Oracle assists major distributor in clean energy transition

Essential Energy, an electricity distributor in Australia, is said to have modernised its operations and optimised its asset management with Oracle’s cloud applications, enabling the energy distributor to deliver power while also positioning it to play a role in Australia’s clean energy transition.

Essential Energy operates and maintains a large electricity distribution network, covering 95% of New South Wales and parts of southern Queensland, and serves over 890,000 customers across regional, rural and remote communities.

Managing energy across this vast and diverse area can present unique challenges, including the need to modernise ageing infrastructure to meet growing power demands and prepare for emerging technologies. The distributor also plays a role in the state’s transition to renewable energy, as noted in the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

“To strengthen our core business, we needed the right technology to modernise and replace a number of legacy software solutions used to manage our asset and works management value chain,” said Brad Thomas, head of Asset Engineering, Risk and Compliance at Essential Energy.

To improve its business insights, increase operational efficiency and optimise workforce management to meet evolving customer expectations, Essential Energy selected Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite and Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Cloud Service (WACS).

“Oracle’s solutions are helping us manage over 10 million assets, systemise maintenance requirements and provide an end-to-end view of our asset management system. With these tools, we have improved our asset management practices and aligned our enterprise systems. They have also laid the foundation to help us lead Australia’s clean energy transition,” Thomas said.

Using the integration between Oracle applications, the energy provider can create a centralised and common data model for asset and financial management. By harnessing data insights from Oracle Fusion Applications and Oracle Utilities WACS, the company is said to be able to optimise maintenance and maximise asset value to deliver benefits to customers across Australia.

Essential Energy can also use the cloud-based applications to increase productivity, reduce costs, expand workforce insights and enhance employee experience through Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM).

“Essential Energy’s cloud-first approach is redefining what’s possible in the energy sector, setting a new benchmark for modernisation and sustainability,” said Stephen Bovis, regional managing director, Australia and New Zealand at Oracle.

“With Oracle Fusion Applications and Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Cloud Service, Essential Energy is not just optimising operations — it’s transforming its entire approach to managing one of Australia’s largest and most critical electricity networks.”

With quarterly update cycles, Oracle Fusion applications provide the energy provider’s team access to continuous innovation as new features are said to be added every 90 days, without downtime or business disruption.

Using Oracle Utilities WACS, the company can access insights, modelling and planning capabilities to manage network assets and better support communities, businesses and residential customers. Over time, this enables the organisation to have clear visibility into its asset and works management processes to support a resilient and reliable electricity network across its entire footprint.

“We are proud to work with Essential Energy in accelerating New South Wales’s clean energy transition while strengthening the state’s energy infrastructure and delivering lasting value to communities across the region,” Bovis said.

Deloitte and Accenture, both members of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), were engaged to support the implementation of Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle Cloud HCM and Oracle Utilities WACS.

Image credit: iStock.com/Petmal