Forum Archive Index - March 2000

["Osbert Sun" <osbert.sun@xtra.co.nz>]

Perhaps the following article from the NZ Herold could be a referecne to the profile of WEL Technology that Spectrum is to purchase.

 

Happy reading

 

Canada eager for power expertise

10.08.1999 - By Adam Gifford

Hamilton-based WEL Technology is anticipating strong sales of its PV2 time-of-use power billing system and other products as the Canadian electricity market deregulates.

Chief executive John O'Hara said WEL Technology had formed a joint venture, Utility Settlement Ontario (USO) with local software developer and contract meter reading company Proson Solutions and Ontario's Municipal Electricity Association, which represents the 270 power distribution companies in the province.

The company will use a product called Settlement One, [www.utilitysettlement.com] a modified version on PV2, to settle up accounts between power distribution companies after Ontario deregulates its electricity supply industry in October. "About 90 per cent is PV2 and 10 per cent is intellectual property developed by USO. We have technical staff up there," Mr O'Hara said.

WEL Technology also expects at least 100 of the 270 Ontario energy companies will buy PV2, at a base price of $C350,000 ($437,000) plus implementation costs.

"We have a number of customers in pilot sites, where the software is being installed and operated on a trial basis," he said.

The company will then switch its focus to Alberta, the next province due to deregulate.

"There are opportunities out there for New Zealand because we deregulated early. That's seen as an advantage. This month we expect to do double the business we did in the whole of last year."

Mr O'Hara said companies making meters and call centre software for electricity companies were also doing good export business.

In New Zealand PV2 is used by Contact Energy, Natural Gas Corporation and a number of smaller customers, as well as by TransAlta-owned Power New Zealand and Southpower. There is also interest from lines companies, who want to use PV2's network analysis capabilities.

WEL Technology has formed a strategic alliance with SAP to integrate PV2 and SAP R/3 for the Australian and New Zealand marketplace, where SAP is doing well with sales to the larger utilities.

Mr O'Hara said that in a typical utility PV2 was used for less than 5 per cent of the customer base, "but those customers account for 30 to 40 per cent of revenue".

In New Zealand those customers are billed by the half hour. In North America it is in 15-minute blocks, which Mr O'Hara said generated "a phenomenal amount of data." On an Oracle database, about 5Mb of billing data are produced a year for each customer.

Mr O'Hara said WEL Technology was also forming partnerships with Canadian companies offering billing systems for retail customers.