By Bridget McDonald, Policy Advisor at Vector.

“The National Electricity Market is largely broken and needs to be reset” is how the Australian Consumer and Commerce Commission (ACCC) summed up its review of the Australian electricity market earlier this year.

It’s not surprising given residential power bills in Australia have increased by 35 per cent in the past 10 years. It’s now understood that years of poorly designed policy and regulation have led to highly concentrated markets – and a serious affordability issue for Australian consumers and businesses.

By Bridget McDonald, Policy Advisor at Vector

Internationally renowned regulatory economist Martin Cave was in New Zealand this month to share insights from the UK’s retail electricity pricing review.

Commissioned by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the study found compelling evidence that 70 percent of households were paying substantially more for electricity compared to a smaller group of ‘engaged consumers’.

These consumers were engaging in ‘search and switch’ tactics to scoop up better deals, while the bulk of the disengaged population remained on default tariffs, and paying much higher prices.

2018 Asia Pacific Energy Leaders” Summit - More speakers confirmed...don't miss out!

This year's Summit is a must attend event for those who want to be better equipped to understand and deal with change, especially the key linkage between climate change and the opportunities directly in front of us to support the transition to decarbonise economies in a cost efficient way. As someone with a strong interest in energy you know that dramatic and rapid change is enabling new and bold environmental and market outcomes. Global and local energy markets are in a state of transition. But what will the future energy system look like and how can you be a part of it? This biennial Summit builds on our successful 2016 event by moving beyond the identification of risks and challenges the sector faces to owning, understanding and acting on them.

Have you ever wondered if someone else is reading your emails? Have you ever responded to a phishing email? How do you know your staff haven’t done so in your corporate environment? Are you sure a hacker hasn’t already gained access to your corporate information? Does your organisation comply with best practice recommendations and/or regulatory requirements? How do you know?

Risk is inherent in everything we do, especially in business. We all need to take risks to grow and develop our organisations, and, in our fast-paced world, the risks we have to manage are changing and evolving quickly. New cyber threats appear almost daily, disruptive competition is likely around the corner, and it is getting harder to predict future demand for energy.

An overview of the Thermal Diffusion Galvanising Process and its application in Electrical Line and Substation Hardware.

Do you have corrosion problems in Line and Substation hardware that is prematurely limiting the life of your electrical equipment?

Metal corrosion on galvanised parts and equipment - particularly in coastal areas is a significant problem in the utility industry. Lifespan of Hot Dipped Galvanised (HDG) parts is typical 5-15 years which is generally significantly less than the mechanical life expectancy of the parts or equipment.

Almost all line trucks and crews have amongst their equipment a phase tester. In New Zealand, most organisations only provide the probe type to the men working on the lines - which means working closer to the live line than they really need to. New developments now incorporate wireless based technology to reduce this risk.

With a 90 meter range, a wireless phasing set (WPS) can be used to check the phase relationship between two energized conductors even with obstructions such as the distance between transformers, a large intersection or other obstructions. It can be used on underground as well as overhead lines. Without the connection cable between probes, a Wireless Phasing Set makes the job quicker, simpler and safer.

If you type the word collaboration into Google’s search engine, you get some 521 million results.

And while we hear the word constantly, and self-help and business guides talk about collaboration at length, in an IT sense it’s relatively under deployed.

In the context of IT, when I talk about collaboration I’m referring to a new working methodology that can deliver projects for our clients faster and more accurately.

Traditionally, an IT project would be delivered in steps, with one tech doing their bit, then passing it on the next person in the chain. Repeat and pass on, repeat and pass on, until project completion.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere these days. News outlets are flooding us with great or even historic advancements on a weekly - if not daily - basis, and tech companies around the world tout their products as AI, or AI-enabled. This hype has firmly established AI on the agendas of executives across most industries.

Sure, all of these advances are doing wonders for their sector, but many people are asking “How does AI apply to my business?”

Artificial Intelligence is really just an umbrella-term for technologies aimed to simulate a human’s capability of thinking and logical deduction. To do that AI requires data - massive amounts of data, actually. Considering this, it’s not surprising that AI, despite its presence over the past few decades, is gaining momentum now that the world’s information volume is growing at never before seen rates due to the likes of smartphones and IoT devices.

The recent spate of ransomware attacks and increasingly sophisticated computer viruses has left many New Zealand companies seeking assurances from their IT security providers that their systems are safe.

The challenge facing most businesses is they are only protected against known malware, and their firewalls may be vulnerable to previously unknown attacks.

Wellington-based specialist IT provider Telesmart has implemented one of the first sandbox solutions in New Zealand, offering cost-effective protection against increasingly disruptive ransomware and ‘zero day’ attacks.

Electra is ‘working smarter’ by using technology to help better manage its legal compliance risks.

When Electra’s board asked for more confidence about legal compliance risks, Deputy Chief Executive Steve Gregan made it his mission to find a better way than swamping busy people with more manuals, spreadsheets and attestations.

Q. Why did you start looking for a legal compliance tool?

Steve: Our Board and Risk and Audit Committee sought increased confidence in the process that was in place. Senior managers were signing off attestations but there was no real confidence that there was any testing against the detail in the legislation occurring across the organisation.

These days most businesses rely on digital technology to help them be more efficient, reduce costs and deliver better services.

Yet there is often a hidden down side to this reliance on technology - the vulnerability to cyberattacks.

The increasing number of high-profile cyber incidents, notably the recent WannaCry ransomware attack in May 2017, have highlighted the vulnerabilities of businesses and industries in this digital age. Yet it seems that business leaders have become complacent about managing these risks.

Consumer trends are overturning the whole energy market. Even if you’ve wrapped your head around today’s descriptive trends, what about tomorrow’s? To give you a picture of what’s coming, we’ve created The End of the Line, an illustration of the energy industry's most pressing disruptive trends.

See how energy is changing