CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY
How Powerco Used FME to Automate Customer Connection Data Across New Zealand’s Second-Largest Energy Distributor
By engaging Locus to build an FME-powered automated workflow, Powerco eliminated the manual, error-prone process of updating multiple systems every time a new customer connection was created, freeing their technical team from data entry and ensuring accurate, validated records are available across both Gas and Electricity networks the moment a new connection goes live..
452,000 households served
Urban and rural electricity and gas customers across New Zealand’s North Island
Dual-energy automation
Gas automation delivered late 2020, Electricity process completed February 2021, both networks now fully automated
Instant validation
FME validates source data, maps coded domains, and plots spatial locations on creation flagging issues immediately by email for source correction
Storm-ready data
The most significant improvement: the ability to rely on up-to-date data during storm response scenarios
The collaboration between Powerco and Locus has evolved to be not only a professional partnership but an authentic and trusted relationship who slot seamlessly into Powerco’ s culture.The talented Locus team were able to work with us to interpret our specifications and business needs to produce an automated workflow using FME. This has not only reduced manual and tedious tasks for our technical asset team but has also ensured accuracy, integrity and timeliness of data being represented in our systems. We have certainly valued and appreciated this effective and productive relationship – Thank you Locus”
– Dianne Ford Campbell, GIS Team Leader, Powerco
The Challenge
Keeping Dual-Energy Customer Data Accurate Across Multiple Systems at Scale
Powerco distributes electricity and gas to 452,000 households, both urban and rural, as well as businesses, major industrial and commercial sites across New Zealand’s North Island. Electricity networks span the Taranaki, Wanganui, Rangitikei, Manawatu, and Wairarapa regions, including the urban centres of New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Masterton, as well as Tauranga and surrounding rural areas and the eastern and southern Waikato, Thames, and Coromandel regions. Gas networks cover the Taranaki, Manawatu, Hutt Valley, Porirua, Wellington City, Horowhenua, and Hawke’s Bay regions.
As the second-largest gas and largest electricity distributor in New Zealand, Powerco is one of only two dual-energy distributors in the country. Due to the nature of its dual-energy distribution role and the geographical spread of urban and rural customers, the challenge of keeping customer data up-to-date is critical to Powerco operations.
As new customer connections are created for both Gas and Electricity, each new connection requires a series of datasets to be updated within multiple systems, a time-consuming task for Powerco staff, and one that requires precision to ensure no dataset is overlooked.
The Solution
An FME-Powered Automated Workflow Across Gas and Electricity Networks
Powerco engaged Locus to create an automated workflow which updates the appropriate datasets in multiple systems whenever a new customer connection is created. These were completed in two separate stages, beginning with Gas in late 2020, before completing the Electricity process in February 2021.
The workflow is triggered whenever a new customer record is created, invoking an FME workspace to be run on FME Flow. The workspace performs a series of validation checks, ensuring that the source data meets the prescribed specifications, maps values to coded domains, and its spatial location can be plotted correctly. Any validation issues are automatically detected and reported via email so that the team can fix them at source and ensure the data can be created accurately. Once validated, the records are inserted into the appropriate tables, with parent/child relationships created automatically.
The Results
Technical Teams Freed for Value-Add Work and Data You Can Trust When It Matters Most
Given the high volume of customer connections that Powerco needs to create, it is very hard to quantify the benefit of implementing an automatic process like this. However, by building an automated system Powerco has been able to release its talented technical team from task-based manual processing, allowing them to spend significantly more time on value-add work, rather than data entry.
Data validation on creation ensures that poor quality data cannot be entered into the system. The timeliness of records being created instantly also guarantees that where initial data issues exist, users are prompted immediately, meaning problems can be remedied before they compound. Accurate and timely data is created and available in multiple systems to enable business users to make informed decisions about Powerco Electricity and Gas Networks. The most significant improvement to date is the ability to rely on now up-to-date data during storm scenarios.
Why it Matters
For energy distributors managing dual-network infrastructure across large and geographically dispersed service areas, data accuracy isn’t just an operational nicety,it’s a safety and resilience requirement. When customer connection records are created manually across multiple systems, the risk of gaps, errors, and delays is ever-present.
By utilising FME to automate the creation, validation, and distribution of customer connection data across both Gas and Electricity networks, energy distributors can eliminate that risk entirely, ensuring their teams always have accurate, spatially verified records available at the moment they’re needed, whether for day-to-day operations or critical storm response.
Success Stories
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