Western Power has awarded two major contracts for delivery of a range of digital services, with a combined value of $61 million over an initial five-year term.
Empired Limited has secured the infrastructure managed services and IT supply contracts, which will last for up to seven years.
The infrastructure managed services contract has an estimated value of $31 million over five years.
Empired will deliver end-user computing services to more than 3,300 Western Power staff and contractors; provide 24×7 service management leveraging its service desk and national operations centres, manage all data centres and cloud operations; and manage more than 2,000 network devices across 30 sites.
Transition of these services will commence immediately and is expected to be completed by early August 2020.
The IT supply contract holds an estimated value of $30 million over five years for the provision of a technology enhancement program in support of the managed services scope.
The technology enhancement program will see Empired continue to evolve core backend services to cloud and digital platforms.
Empired has partnered with global giant HCL to provide leveraged offshore resourcing and access to intellectual property in the energy and power distribution markets.
Andrew Smith, CIO at Western Power, said that Empired’s solution provided a modern approach to managed services, incorporating continuous innovation, the use of artificial intelligence operations, a state-of-the-art operations centre, and access to global IP and thought leadership through the HCL partnership.
“We are confident this will let Western Power drive improved efficiency and productivity while ensuring digital platforms are optimised to provide improved services to all stakeholders,” Mr Smith said.
“The energy market is a rapidly changing landscape. With customers’ energy needs evolving, Western Power’s focus is always firmly on the future and we look forward to working with Empired through this journey.”
Western Power is a Western Australian State Government-owned corporation. It builds, maintains and operates a vast transmission and distribution electricity network in the south west corner of Western Australia. The Western Power Network forms the vast majority of the South West Interconnected Network (SWIN).
