Australian link up for Unison

Unison, Hawke's Bay's consumer-owned lines company, has entered into a collaboration agreement with two Australian companies, Aurora Energy (Tasmania) and SP AusNet (Melbourne).
Unison group chief executive Ken Sutherland said the agreement marked a significant move for Unison where "pooling resources, expertise and comparative advantage" in a number of defined areas relating to smart networks would be invaluable.
"We are leading New Zealand forward in our Smart Grid initiative, and working together with industry leaders across the Tasman means we have an opportunity to ensure our smart solutions are even stronger and that our technologies are more robust.
"The agreement facilitates working on projects within the scope of smart networks to identify areas of information exchange and aspects that could be jointly worked on," he said.
SP AusNet operates a $6.3 billion electricity and gas network that services more than one million customers in south-east Australia, with almost 700,000 of those being electricity customers.
Aurora Energy services about 400,000 customers across Tasmania.
All companies are part of the Australian Electricity Networks Association, and Unison is the only company outside of Australia with membership to the organisation.
Mr Sutherland is chairman for the New Zealand Electricity Networks Association.
"By partnering with SP AusNet and Aurora Energy we expect to make significantly more progress than could otherwise be achieved in isolation," he said.
"The agreement means all parties can avoid re-inventing the wheel."