“ADT provided the best response in terms of technology, pricing, and a proven record of delivering complex projects. They fully understood our scope and tailored their offering to our requirements.” – Jonathan Battson, MainPower’s Head of Asset Management & Operations.
The security and surveillance challenges to solve:
MainPower, the electricity distribution company for North Canterbury, must safeguard critical energy infrastructure for the region. This includes their substations in far-flung and remote locations.
The remote nature of many of the substations means that site visits and inspections are time-consuming, costly, and slow. This is particularly problematic when time is of the essence, for example when needing to identify or mitigate risks in the case of adverse weather or events. The substations also present public safety risks and exposure to vandalism and theft.
MainPower was looking for a security and surveillance solution to strengthen their substation protection, reduce response times and create operational efficiencies.
The solution:
Designing a solution for MainPower required overcoming some specific challenges, including the lack of cellular reception and buildings in some locations, as well as working around the unique requirements that come with cabling and connecting within a power substation.
Each substation has a bespoke setup, depending on these requirements and these have included:
- Starlink integration - to overcome remote reception challenges and enable live camera monitoring.
- 360 cameras – cutting edge technology that acts like four cameras in one, providing panoramic surveillance while reducing the footprint, cabling, power requirements and software licenses compared to a traditional four-camera setup.
- Thermal cameras – these monitor the temperature of the equipment within the substation, enabling faster mitigation of issues before they happen, and reducing the need for onsite inspections.
- Battery back-ups – ensuring visibility and protection at critical times and in the case of a power outage.
- Integrated monitoring centre – MainPower’s headquarters is set up with 360° surveillance of all sites, from one screen.
Jonathan Battson, Head of Asset Management & Operations, said: “This approach will strengthen safety, help reduce unnecessary travel, improve response times, create a strong deterrent to vandalism and theft, as well as lowering operational costs - all while ensuring reliable service for our communities.
“The solution was rolled out efficiently with a minimum of hassle or intervention. There were synergies with our communications upgrade programme, saving costs during the rollout.
“The footprint on sites is small, but the benefit is considerable, our control room now has real time visibility of all sites, which proved valuable during recent unsettled weather.”
Why MainPower chose ADT
Jonathan said: “ADT took the time to understand our requirements, offering tailored solutions that met our needs.”
“ADT has a proven track record as an established provider in New Zealand. They deliver security services to major businesses of regional importance and we needed this level of service and expert advice to ensure our key assets are monitored and protected effectively.
“We appreciated their collaborative and partnership-focussed approach, which was flexible and adaptable as our requirements were fine-tuned during the pre-delivery phase. We also valued their willingness to integrate our Starlink communications requirements to save our communities money by delivering both systems at once.”
