Origin Energy has signed a three-year agreement with ASX-listed software vendor BidEnergy to roll out a robotic process automation (RPA) platform to its commercial and industrial (C&I) customers.
The deal follows the completion of a successful pilot program earlier this year, and from September will make the RPA solution available to Origin’s C&I portfolio of more than 14,5000 organisations and 28,000 energy meters across Australia.
Origin has signed a number of similar smart-metering and analytics deals after selling off its own smart-metering business, Acumen, for $267 million last year.
So far that’s included a deal with Acumen’s new owner intelliHUB to continue deploying the meters, as well as a partnership with Vivid Technologies for an internet of things (IoT)-powered ‘lighting-as-a-service’ play which has since incorporated a blockchain-based smart contracting platform to guarantee the green credentials of energy supplied from clean sources.
BidEnergy’s cloud-based platform is billed as a portal to more easily access bills, meter data, and customised reports and analytics, along with an online communication channel.
It “collects, validates and addresses major exceptions before payment and data storage,” the company’s website states, automatically charging against contract terms, meter data and tariffs to reduce the scope for human error in billing processes.
Further capabilities and “enhancements” are expected to be delivered in the future, BidEnergy said in an announcement to the market on Thursday.
The company, which already counts the likes of Optus, BP, GE, Flight Centre and Cotton On Group as its customers, said the roll-out is due for completion by December.
