SA Power turns to Advanced Mobile IT for connectivity upgrade

South Australian utility company SA Power Networks has turned to Advanced Mobile IT to install in-vehicle and satellite connectivity solutions from Cradlepoint.

SA Power Networks is South Australia’s sole electricity distributor that supplies power to around 1.7 million customers and has over 2,000 employees. The regulated essential service provider operates a 24-hour faults and emergencies hotline for its network, which covers approximately 178,000 square metres.

With Advanced Mobile IT helping on the project as supply, installation and service partner, the newly introduced set up included Cradlepoint NetCloud running on the vendor’s R1900 and R920 routers.

According to Cradlepoint, the security behind NetCloud Manager hosting, data, privacy management and the ability to export information, including SIM numbers for asset management from NetCloud Manager, met key requirements for SA Power Networks’ daily operations.

Additionally, Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites are used as the primary connection for its vehicles in the set up due to the remote locations where maintenance work takes place. The distributor utilises both cellular and Starlink connectivity when in cellular coverage, with Cradlepoint technology opting for the best performing connection.

Cradlepoint also included a limited lifetime warranty with a NetCloud subscription and onshore cloud hosting, which was a regulatory requirement.

Paul Salter, head of powerline and electrical services SA Power Networks, said its field crews work in regional and remote parts of the state, where there’s next to no cellular coverage. 

“Without reliable service, crews could arrive at the site to carry out works but then need to travel to the nearest location with a cellular tower to communicate or access critical information related to the job,” he said.

This meant if further work were required, crews would need to travel back and forth to the site until power was restored safely.

“This connectivity solution with Cradlepoint and Starlink is about improving restoration times and getting better outcomes for our customers,” said Salter.

“For unplanned interruptions in regional areas, the continuous connection saves us an estimated 1,845 hours a year by enabling and improving digital field switching.”