Vector Limited has made an investment in mPrest, a global provider of mission-critical 'Internet of Energy' software. Vector will also be a reselling partner in the Oceania region.
Vector joins current mPrest investors OurCrowd, GE Ventures, Angeleno Group, Israel Electric Corporation and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems LTD.
Vector deliveres energy and communication services to over 1.2 million homes and businesses in New Zealand. As an energy group, it has investments in many businesses including electricity and gas, and it has successfully deployed smart meters and commercial solar and battery energy solutions in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.
Vector entered into the investment and reselling agreement with mPrest following its successful collaboration with mPrest to develop mPrest's mDERMS application. Being vendor agnostic, the mPrest "system of systems" unifies and optimizes network assets and enables new and emerging customer needs and generation sources to be integrated into the way a network operates.
"Our partnership with Vector is what we strive for – a happy customer who gains confidence in our software and comes back not only wanting to invest in it, but also to help replicate its success for other customers," said Natan Barak, Chief Executive Officer of mPrest. "It's common for our customers to expand their relationship with us after experiencing the benefits of our products. Vector's interest in transitioning from customer to investor and business partner is a powerful vote of confidence in mPrest – an established player in the utility and energy space is not only willing to implement mPrest into production, but is willing to stand behind our product as a distributor as well."
Under the recent agreement, Vector will assist mPrest in expanding its reach by distributing its software throughout Oceania. The partnership is representative of a larger market trend as forward-thinking utilities like Vector embrace industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions to meet the evolving and expanding demands of the energy landscape.
"We are excited to expand our relationship with mPrest," said Simon Mackenzie, Chief Executive Officer of Vector Limited. "With the transformation of the energy sector in mind, we've already been leading the development of new customer solutions using our existing expertise in running energy systems combined with advanced technology and international partners.
"This is a next big step. Using mPrest's comprehensive monitoring, analytics and control software allows us to manage complex energy systems in much more sophisticated ways, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and rapid and cumulative decision making to unlock new energy solutions for consumers.
"It means that from Vector's control room, with one set of management software, our engineers can better predict and manage outages by optimizing DERs to enable a streamlined, efficient delivery of energy to and from the grid. That's never been a possibility, up until now. This helps 'democratise' energy, enabling customers to easily access low cost energy and control different network inputs to optimise their energy use and cost.
"This 'Internet of Energy' platform capability that has been co-developed is world-leading and we think is the next big evolution in energy systems and platforms. As well as using it to add significant 'smarts' to our own networks to benefit customers, we look forward to delivering these solutions to our partners and to other energy companies across Australiaand the South Pacific, and in the process sharing in mPrest's global success as an investor in the company."
mPrest's intelligent and adaptable "Internet of Energy" software, which "connects the dots" into a unified smart grid management system of systems, is ideally suited to the needs of the modern energy networks. mPrest's system gathers and analyzes distributed energy resources, demand response and network data, enabling complete monitoring and control capabilities for a variety of energy utility operations while remaining open to allow for the integration of new functions and systems in the future. mPrest's leadership in the "Internet of Energy" expands well beyond DERMS and recently received further confirmation from their announced partnership with the New York Power Authority (NYPA),through which NYPA uses mPrest software to manage asset health in its network.
