Vector Interim Report 2020 ― Chair and Group Chief Executive report
move more quickly through traffic, thus allowing faster restoration times. The use of flashing lights would prove particularly beneficial in electrical and gas emergencies that require coordination with first responders. During the period we introduced several initiatives to help reduce the frequency of outages caused by problem trees and other vegetation. This included onboarding aborist expertise and additional resources to increase cut and trim activity, introducing new data and analytics technology to better target problem The period also saw the continued implementation of the Vector DERMS platform (distributed energy resource management system) which is critical to optimising our core network – the foundation of our business – by making it truly intelligent and ready to adapt to changing demand and customer behaviours. In December we added new functionality to our online Outage Centre – which has been designed to give customers another source of up to date information about planned and unplanned outages affecting their address. The Outage Centre now includes an interactive map to show the extent of an outage on the surrounding area as well as other relevant information pertaining to a specific outage, such as the estimated restoration time. areas and increasing our community engagement to ensure tree owners are aware of their responsibilities.
As was reported in our most recent operational update, SAIDI minutes for the nine months ending 31 December 2019 were 13.7% lower than the comparable period, which reflects the significant investment being made to improve network resilience, as well as fewer extreme weather events. Financial performance – electricity and gas distribution Adjusted EBITDA for electricity and gas distribution in the six months to 31 December 2019 was down $9.5 million to $189.2 million – a 4.8% decrease compared with the prior period. This result was largely driven by lower revenue and the phasing of electricity maintenance expenditure focused on improving network reliability and reducing outage minutes. Further reflecting Auckland’s growth, new electricity connections increased 28.4% to 6,625 from 5,160. New gas connections increased 11.6% to 1,863 from 1,669. Total electricity connections stood at 576,352, up 1.6% from 567,009 a year earlier, while total gas connections were 113,094, up 2.4% from 110,489 a year ago. Volumes transported across the electricity network rose 0.1% to 4,396 GWh from 4,390 GWh a year earlier. Auckland gas distribution volumes were up 2.6% at 7.9 PJ from 7.7 PJ a year earlier.
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