Candanian software company Synexus Global has been awarded a contract to develop and implement a Hydro Advisory Tool (HAT) for Mighty River Power of Hamilton, New Zealand.

The new decision-support system will be based on Synexus’s Vista DSS software product, which is already installed at a number of major power generating facilities in its native North America and abroad.

The Mighty River Power contract will require the implementation of RealTime Vista (RT Vista), as well as the development of new functionalities, including frequency regulation.

The advisory tool is designed to help Mighty River Power to respond to the New Zealand electricity real-time spot market by optimising plant unit commitment and loading, based on forecasted conditions over the subsequent four hours. Updated optimisation of unit loading and commitments will be performed automatically every 30mins, and on demand approximately every 5mins.

The scope of work includes software licenses, development, customisation, installation, extensive on-site testing, staff training and several years of maintenance and support. The project is scheduled to take 12 months to execute.

Mighty River Power is a New Zealand government-owned utility based on the North Island of New Zealand. Mighty River Power’s hydro generation assets consist of nine power plants (with 39 generating units) on the Waikato river cascade, totalling 1056MW.