Tasmania's Aurora Energy has selected Gentrack Velocity CIS from Talgentra as one of the key systems to support its entry into Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM).

Aurora Energy is the incumbent energy supplier in Tasmania and provides electricity distribution and electricity and gas retail services to more than 250,000 customers. Gentrack CIS will perform all the meter data (MDMS) and standing data management (SDM) activities for both itsr retail and network operations.

With entry into the NEM, Australia's competitive electricity market, Aurora had to ensure its systems and processes could accurately handle the large volume of data transactions required, from consumption data capture through to file interchange with other market participants.

After a comprehensive selection process, Aurora chose Gentrack Velocity, the most widely implemented CIS software package across Australia, to be one of the key systems to support their market entry IT strategy.

Reefe Brighton, CIO for Aurora Energy commented, "Our existing systems would not meet our future requirements for entry and participation in the competitive National Energy Market. After a rigorous selection process we chose Talgentra and Gentrack as having the best combination of technology and experience to meet our needs. The cost-effectiveness of Gentrack was also a key factor."

Several key drivers are behind Aurora's need for new systems-the need to prepare for Tranche 1 of retail contestability in Tasmania, entry into the National Electricity Market, and compliance with Tasmanian Electricity Supply Industry code. Aurora also saw a need to commence a process to operationally segregate its network and retail divisions, as each will need to communicate with the market independently. Thus, two separate Gentrack Velocity systems are being installed, one for each arm of the business, in a phased project over the next few months. This will ensure the retail and network operations can operate autonomously in the future if required.