stand up their own use cases in no time, because it’s on the same platform. We’re proud of our platform orientation because we believe it’s mission-critical that every utility employee has access to the same level of situational awareness for the safety of their team and community.

Once an organisation/company subscribes to Neara’s software, how collaborative is the process from that point on? Does Neara continue to work with the company?

Once we’ve engaged a customer, our approach is to work closely together to ensure we’re defining and realising the right outcomes. Our goal, however, is for the platform to be self-service for our customers. In addition, our platform is designed to grow with our customers and their objectives as they evolve, reducing the need for multiple solutions and keeping information and workflows streamlined.

While particularly early in an engagement, our team can take a hands-on approach to prescribing a roadmap. We often find that once our customers reach escape velocity they are often the ones coming back to us and highlighting net new use cases they’ve discovered on their own. In this way, we see our customers as incredibly valuable partners in continuing to build out our product roadmap.

Additionally, as much as we enjoy working alongside our customers, one of the most rewarding things is seeing our customers come together independently and collaborate on how to solve shared challenges, based on what they’ve learned about their own processes working with us.

What sort of data does Neara capture across its projects?

While we don’t directly capture data, our models typically feature a combination of GIS (geographic information system), LiDAR (light detection and ranging), EAM/SAP (enterprise asset management), CAD (computer-aided design) drawings, inspection and satellite libraries, asset libraries and IoT/sensor data. We maintain a data-agnostic posture, as a key strength of our 3D digital network model is that it reflects a combination of high-quality, diverse data sources that result in high accuracy.

Does use of Neara’s software increase the efficiency of a project?

Absolutely. Across customer engagements of every kind, our 3D digital network model enables customers to significantly speed up the end-to-end process of every workflow while reducing costs and manual labour.

For example, in our initial work with Endeavour, we helped them eliminate 300 hours of inspection time so that they could instead focus on targeting their response to customers at greatest risk. In a similar deployment, we found that following a severe flood, the utility was able to restore power 3x faster than they originally anticipated.

Across the board, our digital model’s network-wide scale makes it significantly easier to identify and respond to risks. On average, our customers identify and resolve routine risks 9x faster than they otherwise could.

Furthermore, customers that use our software to execute new transmission line planning are moving twice as fast as they otherwise could, cutting through red tape in weeks instead of months.

Can you tell us about Neara’s work with government bodies to unify Australia’s clean energy transition?

As part of Australia’s massive move to renewable energy, regulatory bodies have been working to coordinate the efforts of all industry players, from utilities, government, regulators and technology platforms, to deliver electricity at the lowest possible cost to consumers. This coordinated approach will help to ensure that 2030 goals are not only met on time but achieved in the most time-efficient and cost-effective manner.

Our role within this transition is to work collaboratively with all parties, almost acting as the connector between network service providers and government bodies. Leading utilities across the country use our digital modelling platform which generates reliable data-driven network insights that keep all parties on the same page. As the connector in the chain, we map the entire network through our platform, which assesses risk across the network and allows NSPs to better allocate capital to areas that most need it. This helps parties across the whole ecosystem avoid expenditures on the network, which is critical to ultimately delivering electricity at the least cost to consumers, while entertaining tenders for investment in new projects.

Do you predict the use of digital models by the energy industry will become widespread over the next few years?

Technology that reinforces stability, efficiency and sustainability of the grid has gained major traction, especially as we approach the 2030 clean energy targets and the demand for electricity rises. Simple visualisation functionality will unfortunately not be enough to meet these targets, as the ability to simulate how assets respond to real-life events becomes critical in our sector to get ahead of the game and provide more precise accuracy.

In New South Wales alone we’ve already built a near-complete digital model of the state’s electricity infrastructure and are in the process of obtaining additional data for wider grid modelling. These efficiencies and insights could ultimately be used across the entire nation’s grid in one unified platform enabling all solutions to be successfully integrated.

Beyond grid efficiency, as the frequency of extreme weather events rises, government bodies and network service providers across the nation will be looking for ways to mitigate risk — whether it be from a safety, cost or consumer perspective. Technology that is trusted for its accuracy and reliability will play an integral role in helping modernise the way public and private bodies respond to these weather crises moving forward.

Top image credit: iStock.com/metamorworks