Australia’s Telstra Energy signs 10-year smart meter deal with Intellihub

Australian utility Telstra Energy has signed a 10-year deal with Intellihub for the provision of smart metering services.

Telstra Energy has secured approval in 2021 to operate as an energy retailer and seek to leverage the growing number of distributed energy resources (DERs) including solar systems installed on consumer sites to ensure energy resilience and decarbonisation in Australia.

Telstra Energy has plans to acquire and leverage smart meter data to gain insights into consumer behaviour and how resources such as energy storage and electric vehicles can be used for energy flexibility and resilience, according to a statement.

The utility will install Intellihub’s Intelli-M smart meters and Intelli-ConX communications bridge for data telemetry and connectivity as part of the deal.

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Up to 4 million smart and intelligent devices are expected to be added to Intellihub’s IoT network for near real-time processing of consumer energy usage and the status of distributed assets.

The project will enable Telstra Energy to optimise the performance of virtual power plants via the cloud through greater visibility of grid events.

Intellihub says its contract with Telstra Energy is the company’s largest IoT deal and will allow the rollout of an open network that is scalable for the inclusion of new smart city and smart grid services in the future.

The deal will double the number of IoT devices on the Telstra network, according to a statement.

Telstra Energy has plans to acquire more than half a million energy customers and enter the top five energy retailers within the next four years.

Today, Telstra is providing services including telecommunications to some 5.4 million customers and aims to take advantage of its existing relationship with the customers to offer energy services.

The signing of the deal follows Intellihub securing a $1.1 billion green loan from the Climate Bonds Standard to expand its smart metering business in New Zealand and Australia.