SA Power Networks: Continuing a legacy of innovation with AI-assisted infrastructure management and HR processes
Powering South Australia with intelligent technology
A century ago, SA Power Networks came up with an ingenious way to erect power lines that were stronger and lasted longer amidst a shortage of suitable timber for traditional poles. It continues to innovate today, using SAP Business AI, SAP Business Technology Platform, and SAP SuccessFactors HCM to manage its assets, enhance safety and efficiency, and streamline HR processes.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Utilities | Adelaide, Australia | >2,000 employees |
(€US$600,000) a year saved on inspecting corroded poles.
success rate in identifying poles unlikely to corrode.
asset history available in the field with a simple query.
Head of Digital Technology, Architecture, and Data, SA Power Networks
Managing aging assets and improving HR operations
As the state’s sole electricity distributor, SA Power Networks has played a key role in South Australia for decades. The company builds, maintains, and upgrades the poles, wires, and substations that deliver power to approximately 900,000 homes and businesses, covering around 99% of the state. SA Power Networks’ poles are iconic: made from steel and concrete to withstand a harsh environment, “Stobie” poles celebrated their 100th birthday in 2024 and have inspired painting, sculpture—and even song.
Serving a population of just 1.8 million in an area around four times the size of the United Kingdom, SA Power Networks employs a very large and dispersed field workforce. In a landscape where a power line that is 250 miles long may serve only five or six farmers, getting the right information to operatives at the right time can be incredibly complex. And an infrastructure base largely built in the 1950s and well past its expected lifespan necessitates a significant asset replacement program.
Meanwhile, in a rapidly evolving industry, the company must also meet constantly changing customer expectations and keep up with evolving technologies such as batteries, renewables, and electric vehicles. According to Jason Anthony, the company’s head of enterprise applications, “We’re currently experiencing the biggest transformation our industry has ever seen: moving toward renewable energy. Yet, we must always ensure that our customers have reliable power and that safety remains a top priority.” The company needs to achieve this while running a data-driven organization, complying with regulatory requirements, and safeguarding financial performance.
Against this complicated backdrop, SA Power Networks set out to solve two problems. First, it sought a better way to maintain and inspect its vast network of assets to help keep employees safe and prevent failures.
Matthew Pritchard, the company’s head of digital technology, architecture, and data, explains: “It’s incredibly important that our people working in the field every day can do it safely. They cannot retain in their head all the information they need about every possible type of asset and equipment. If you’re in a remote area, you’ve got to search on a small screen and trawl through images, line diagrams, and drawings, which is incredibly time-consuming. How can we take a 600-page line-inspection manual and just show people the relevant paragraph on how to inspect a transformer? Or how can we take hundreds of different diagrams or drawings and show them the one they need right now for that job? That was what we were trying to solve.”
Second, SA Power Networks wanted to improve HR processes, free HR teams from time-consuming manual tasks, and give employees the information they need to do their jobs.
Head of Enterprise Applications, SA Power Networks
Leveraging a quarter century of SAP solutions data
SA Power Networks has been using SAP software since 1999. Pritchard says, “SAP solutions are at the heart of everything we do. They power pretty much every core process, from asset management to payroll, recruitment, and supply chain. This puts an incredibly rich history of asset data, inspection data, and work orders at our fingertips.” He adds, “When you combine that data with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), you can create custom applications for diverse users. And with SAP investing so heavily in intelligent technology, we also knew we could use AI within SAP software to solve the problems people face on a daily basis.”
To address its first problem, SA Power Networks created a mobile app for the field in SAP BTP that integrates natural language processing (NLP), generative AI, and document grounding. The app lets field technicians search manuals on their mobile devices using NLP to get precise answers, with the option to dive deeper by viewing the exact source in a manual. Generative AI enhances these insights, meaning that technicians can view vital details such as site conditions, access challenges, and safety concerns. With the document grounding capability, the app can use large language models to provide contextual responses based on the collection of documents uploaded into SAP BTP.
