Infrastructure software platform Neara is helping energy networks operate efficiently – an essential service in the wake of Australia’s recent natural disasters, writes Chris Ryan.
The Federal Government’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, and reach net-zero emissions by 2050, is considered manageable in some quarters, while a handful of others are more sceptical.
Jack Curtis, chief commercial officer at infrastructure software platform Neara, is a believer.
“They’re super ambitious, but I think they are realistic,” he tells EcoGeneration.
“For so long, the industry has been looking for coalescence of private sector and public sector policy, and now all the momentum is there.”
Not that we can take the challenge lightly.
“We have these amazing, ambitious targets, and it’s like, ‘Alright, how do we get there?’” says Curtis. “It shouldn’t be underestimated from a degree-of-difficulty point of view.
“Australia has been under-delivering on its [clean energy] potential for such a long time due to policy constraints and other macro challenges, and it has had so much opportunity to incubate individual things,” Curtis says of the opportunities at hand.
“What is most exciting for me is taking a holistic view of it and not just relying on hydrogen, storage and distributed energy resources.
“It’s looking at everything we have from an existing point of view, how that can be harnessed better, and then looking at all the new things that have started to come online in the past five years and integrating them with a creative and agile approach.”
Curtis sees Neara playing an important role in that creative, agile approach. The company’s software creates digital models of infrastructure networks, enabling utilities to optimise existing networks and integrate renewables more effectively and efficiently.
“You get a 3D model of a network, but that’s really the entry point to the platform,” he explains.
“What we do that is particularly unique is we have a very sophisticated analytics engine that can look at anything across an electricity network lifecycle, whether it is designing it, constructing it, operating it better, making it more resilient to extreme weather, or integrating renewable energy.
“We enable it to be simulated in that digital model with a degree of confidence. Network owners will then execute it with the physical asset.”
NSW-based Endeavour Energy has praised Neara’s ‘digital twin’ platform for quickly processing large amounts of data, enabling the network to make better, faster and more accurate engineering decisions.
“We did a lot of work with Endeavour during the past couple of years, helping them digitise the whole process of identifying risk when there’s a flood, and how they respond to it,” says Curtis.
“Historically, they would send lots of people out into the field to identify their assets at risk, which is a risk from a safety point of view, from a cost point of view, and from a customer point of view.
“We digitise that entire process so we can model what’s happening with floods across the electricity network and tell them where to shut down power. When the floods start to recede, we can tell them where to restore power efficiently so it comes back online to customers faster.”
Neara can also facilitate pre-emptive work by identifying weaknesses within a system and assisting with rebuilding in the wake of damaging climate events such as floods and bushfires.
“If damage has happened, we can help networks rebuild more cost-effectively without compromising reliability or resiliency,” says Curtis.
He sees Neara’s platform becoming even more powerful as it evolves functionality, and companies embrace data transparency.
“What we want is to identify how that network interacts with rooftop solar, with electric vehicle chargers and with batteries,” says Curtis.
“Then, ultimately, we can provide a holistic view so if somebody wants to install a battery or install 300MW of solar in western NSW, or put rooftop [solar modules] on their house, they can pull up our platform, which can automatically say if it’s a good idea or not, and why.
“It’s not just optimising the network and the delivery of electricity. It’s optimising the entire ecosystem of how electricity is used, delivered and exported back to the grid, and making it a more transparent exercise.
“It also solves the overarching goals of electricity: reliability, making it cleaner and more cost-effective.”