Welcoming Inner West Council

We are thrilled to announce Inner West Council, a Sydney Metropolitan local government body, as a new client and to support them in safeguarding their critical infrastructure. Their commitment to the residents of Inner West Council remains unwavering, and we are proud to have successfully implemented X-Info Assurance suite seamlessly, in collaboration with the Inner West team.

One of the highlights of working with Inner West Council is to showcase the impressive speed of our X-Info Assurance suite. We’ve had great conversations with clients about efficiency and speed, and we’re excited to share that Inner West Council’s responses are now returned to enquirers in just 0.1 of a minute on average—that’s a mere 6 seconds!

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Inner West Council as they join our growing community.

But that’s not all… Since partnering in March, we’ve had the opportunity to learn more about the vibrant Inner West Council and its diverse charm:

Cultural Diversity: Over 42.9% of households in the Inner West speak two or more languages, creating a rich tapestry of cultures that influence the local arts, music, and food scenes.

A Unified Council: The Inner West Council was established in 2016 through the merger of Ashfield, Leichhardt, and Marrickville councils, streamlining governance and enhancing community services.

Thriving Arts Scene: The Inner West is a hub for creative industries, attracting artists, musicians, and performers. The area is known for its dynamic arts community and public art projects.

Sustainability Commitment: The Council is dedicated to environmental sustainability, with initiatives like the Inner West Sustainability Hub providing valuable resources to both residents and businesses.

Historic and Eclectic Neighbourhoods: The Inner West boasts a mix of historic suburbs like Balmain and Leichhardt, known for their heritage architecture, alongside eclectic neighbourhoods like Newtown and Marrickville, celebrated for their indie music scenes, unique eateries, and vibrant street art.

We look forward to continuing our partnership and further exploring the unique qualities that make the Inner West such a remarkable place.

Welcome aboard!

Jaci

Epic Energy Powers Forward: Contributing to South Australia’s 2030 Renewable Energy Goals

Epic Energy continues to contribute to renewable energy, supporting South Australia’s ambitious target to achieve 100% of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030.

It’s exciting to know that the Mannum Solar Farm Stage 2 is now operational and supplying renewable electricity into the SA network. This new phase operates independently of the initial Mannum Solar Farm, boasting its own dedicated connection to the SA Power Network’s distribution network. With an average annual generation of 75 GWh, Stage 2 will produce enough renewable energy to power 15,000 homes! This project is one of many exciting ventures Epic Energy is advancing to feed clean energy back into the National Electricity Grid, reinforcing their commitment to sustainability and a cleaner energy future.

Mipela is proud to support Epic Energy in managing its assets efficiently. Leveraging the power of the X-Info Assurance suite, Mipela ensures lightning-fast responses to any enquiries regarding excavation, digging, and planning activities. Together, we are driving progress and protecting vital infrastructure in the renewable energy sector.

Taking mobile data capture to another level

Mipac is a global leader in operational technology, control systems and engineering services, specialising in metal and mineral process control, automation and performance data solutions around the world.

Earlier this year, Mipac started using Mipela’s X-Info Suite configured to provide a Field Asset Auditing System (FAAS) for field electrical, instrumentation and control system audits at various mine sites around the world. This solution saves costs and time by automating workflows and reporting and provides Mipac users with easy access to a single-source-of-truth for core Field Asset Audited business information. It also allows personnel to seamlessly perform these complex asset site audit processes through an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

The FAAS also provides automated exception and compliance reporting, as components of the project are completed. The data can also be used to automate the preparation of progressive status reports and progress management in preparation and delivery of the project.

Effective land management across the Gas Pipeline Victoria

The Gas Pipeline Victoria (GPV) is part of the Solstice Energy Group. It owns and operates a 182km high pressure transmission pipeline from Carisbrook to Horsham in south west Victoria. This pipeline is integral to the supply of gas to the regional Victorian towns of Avoca, Ararat, Stawell and Horsham.

GPV operates the pipeline in accordance with a safety case as administered by Energy Safe Victoria under the Gas Industry Act, 1997. It also operates under the Australia Standard AS 2885 – the standard for high pressure pipeline systems.

Later last year, GPV and Mipela commenced a project to provide GPV with a software solution to manages its lands management reporting requirements. A system was established incorporating all land parcels along the pipeline and its easements. This system, X-Info Lands Management, provides GPV users with the ability to add communications or interactions, search land parcel engagement history and provide reports to the regulators from a secure, browser based portal. This information is also spatially represented in the portal in an interactive map activity. Field users can also enter information via a mobile data capture app called X-Info Aware. X-Info Aware is fully integrated into X-Info Lands Management so the data is entered once only. Supporting document such as Notice of Exercise, Easements and other agreements can also be created, issued and managed through the supporting workflows within X-Info Lands Management.

