Hansen Technologies Limited (ASX: HSN), is pleased to announce a contract extension with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) the largest electric utility in Japan. The contract extension is a direct reflection of the increasing impact of deregulation on the Japan energy market and provides for an additional HUB license fee with ongoing support and maintenance and is initially valued at $1.5 million over 3 years.
In addition, in conjunction with Hansen's distribution partner in Japan (Toshiba Solutions), a project of work will be performed over the next twelve months to extend the functionality and capacity of the HUB solution to deliver the next generation of requirements for TEPCO in the growing deregulatory environment for Energy Utilities in Japan.
Hansen's HUB metering and billing system has been operational in TEPCO for some years now enabling TEPCO's Network Service Centre (NSC) to perform "Wheeling" which involves the key business processes of managing the transfers of contestable customers between retailers and measuring, balancing and billing the energy load for retail participants and generators.
The HUB solution already actively deployed in TEPCO will be enhanced to meet significantly higher volumes of interval meters and associated data as well as system wide process improvements to further facilitate business efficiencies and cost reductions of the NSC in managing the increased customer churn and demand response.
Andrew Hansen, Managing Director of Hansen Technologies said "We recognise the international trend towards demand response and smart interval metering. We know full well the implications upon performance and scalability. Our sophisticated HUB solution in Japan will be further enhanced in the coming months to transform TEPCO's NSC business, by enabling improved business efficiencies and performance certainty in catering for the growth in the Japanese market.
"Our relationship with TEPCO continues to build with this contract extension as a further endorsement of the expertise and sophistication of the HUB product and the Hansen solution. We will be working with TEPCO and Toshiba Solutions to ensure the enhanced HUB solution delivers TEPCO's long term needs and that it is also a relevant enhancement to the HUB solution suite for those customers world wide looking to manage the growing energy industry trend for interval meter data management."