Australian utilities extend data investments across uses

Itron has released research showing that 93% of utilities in Australia and New Zealand say their most significant investments in data and intelligence have delivered at least two additional use cases beyond their original purpose.

The findings suggest utility data investments are being widely reused across the region.

Based on responses from 100 utility executives and managers in Australia and New Zealand, the study found utilities are using data and analytics in targeted operational workflows but have yet to embed those tools widely across the business.

The research found 60% of utilities in the region use advanced metering infrastructure data to support decisions in specific workflows, compared with 45% globally. But only 21% of respondents in Australia and New Zealand said those processes were fully embedded across workflows, against 41% globally.

Utilities in the region reported a more mixed set of pressures than peers elsewhere. Customer expectations ranked as the leading grid stressor at 40%, followed by new construction and the effects of artificial intelligence integration, both at 39%. Ageing infrastructure was cited by 35% of respondents.

Near real-time grid edge data is already being used operationally in several areas. Fault location and isolation was the most common use case at 41%, followed by asset health monitoring at 39%, load and demand management at 35%, and bushfire and vegetation risk management at 34%.

The strongest returns from operationalised analytics were in predictive maintenance, cited by 32% of respondents. Peak load management and demand response, along with workforce efficiency, each stood at 31%, while field crew safety was named by 30%.

Barriers to scale

While many utilities are finding value in specific programmes, the research suggests wider expansion across the organisation remains difficult. Technical integration was identified as a barrier to data-driven decision-making by 53% of respondents, followed closely by trust in data at 52% and a lack of automation at 49%.

Asked about the single biggest barrier to scaling intelligence, 21% pointed to workforce skills and change management. Data integration followed at 18%, while cost and return on investment accounted for 15%. Another 15% said they had already achieved meaningful scale.

The survey also showed investment decisions are increasingly being made with reuse in mind. Some 97% of respondents said reuse is a factor in investment choices, while 56% said they deliberately select investments based on their ability to support multiple current and future use cases. Within that group, 45% said major investments had created many additional use cases beyond the original plan.

Next priorities

Demand forecasting and readiness for load growth emerged as the most desired outcome from operationalising intelligence, cited by 32% of respondents. Affordability and operating cost, along with distributed energy resource integration, followed at 31% each.

Over a five-year period, distributed energy resource management systems topped planned investment areas at 26%. Demand response came next at 25%, while consumer engagement and time-of-use programmes were each selected by 24%.

Analytics use is no longer limited to network operations. Customer operations was the most common area of use at 58%, followed by grid operations at 48%. Planning and engineering and executive leadership were both cited by 41% of respondents.

That broader spread appears to be shaping the next phase of investment. Over the next three years, executive decision support was named as the main focus for operationalising intelligence by 29% of respondents, ahead of enterprise integration and cloud analytics at 21% each and workflow automation at 18%.

Fraser Young, Vice President of Sales for the Asia-Pacific region at Itron, said utilities in the region were already applying data in areas with direct operational consequences.

"Utilities in Australia and New Zealand are already getting real value from their data, from predictive maintenance to fault location and mitigating bushfire risk," Young said.

He said the next step was broader use across the organisation rather than isolated operational gains.

"The opportunity now is to take what's working in individual workflows and embed it across the business to support decision-making. That means connecting systems, building trust in the data and giving people the skills to act on it. At Itron, we're helping utilities increase visibility in low-voltage networks so they can put intelligence into action at scale," Young said.

He added that utilities do not necessarily need to replace existing systems to extend the value of past spending.

"Utility modernisation doesn't always require starting from scratch. With customer expectations, new construction and distributed energy all growing at once, utilities can build on investments already in place. When infrastructure and data support multiple use cases, every investment keeps delivering value as needs evolve," Young said.