System Administrator and GIS Team Lead, Gillian Bennett said, “X-Info Lands Management will become a crucial part of how we manage this pipeline. As we, as a business, become more familiar with the power of X-Info Lands Management, we will continue to make enhancements to optimise our processes and align with reporting requirements. X-Info Lands Management has the flexibility to be able to support these changes and Mipela has the business processes in place to ensure this happens effectively.”

Mipela also provide a number of solutions to other parts of the Solstice Energy Group and looks forward to this ongoing business partnership.

Ampol joins our Client Community!

We are thrilled to announce the latest addition to our Mipela client group – Ampol! In the latter part of 2023, Ampol embarked on a journey to enhance their responsiveness to BYD enquiries, and we are delighted to share that they have chosen to elevate their processes with the advanced capabilities of the X-Info Assurance suite.

As the largest transport energy distributor and retailer in Australia, Ampol manages a network of assets spanning various regions in New South Wales. What sets Ampol apart is their unique approach to handling BYD inquiries. Employing a meticulous process, they ensure that every inquiry receives an immediate response and that all excavation works undergo assessment by specialised staff before commencement.

We are particularly pleased to highlight the proactive role of Dean Allison, the NSW BYDA Pipeline Supervisor at Ampol. His swift and dedicated support in transitioning to X-Info Assurance suite reflects Ampol’s commitment not only to the wellbeing of their assets but also to the safety of anyone involved in excavation activities.

Join us in extending a warm welcome to Ampol! We look forward to a collaborative and successful partnership, leveraging the capabilities of X-Info Assurance suite to enhance efficiency and safety in their operations.

SA Power Networks – Committed to Ensuring Security

In the fast-paced realm of data privacy and online security, today’s conversations might seem obsolete by next week. Trends evolve swiftly, and the demands on major service providers are continuously scrutinised by both regulatory bodies and consumers alike.

Long time Mipela client, SA Power Network takes a proactive stance in addressing risks, employing dynamic layers of security and swiftly implementing initiatives to stay ahead of the curve.

In the constantly evolving landscape of security, where potential breaches and client privacy concerns arise weekly, it’s comforting seeing a client such as SA Power Network committed to developing an increasingly sophisticated approach to these critical areas.

Focus on the complex, the urgent and the sensitive

RREDD’s focus is on the complex, the urgent and the sensitive. Specialising in community engagement, dispute management and Indigenous engagement, Director, Craig Jones has more than thirty years’ experience working with Indigenous communities to progress development.

Many of the projects the RREDD team work on are complex matters and require fastidious record keeping. When looking at a solution to manage the information associated with these projects, Craig turned to Mipela.

X-Info StakeholderManagement is used to manage stakeholder and interaction records across multiple projects for RREDD. These projects vary from pipeline dig-ups, requiring cultural heritage consultation, to specific mediation matters between companies and community or between Indigenous people and groups. Mipela’s cloud solution, X-Info StakeholderManagement ensures Craig and the team always have access to record key interactions with stakeholders. They are also able to visualise important locations with the integrated web mapping. That visualisation can often be really important and Mipela also provides map outputs for Craig and the team to support key discussions.

Craig describes the use of the X-info StakeholderManagement and the mapping system as significant in RREDD’s day to day practice. “The mapping and the stakeholder management system help to provide key data and visualisations that build trust with parties and enable us to keep track of our engagements with groups and individuals. Ultimately, the system builds a picture of our work which contributes to the management of social risk and positive outcomes between parties” said Craig.

Making light work of Safety Management Studies

Australia’s largest gas pipeline network owner and operator, APA Group is responsible for more than $21 billion of energy assets across Australia.

Under Australian Standard AS/NZS 2885, APA Group and other gas pipeline asset owners are required to conduct cyclic Safety Management Studies (SMS) for all pipeline assets to ensure Australian pipeline standards and regulatory compliance are periodically maintained. Also it ensures the key stakeholders are fully informed of the processes and the operational risks associated with the assets are well understood and managed.

Since 2018, APA Group have been using Mipela’s X-Info SMS suite to automate this process and continue to utilise X-Info SMS suite to efficiently manage periodic reviews of safety management studies and conduct interactive validation workshops using GIS information and aerial imagery data.

WA based Risk Engineer, Kashif Kazi has conducted SMS workshops for various APA pipeline assets in WA State, namely Leonora Gas Lateral, Parmelia Gas Pipeline, Thunderbox Lateral, Jundee and Wiluna Gold Lateral.

