With lower operating costs driving the energy sector, Essential Energy is assessing its capital works projects to find a low cost, low resource solution for small capital projects that provide essential economic support to New South Wales. They wanted to explore the feasibility of an intelligent digital design system (IDDS) specifically for small utility projects. However, they faced data acquisition and compatibility issues, compounded by challenges ensuring their as-built designs accurately depicted real construction.Already familiar with Bentley applications, they used ContextCapture to create a reality model of each project site, OpenUtilities for comprehensive substation design and analysis, and ProjectWise to manage and share models and data. By automating previous manual processes, the team significantly reduced design hours across the entire capital works portfolio. Their Bentley-based IDDS reduced environmental impact and project design costs by 50%, as well as decreased risks associated with manual on-site work. The digital solution establishes the basis for transitioning to a more comprehensive digital twin for intelligent asset management and operations.