Singapore, 29 October 2018 – At the ASEAN Energy Business Forum today, SP Group (SP) launched the world’s first smart grid index to help utilities measure and advance in key dimensions of grid development. The Singapore energy utilities company has developed this international benchmarking framework that will enable utilities to identify best-practices by leading industry players. This will help them to develop the infrastructure needed to support Smart Cities and serve customers better.

While the provision of reliable, secure and efficient electricity supply remains crucial, there are other key considerations for developing a future-ready grid. The smart grid index provides a framework of seven key dimensions of an electricity grid. These are: supply reliability; monitoring and control; data analytics; integration of DER Distributed Energy Resources (DER); green energy; security; and customer empowerment and satisfaction.

The framework was designed to be simple and quantifiable for utilities to easily determine what aspects they are strong in, and where they can improve. Using publicly available data, SP applied the framework on 45 utilities across 30 countries. The published results will allow utilities to identify leading players across the seven dimensions. They can reach out to their counterparts to learn industry best practices to drive smart grid development.

At SP Group, we have drawn from our own experience in creating a framework to measure our grid performance and benchmark it internationally with other countries. It has been well received and accepted when previewed earlier this year to industry experts and fellow utilities at the International Utility Working Group meeting in Singapore in April, and at the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry in Kuala Lumpur in September. The index’s methodology and benchmarking studies were also validated by the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).

Mr Sim Kwong Mian, Chairman of the SP Engineering Council, said, “We created this index as we wanted a simple, quantifiable framework to advance our own grid development. It has been useful for us and we would like to contribute it to the wider utilities community. It will enable us to learn best practices from each other, towards developing a future-ready grid and to serve our customers better.

“Smart grids are a critical infrastructure that supports economic growth while improving the quality of life in a city. SP Group’s smart grid index is useful for utilities to define, measure and advance in the fundamental aspects of grid development. It will provide important data points, aids healthy industry discourse and enables utilities to deliver sustainable solutions for the future,” Professor Kam Chan Hin, Deputy Provost (Education), and former Chair, School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University.

More information about the smart grid index can be found at https://www.spgroup.com.sg/our-services/network/overview/smart-grid-index.

About SP Group

SP Group is a leading energy utilities group in the Asia Pacific. It owns and operates electricity and gas transmission and distribution businesses in Singapore and Australia, and district cooling businesses in Singapore and China. SP Group is committed to providing customers with reliable and efficient energy utilities services. More than 1.4 million industrial, commercial and residential customers in Singapore benefit from SP Group’s world-class transmission, distribution and market support services. These networks are amongst the most reliable and cost-effective world-wide. SP Group also drives digital solutions to empower customers to manage their utilities, reduce consumption and save cost.

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