“X-Info SMS suite provides a standardised and efficient approach to conduct the validation workshops and a tool to prepare required SMS inputs, collate data and produce outputs. This not only saving time but providing a consistent methodology for 5-yearly periodic operational SMS reviews for all APA assets. The system generates reports that show the spatial representation of threats, assets, and risks using the current and historic SMS review data for each asset, interactive use of GIS and aerial imagery mapping so staff can quickly reference and assess the status of any generic or location specific threats. This enables SMS workshop participants and key stakeholders to better plan resources, create appropriate actions, as required, manage and minimise the pipeline risk for as low as Reasonably Practicable,” said Kazi.

Looks like Kazi and APA’s other state based Risk Engineers are smashing these SMS studies out of the park!

Reporting Stakeholder Information to the Regulators

Beach Energy is an ASX listed, oil and natural gas, exploration and production company headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1961, Beach have operated and non-operated, onshore and offshore, oil and natural gas production from five producing basins across Australia and New Zealand.

Beach recognises its intrinsic role in supporting communities, by actively contributing to sustainable environments and the health, safety and wellbeing of the people living in the areas where it operates. Its community investment strategy focuses on three key areas; education, environment and health, safety and wellbeing.

Beach’s community relations team were looking for a way to capture, manage and measure its stakeholder management to gain a better level of understanding of stakeholder communications across the business. Enter Stage Left – Mipela. The team from Mipela have worked with the Beach team to deliver a stakeholder management solution to assist them with community engagement and consultation processes, with consideration made to land access requirements.

As part of the consultative process, it was also identified that the following functionality could be included in the proposed solution, using X-Info Suite:

• Stakeholder engagement including agreements, grievances, commitments, communications, records management and reporting
• Community investment and grants management including contracts, correspondence and reporting
• Landholder land access including notice of entry, payments and reports.

Both teams recognised the best way to work together was to adopt a continuous improvement approach to the solution – delivering more and more functionality as the solution matures. Whilst some enhancements have been simple configuration changes to workflows, others have been major feature developments, which are now available to other Mipela clients.

Being able to create bulk emails, correspondence and SMS messages against multiple stakeholder contacts simultaneously has demonstrated a huge amount of value to the Beach community relations team. The consistency of messaging and significant reduction in time taken to issue information means the community relations team can get on with other tasks.

“We can now quickly distribute communications to a targeted list of stakeholders and have it automatically recorded as an engagement in X-Info Suite for future reporting purposes,” said Linda French, Group Manager Social Performance and Community at Beach Energy.

Recent industry highlights of regulatory reporting compliance becoming more and more important, has lead to the development of significantly improved reporting from X-Info Suite. Being able to automatically create a report that demonstrates stakeholder engagement from both detail of each email, call, text and in a tabular engagement log summary at the push of a button has been a real advancement for Beach.

“To satisfy different regulatory requirements, we must be able to provide details of our stakeholder and landholder engagement – including extracts of all emails and summaries of engagement,” said French.

“Being able to capture, then create a report that details engagement with relevant persons from a single system like X-Info Suite is a powerful tool when you are accountable to present evidence to regulators. This engagement report has saved a phenomenal amount of manual handling. I am absolutely thrilled with this new functionality,” French added.

Both teams will continue to improve on the value that X-Info Suite delivers to Beach.

What integration with SPEAR means to Jemena

In the version 6.5 release of X-Info Connect a few months ago, we introduced an integration between X-Info Connect with the Victoria Government SPEAR System.

SPEAR is an online system that allows subdivision planning permits, certification applications and other land administration dealings to be compiled, lodged, managed, referred, approved and tracked online. Complete end to end workflows are built into SPEAR allowing applications to be lodged online with Land Use Victoria for registration.

As a Referral Authority, Jemena uses SPEAR to receive and respond to Council referrals in the planning and subdivision application process.

X-Info Connect has been configured to integrate with the SPEAR system via an API and connector to capture records of online applications for plans of subdivision.

Gail Ervine, Subdivisional Officer, Strategy & Commercial – Electrical Distribution at Jemena relies heavily on regularly receiving information to support plans of subdivision within the Jemena Electricity Distribution network using X-Info Connect.

Previously Gail would manually update this information into their subdivision solution, X-Info Connect. The information is now automatically fed into X-Info Connect from SPEAR via an API and a connector on an hourly basis or pushed import, as required. Since the release of this new functionality, reviewing subdivisions has become much more timely and efficient with automation reducing input errors.

“Not only has the time taken to manage applications reduced dramatically, there is also no room for human error or omissions.” said Gail.

Jemena plans in taking this functionality into other areas of its operations.