Vector is one of New Zealand's largest network infrastructure companies with a portfolio of businesses and services delivering electricity, gas, and high-speed broadband voice and data communications in the Auckland and Wellington regions.

Vector’s core business is the delivery of high quality and reliable power to customers. To support their customer satisfaction goals, Vector recently upgraded its bulk metering system. The upgrade provided Vector with an opportunity to take the first steps toward an "intelligent substation" solution. The vision included direct data transmission over the Internet as well as high-speed Ethernet, automatically generated reports for data sharing within the company and with customers, and advanced power quality analysis.

The first ION8800 revenue meters were commissioned by Transpower recently at their Waipara substation in North Canterbury. Over the next 3-4 years approximately 450 legacy revenue meters will be replaced by ION8800 meters installed at some 152 substations throughout New Zealand.

Keith Hitchings Managing Director of Quasar Systems the supplier of the new meters says “these new devices provide the information necessary to perform grid capacity planning and stability analysis, monitor power quality compliance, supply agreements, and regulatory requirements, and mean that the metered data can be fully integrated with Transpower’s data systems”. He comments that this is achieved via ION Enterprise software and existing SCADA systems, through multiple communication channels and protocols.

Transpower Communications Manager Rebecca Wilson says that as the original meters needed to be replaced, it was an opportunity to take advantage of the advanced features available with current metering technologies offered in the Schneider Electric PowerLogic ION8800 devices supplied by Quasar.