Vector paves way for 'dynamic' power pricing through global partnership with Amazon

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Vector is a big believer in using “dynamic” pricing as a tool to incentivise the efficient consumption and generation of electricity.

Auckland lines company Vector and Amazon Web Services will create 30 jobs crunching data from Vector’s 1.6 million smart meters with the goal of offering customers “tailored” power pricing and deals.

Vector chief executive Simon Mackenzie said that the companies had formed a “global alliance” to create a “New Energy Platform”, initially for Vector’s customers in New Zealand and Australia.

It would use data from smart meters and “machine learning” to develop tailored products and pricing for customers based on their energy consumption habits, he said.

Customers’ power consumption could be analysed over five minute intervals, he said.

Vector invested in an artificial-intelligence tool in 2019 to forecast where storms would do damage (first published in 2019).

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Insights from that data would enable energy companies to develop “dynamic pricing models” that accelerated the uptake of renewables and electric vehicles, he said.

“That will incentivise the use of energy that is locally produced such as solar panels and micro-grids, or stored by consumers themselves via batteries.”

Vector has been a big believer in using “dynamic” or variable pricing and new technologies as tools to incentivise the efficient consumption and generation of electricity.

That is rather than seeing its business as simply providing the lines infrastructure to get power from generators to consumers.

AWS New Zealand managing director Nick Walton said the partnership could develop “innovations” for use outside Australia and New Zealand.

”We absolutely see this as being applicable more broadly in solving problems around the world.

“We see New Zealand as a hub of innovation … to deliver on our shared vision to drive a more sustainable future of energy.”

Mackenzie said the partnership would create 30 skilled roles for developers in Auckland.