Pritchard notes, “Even if natural language search were possible without AI, it would take a team of data engineers and data scientists a long time to develop. We had it up and running in a couple of days. So not just the technology of AI but also the ease with which you can use it across SAP solutions is a game-changer.”
Meanwhile, to enhance its HR processes, SA Power Networks combined SAP SuccessFactors HCM and document grounding and capabilities of the Joule copilot within SAP SuccessFactors solutions.
Head of Digital Technology, Architecture, and Data, SA Power Networks
Crafting innovative ways to keep people productive and safe
SA Power Networks has already seen impressive results from its first two use cases based on SAP Business AI.
On the infrastructure management side, combining AI-assisted inspections using the new field app with the use of robotic dogs has reduced the need for human employees to perform hazardous tasks. It has not only improved safety and productivity but also enhanced operational efficiency thanks to precise and timely information. And the company can make better decisions by combining data and AI, supporting timely interventions and predictive maintenance.
One application involves using AI to identify poles with a low likelihood of corrosion. Pritchard explains: “If one of our 700,000 Stobie poles falls down, it’s likely that either a car has hit it or it’s corroded underground. A pole inspection takes about an hour, half of which is spent digging below the ground. We extracted over 30 years of inspection data using the SAP Datasphere solution and applied AI and a nonlinear regression model to identify where corrosion is unlikely to happen based on the history of a certain family of poles. We’re now able to do this very successfully. This means we can avoid inspecting those poles for corrosion, thereby reducing costs and helping prevent a really serious safety and bushfire issue.”
Over on the HR side, the company has streamlined processes, reduced HR teams’ workloads, and made complex HR documents more accessible for employees. Pritchard says, “For example, our enterprise agreement is a really complex document that HR gets a lot of questions on. By uploading it into Joule using document grounding, we can make information available to employees in a really accessible manner. And importantly, we can significantly reduce the queries our HR team gets, freeing them for more valuable work.”
SA Power Networks has also enhanced performance management and productivity by making it easier for employees to set, refine, and achieve their own smart goals. According to Pritchard: “One of the things I’m really excited about is embedded AI in SAP SuccessFactors solutions that lets users generate smart goals automatically through prompts. For example, they might write a goal around improving software engineering capability by 5%. Embedded AI drafts that goal for them, creates the measures and smart metrics needed, and lets users refine them.”
What’s more, the rollout of generative AI tools and custom applications has garnered positive feedback from employees, indicating higher satisfaction and engagement.
Continuing to build the next-generation digital utility
Enthusiasm about the potential of AI goes way beyond SA Power Networks’ IT team. Pritchard says, “People are incredibly excited and want to be early adopters. They just want to be able to do their jobs faster and more efficiently. Generative AI can really help with that.”
Pritchard explains that one plan involves using Joule to let users access information from third-party solutions while still in SAP software: “For a long time, companies have talked about this concept of a ‘single pane of glass.’ That’s incredibly hard to build using really complex integrations. With generative AI and natural language, you can do this in a really cost-effective manner, leveraging the applications you already have. Generative AI will make deep-level data accessible at the snap of a finger for users who aren’t system experts but just experts in the processes they use.”
Anthony adds, “I think it will become second nature for our employees to use Joule in the same way they already pick up a phone or use an app. Joule will provide information in a near-seamless way, and they won’t even realize they’re using it.”
As for field employees, Pritchard sees a future in which “all their interactions will use natural language and things like photos rather than data inputs. For example, when we’re closing out a job in SAP software, we’ll ask them to take a photo before and after. We’ll then use generative AI, computer vision, and machine learning to strip the data we need from that photo.”
Anthony sums up the company’s journey as follows. “A hundred years ago, we could have continued to source timber to make poles, but we knew there was a better and more cost-effective solution for our customers. With AI, we can continue this innovation, whether it’s with our assets in the field or technology systems and devices in the office.” That pioneering spirit will help ensure SA Power Networks remains a constant in the lives of every South Australian for another century.