29 Apr 2024
The award recognises Transpower’s multi-year transformation of its critical market system, successfully positioning it to adapt to an evolving electricity market as New Zealand electrifies. Electrification is a significant enabler of New Zealand meeting its 2050 climate change targets.
Red Hat, a provider of open-source solutions, has recognised Transpower as a Red Hat Innovation Award winner for a multi-year programme that included the delivery of the biggest change to the wholesale electricity market since it was created in 1996.
The launch of real-time pricing in late 2022 was the culmination of a complex ten-year programme to modernise the market system and enable rapidly evolving technologies like battery storage and smart appliances that depend on more accurate and timely prices.
The transformation journey began in 2013 when Transpower identified several market system sub-systems reaching end of life and needing to be replaced. At this time, knowledge of the system and the number of experienced experts working on the system were also becoming more limited.
“We arrived at a crossroads, and we needed to approach this holistically,” Transpower Executive General Manager Information Services and Technology Cobus Nel said.
“There were clear risks in moving forward with outdated and unsupported technology for which we also didn’t have the skills available to maintain. We needed to respond with an ambitious and integrated plan for change while not compromising the reliability of the critical service that our market system provides the industry.”
A ten-year modernisation journey was set in motion, with Transpower working with its regulator the Electricity Authority to ensure its market system was fit for purpose, resilient, and capable of adapting to future change in the industry while remaining cost effective.
Three key areas of transformation were identified: the people capability, processes, and technological change.
Mr Nel said that Transpower adopted ‘DevOps’ and agile ways of working, which introduced more collaboration between its development and operations teams and led to better software delivery.
“New software and platform engineering capabilities were established while our existing teams gained knowledge and experience in modern software languages, platforms, and new ways of working,” he said.
“A strategic decision was made to adopt open-source technology more widely along with the use of a modern programming language and a framework-based approach to simplify the architecture. This helped us expand the pool of people who could support and maintain the products into the future.
“These transformations helped Transpower avoid a full system swap-out, avoid major costs and minimise service disruption all while continuing to operate this critical service.”
“We've managed to deliver a major transformation on time and on budget,” Mr Nel said. “This is a testament to everyone across our Transpower team and our partners that have been involved since 2013.
“The market system is now more resilient and flexible to the changing landscape of the electricity sector and has a skilled and dependable team supporting it now and into the future.”
Transpower will be presented with its Innovation Award at the Red Hat Summit in Colorado on 6 May, where it is also up for ‘Innovator of the Year’ along with the three other recipients. The Innovator of the Year award will be determined by public votes, which can be cast here:
Voting closes 1 a.m. 3 May (9 a.m. ET).
About the Red Hat Innovation Awards
Since 2006, Red Hat has used the Red Hat Innovation Awards to recognise the technological achievements of its customers around the world who demonstrate creative problem-solving to make a positive impact on the business world and on society.
Red Hat’s panel of industry-expert judges review and score the nominations (an average of 60 per year), narrowing them down to the top four winning projects that meet its Innovation Awards criteria for outstanding success with open-source technology.
From the four winners, the 2024 Red Hat Innovator of the Year will be selected by the community through online voting. The winner will be announced 7 May (ET) during Red Hat Summit 2024.
About Transpower
Transpower is a state-owned enterprise with a dual role. It owns and operates Aotearoa New Zealand’s national high voltage electricity transmission grid that transports electricity from where it is generated to cities and towns across the country as well directly to some major industrial users. In its system operator role, Transpower is also responsible for managing the real-time power system and operating the wholesale electricity market.
For further information, please contact:
Senior Corporate Communications Advisor, Joseph Hornell 021 829 465.