SP Group in bottom half of first Smart Grid Index report

SP Group, in the index it launched on Monday for measuring and advancing smart grid, ranked in the bottom half of the pack of 45 utilities across 30 countries.

A smart grid is an electricity supply network that uses digital technology to detect and react to local changes in usage. It also allows for deployment and integration of electricity drawn from non-traditional sources such as the photovoltaic cells installed on the rooftops of private residences.

The SGI developed by SP Group is touted as the first such index in the world. In the first published SGI report, the utility group scored 50 out of a possible 100, putting it on par with regional peers like HK Electric, China's State Grid Beijing and State Grid Shanghai. The top three utilities were US-based PG&E and SDGE with respective scores of 86 and 82, and UKPN on a score of 79.

The utilities were rated on seven dimensions of a smart grid: supply reliability; monitoring and control; data analytics; integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER); green energy; security; and customer empowerment and satisfaction.

SP Group performed the best in supply reliability, but it has room to improve on the six other dimensions.

SP Engineering Council's chairman, Sim Kwong Mian who led the development of SGI, said the index was created to "advance our own grid development".

But beyond this, some viewed the SP's SGI framework as a platform to develop thought leadership for smart grid development.

Nanyang Technology University's deputy provost for education, Professor Kam Chan Hin, said: "SP Group's smart grid index will provide important data points, aids healthy industry discourse and enables utilities to deliver sustainable solutions for the future."

Utilities worldwide have applied varying parameters to benchmark smart grids. SP in a bid to derive a suitable framework has drawn on definitions published by the European Union and the US Department of Energy. The 45 utilities were then ranked based on publicly available data for the seven dimensions.

SP said that the SGI has won endorsements from industry experts and stakeholders when previewed at the International Utility Working Group in April, a gathering of utilities from Europe, the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.

SGI was also featured at the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI) in September. CEPSI is an event backed by over 40 utilities in the Asia-Pacific.

The index's methodology was also validated by the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (Nanyang Technological University).