SA Power Networks seeks $314m ICT budget

SA Power Networks is hoping to spend $314 million on ICT for the 2025-2030 regulatory period, around $30 million less than the prior corresponding period.

The figures are contained in the utility’s recently-published 2025-2030 draft regulatory proposal, open for consultation until the end of August.

When finalised, the regulatory proposal will become the basis of future tariff deliberations.

Of the $314 million total, $162 million would be directed to business-as-usual needs, including $68 million on an applications refresh (including security patches).

The proposal also includes $105 million for a variety of major upgrades or system replacement projects.

SA Power said this includes a $24 million service order management system to replace one that will exit “normal support, extended support, and legal use in 2030”.

There’s also $18 million to complete a project replacing SA Power’s legacy SAP data warehouse.

The old warehouse “was unable to meet the requirements to manage the diversity of data sources created by the energy transition", it said, adding that it had stood up a modern enterprise data platform (EDP) in Microsoft Azure.

“There is now a need to consolidate all remaining data sets from the SAP data warehouse into the EDP and decommission it when extended support ends in 2030," the proposal states.

SA Power said its planned $40 million investment into an ICT infrastructure refresh is lower than it might have been, with cloud technologies shifting spending from capex to opex.

Capex on client devices, however, will rise by $2.5 million under the proposal to $37 million.

Without specifying its current cyber security spend, SA Power said it will increase that line item to $2.4 million, mostly as opex.

Under the proposal, SA Power would also spend more than $40 million on new capabilities, including improvements to its personal and on-demand services (nearly $10 million).

SA Power also expects the growth in home solar power to feed into its IT spending, since integrating customer-generated electricity demands extensions to its ICT systems, including data analytics.