Horizon Power Deploys New Gentrack Platform to Support Future Innovation

Gentrack Group Ltd, a provider of essential software and services for utilities, announced today the successful deployment of its latest billing and customer information system to Horizon Power in Western Australia (WA).

Horizon Power is an innovative energy utility serving over 100,000 residents and 10,000 commercial customers in regional towns and remote communities across WA. It has used the Gentrack platform since 2009 to support its growing operations in one of Australia’s most challenging geographies, with customers including remote indigenous communities and commercial mining settlements. The Gentrack project has provided a stronger platform for the business to roll out new digital technologies and intelligent pricing to support its changing customer ecosystem and demand for affordable and sustainable electricity across its network.

Horizon Power’s Manager Customer Services and Project Director Retail Strategy, Geoff White, said he was excited to have reached an important milestone in the ongoing implementation of the utility’s retail strategy and delighted with the outcome of such a critical project.

“Our move to the latest Velocity off-the-shelf product is a key enabler of our retail strategy, significantly expanding our contestable customer capability and self-service options,” he said.

“Having been involved in a number of customer information system implementations, I’m well aware that these projects are large and complex and are very rarely implemented without impacting customers.

“It is a testament to the Gentrack team that this project has exceeded our expectations and delivered an outcome with no negative customer impact. Remarkably, we have hit standard operational key performance indicators within a month of go live.”

Upgrading Velocity has provided a scalable, web-based platform with an enhanced billing engine, capable of supporting a wide variety of products and pricing structures to enable Horizon Power to deliver on multi-utility and beyond-electricity offerings. Most importantly, the upgrade has provided a modern CRM and billing platform foundation for increased speed to market of strategic project delivery, to enable Horizon Power to become an industry leader in microgrid and disruptive technology.

Gentrack’s Country Manager for Australia, Paul King, said the project was an overwhelming success with a high-quality solution ensuring few issues on cutover and key target metrics being achieved in a relatively short period of time.

King said: “We’re pleased with the outcome of the project and delighted that Horizon Power are really happy with the solution they now have to support further digital innovation. Horizon Power is a showcase for what smart utilities can achieve with the right platforms, partnerships and strategies in place to adapt and move quickly to succeed in what can only be termed an energy revolution.”

A vertically integrated utility in Western Australia’s Electricity Market, Horizon Power continues to build its smart energy credentials, operating 32 microgrids as the backbone of its strategy for delivering sustainable and affordable electricity to all. The new Gentrack platform, in conjunction with Horizon Power’s advanced metering network, provides the tools to craft and implement innovative pricing tariffs for customers to support the utility’s retail strategy, and provides additional options for hooking up Gentrack’s latest cloud-native solution for integrating customer experience technologies.

“Utilities globally are undergoing a transformation being driven by a new generation of customers, new digital technologies and changes in regulatory frameworks to encourage more competition and investment in grid edge energy. To enable utilities like Horizon Power to achieve their aspirations, its essential to have core solutions such as those from Gentrack to deliver essential meter-to-cash capabilities while also providing an open platform for testing and validating new digital customer engagement experiences,” King added.

The project which included the relocation of the Gentrack platform to hosted infrastructure in WA also marks another successful chapter in Gentrack’s partnership with process outsourcer Computershare. A strong teaming approach with experts from all three parties was essential to the project success, kicking off with an extensive design phase as the basis for delivering a high-quality solution and technical relocation within the budget and timeframe provided.