AI & data sharing unite NZ power firms to boost grid resilience

Four of New Zealand's largest energy distribution businesses have formed a consortium with Tapestry, a Google X project focused on the electric grid, to deploy a unified artificial intelligence-powered platform for grid asset inspection and maintenance. Northpower, Orion Group, Unison Networks and WEL Networks will collaborate through shared data and resources, impacting more than 510,000 electricity customers across the North Island and South Island.

Technology deployment

The consortium is adopting Tapestry's GridAware platform to streamline asset inspections and maintenance. By using drones and AI, the partners aim to detect potential equipment issues faster and more systematically. This collaboration seeks to address a long-standing challenge for New Zealand's 29 energy distributors, who collectively manage more than 150,000 kilometres of lines and diverse grid equipment.

One of the technical hurdles to effective AI implementation has been the relatively small pools of image data held by individual companies. By working together, the electricity distributors will collectively label and share data of grid assets, enabling advanced algorithm development and more accurate fault detection. The plan includes contributing over 10,000 labelled images capturing at least 10 distinct types of grid assets in the next two years.

Industry collaboration

Consortium leaders cite operational improvements and stronger resilience as major objectives of the joint effort.

"This is a great example of companies combining for impact - this technology will enhance our asset planning, help us dispatch crews with more efficiency, and ensure our teams know exactly what they are dealing with on every job - it's just what we need as New Zealand steps up to do more, at a time when our engineering and trade skills are at full stretch," said Andrew McLeod, Chief Executive, Northpower.

GridAware's adoption is expected to increase the accuracy and efficiency of field inspections by centralising and digitising evidence of asset condition. The early detection of equipment defects will also provide a foundation for data-driven long-term planning and performance improvements.

"I know from the conversations I've been having that we are all excited by the opportunities provided by the GridAware platform to improve long-term planning and real-time performance for the benefit of electricity consumers and the wider industry. The early identification of potential asset failures before they happen will have enormous benefits for customers," said Nigel Barbour, Chief Executive, Orion Group.

Reduced outages

Consortium partners expect the shift to AI-driven inspections to strengthen outage prevention. Identifying assets approaching the end of their service life before failure should reduce service interruptions and improve operational spending.

"This collaboration and partnership puts us ahead of the curve. By adopting digital solutions and sharing insights, we can better anticipate issues before they cause outages, reduce interruptions, improve operational efficiencies, and build more resilient electricity networks for New Zealanders. As a collective, we're not waiting for change - we're leading it," said Jaun Park, Chief Executive, Unison Group.

The consortium is basing its approach on lessons from Vector, New Zealand's largest electricity distributor, which serves 1.8 million customers and has reported improved efficiency since adopting the GridAware platform. Field technicians at Vector now inspect roadside utility poles more than five times faster than before, with inspection times reduced from 30-45 minutes per pole to 5-7 minutes, according to recent data.

Data sharing

The partners say their data-sharing model provides the critical scale required to develop effective AI-based solutions for the grid. Technology, engineering and operational expertise will all be pooled across companies.

"This partnership marks a significant step forward for New Zealand's electricity distribution sector. By sharing our network data, asset imagery, engineering expertise and technology platforms, we're enabling smarter AI solutions that no single EDB could achieve alone. By working together, we are improving overall network reliability and increasing operational efficiency to keep our costs down," said Garth Dibley, Chief Executive, WEL Networks.

Future expansion

The founding EDBs and Tapestry aim to expand the initiative, inviting other New Zealand distributors to join the consortium and further enhance AI-driven tools for grid management.

Page Crahan, General Manager of Tapestry, said the combined grid intelligence produced by the consortium would serve as a strong baseline for New Zealand's distribution networks. "We hope that by sharing this collective grid intelligence through a unified platform, Tapestry can help the country's entire grid grow stronger and more resilient in the years to come, while keeping prices affordable for electricity customers."