Enzen, the global company specialising in energy and water, has collaborated with a Tasmanian state-owned company to launch Virtual Tas – a joint venture that will develop, refresh and serve a 4D digital twin of the entire state’s above ground infrastructure, built and natural environments. Source: Timberbiz
Developed in partnership with 42-24, a subsidiary of Tasmania’s electricity supplier TasNetworks, Virtual Tas is a first-of-its-kind innovation in Australia. It’s based on Enzen’s Digital Reality Platform, a cloud-based, AI-powered, unique, end-to-end geospatial analytics solution that generates intelligent insights of utility assets in real-time.
Virtual Tas has established a 10-year foundation customer partnership with TasNetworks to provide digital twin services that will enable it to transform its asset management and improve economic and community resilience to natural disasters like bushfires and flooding, plus enhance the quality of power supply to Tasmanians, all in a sustainable and affordable way. It will also drive economic growth in the state by giving its businesses and communities access to the data so they can make smarter infrastructure decisions.
“Some elements of the technology have been used for specific purposes within Australia and worldwide, but this will be the first time a whole state has been captured at such high resolution for the specific purposes of supplying high quality data and services across multiple business sectors enabling greater cross-sector collaboration,” Ian McLeod, Head of Smart Energy and Water at Enzen Australia and Board Director of Virtual Tas, said.
James Bangay, Head of Digital at Enzen Australia, said: “The energy transition demands real-time visibility of operations and deeper real-time knowledge of the interdependence between all infrastructures. Virtual Tas integrates a range of data sources and digital solutions, including Light
“Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), satellite data, aerial footage, high resolution photography, Big Data modelling and real-time sensed data from Internet of Things LoraWAN networks.
“The outcome is a virtual world view of spatial data at high efficiency and low-cost. The Virtual Tas model can be replicated across different utilities and states in Australia.”
Enzen has also received $2.6m in federal funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Agency’s Preparing Australian Communities grant program to deliver a disaster risk reduction and community resilience application using annual data and modelling provided by Virtual TAS.
“This is about helping to build a better Tasmania, protecting and saving lives and working smarter. It’s about Tasmanians having the best data models in Australia for preventing and tackling natural disasters, safely exploring our island, and building more efficiently. In recent years, we’ve seen the devastating impact of fire and flood across Australia. The kind of detailed 4D models achieved by Virtual Tas will become a key weapon in how we prevent, plan, rescue and fight back into the future,” Kelly Walker, Leader of 42-24 and Board Director of Virtual Tas, said.
