AIDON - Defined a need for more than automatic metering
In 2006, the Finnish utility Savon Voima started renewing their metering park. Today the company operates 75 000 of Aidon's smart Energy Service Devices, and the replacement of the old metering generation continues.
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- By the start-up of our smart metering project, we asked ourselves some important questions regarding the development of our operational model, CEO of Savon Voima Verkko, Matti Ryhänen, explains.
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How will it look like in a few years' time? How should we develop our network? How should we develop our customer service? How do we want to organize our repair and maintenance work in the field?
What kind of resources do we possess, and which competencies do we want to keep in-house and develop further?
By answering these questions, the utility created a vision of their future operations and three specific needs were identified. Firstly, Savon Voima wanted to make more efficient use of automation to build real time situational awareness of their grid. Secondly, they saw the need for more seamless work processes, resulting in more efficient and timely use of resources in locating and analyzing faults in the grid. And thirdly, they saw an opportunity to deliver more pro-active and high-end customer services, which would make information more easily available and lessen the pressure on their service personnel.
The critical choices
Once their target areas were identified, Savon Voima made its first and critical decision. They decided to invest in a technology, which went beyond automatic metering in terms of capabilities.
- In Aidon we found a partner who shares our visions for the future of smart grid, Ryhänen says.
Furthermore, they had to make a strategically important decision between either outsourcing their metering services or keeping them in-house. They decided to rely on the expertise of selected specialist companies outside and outsourced both roll-out and metering services to Voimatel and Enfo, respectively. In addition, Savon Voima involved ABB for distribution management and control, and Tieto's solution was selected for the work flow management in the field.
Today Savon Voima has 75 000 Aidon metering points in operation, and the replacement of the old metering generation continues. In the process, the partners co-operate and complement each other to complete the value chain. Aidon's specific application for power grid management provides data from the metering points and from the grid for the use of fault diagnostics and preventive grid maintenance. ABB's DMS further brings the information available to the control centre, and as soon as Tieto's Grid Wise and PG Field-applications are integrated, they will deliver task descriptions with details of breakage locations to repair operators in the field.
Savon Voima Verkko:
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Covers the eastern part of Central-Finland
- Operates 114 000 metering points in their field
- 75 000 of these are equipped with Aidon’s Energy Service Devices
- The Aidon-application for power grid management has been uploaded remotely – i.e. through the use of wireless communication – to more than 10 000 metering points so far