REFERENCE CASESMART GRID - COMMUNICATION, METERING & LV MONITORING

Brasov, Romania

Reliable innovation. Personal solutions.

www.ormazabal.comRC-BRASOV-SMARTGRID-EN-1014

Transmission & Distribution (T&D)

Project InformationYear: 2013Customer: Electrica SALocal Partner: Flashnet SRL.Location: Brasov, RomaniaSolution: Smart Grid; Communication, Metering and LV MonitoringProducts: OpenGrid Networking, Distribution + Metering, api-2000-sa MV-BPL, IDC 9710 Data Concentrator, LV Insite Monitoring Device

PartnersElectrica SA: One of the largest power suppliers in Romania. Electrica SA delivers electricity and power services to more than 3.5 million customers countrywide: from residential consumers and small companies to large industrial corporations.

Ormazabal: A pioneer provider of smart grid solutions, Ormazabal focuses on the development of complete systems in the power sector in order to meet the increasing energy needs global wide. Ormazabal was selected as the vendor of choice based on its complete system offering and the unique experience on the PRIME technology.

Flashnet SRL.: A hardware and software integrator. Flashnet creates and implements intelligent systems for smarter cities and better infrastructure. Flashnet was chosen as the preferred system integrator based on the previous successful projects deployed in the Romanian smart metering market.

BackgroundThe climate - and energy package is a set of binding European legislation which aims to ensure that the European Union meets the ambitious climate- and energy targets for 2020: 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (compared to 1990), 20% of energy consumption produced from renewable resources and a 20% improvement in the overall energy efficiency. As part of this goal all energy distribution companies are required to install smart meters in 80% of all homes by 2020.

The Romanian power supply and Distribution Company, Electrica SA has implemented a smart grid pilot project in Brasov, Romania together with the partners Ormazabal and Flashnet. The initiative offers smart metering capabilities over the existing power grid. Furthermore the project implements a more flexible infrastructure to the power grid and ensures that the grid meets the EU targets for the following decade.

Based on the Ormazabal technology and Flashnets system integration abilities, Electrica is one of the first power company in Eastern Europe to prove that the PRIME (Powerline Intelligent Metering Evolution) standard can be a reliable and cost effective solution for smart meter/grid deployments. The unified architecture provides reliable communication and control throughout the grid. The solution provides the Distribution Company with full awareness of its customers and assets, while acquiring better grid intelligence through smart metering and LV monitoring.

Challenge2010 Electrica launched the first smart grid pilot program in Brasov, Romania, with the aim to find a solution that could meet the European Unions 2020 regulations. Electrica was interested in deploying a technology that went beyond metering to improve connectivity with customers as well as Electricas own assets and thereby gain actionable intelligence to improve the reliability of the low voltage power grid.

The ultimate goal was to design a fully functioning smart grid system that would use medium voltage (MV) Broadband Powerline (BPL) as a backhaul communications technology, pulling voltage and current measurements to detect grid events on the low voltage (LV) lines and read meters using simple power line communications (PLC) networking technologies. Flashnet could benefit from their long experience in telecom by providing the backhaul communications and integrating the Ormazabal Smart Transformer Station (STS) solution within the network. The STS is a solution that gathers information from the grid and carries it between substations and ultimately back to a coordinating data center.

Smart Grid

ApproachThe first step: choosing the deployment area for the pilot solution. Several transformer stations were chosen, covering approximately 5,000 residential and industrial customers in Brasov.

The second step: planning phase, with the aim to create an intelligent distribution transformer station, using the Ormazabal System Solution. The solution is a PLC smart metering system based on the PRIME standard for an IP-based backbone communications system using broadband over power line (MV-BPL) on the MV network, and a comprehensive suite for sensing solutions to monitor the LV grid information and events, as well as station monitoring for movement, humidity, temperature, smoke and flooding.

About PRIMEPRIME is a standard-based, non-proprietary telecom solution that focuses on interoperable smart metering and also provides support for smart grids by using PLC to communicate even in complex power grids. PRIME was chosen for the Electrica SA Project because it is the most affordable solution that uses existing infrastructure for PLC and at the same time being able to reach more homes with lower investments that any other smart grid communication solution on the market. Furthermore, PRIME is a proven and reliable solution already implemented in Western Europe.

Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Smart Grid

Figure 2: Smart Transformer Station

Figure 1: Electricas MV connections

The SolutionWhen designing this solution, Ormazabal and Flashnet decided to take advantage of the existing MV connections between Electricas substations and deploy an IP-based BPL (Figure 1).

The most critical events on the grid require immediate awareness and response. Consequently, Flashnet planned and implemented the communication network as an essential element to the smart grid deployment. To be most effective, the communication capability should provide a low latency link to the real time events being measured, such as system stability, equipment health, outages, faults, and demand response coordination and events. MV-BPL devices were installed in each of the designated substations, and were coupled onto the MV lines to establish a communications path with the devices located in the adjacent substations.

By using this architecture, Electrica didnt need to overbuild a parallel communication network in order to connect the substations. By avoiding using other communication technologies, such as general packet radio service (GPRS), the power distribution company reduces the initial investment, but also reduces future recurring operational expenses.

Using this reliable and cost effective network connection between substations, the smart grid design continued with establishing a reliable central communications hub at one of the central stations. All traffic from each substation would be transported to this location, aggregated and sent to the data center. This central communications hub also reduced the costs for wide area network (WAN) connectivity requiring just a single wireless link to the data center, instead of separate wireless links from each substation.

Electrica needed to gather data from the grid through the substation equipment in order to manage its asset identify critical grid conditions and read individual meters. This is where the STS concept was further leveraged (Figure 2).

The IDC data concentrator is located in the distribution transformer station and functions as the gateway to meters and other in-premise devices. It acts as the head-end of the PRIME PLC system on each low voltage secondary, and also manages the higher layer advanced

Transmission & Distribution (T&D)Smart Grid

metering infrastructure (AMI) functions for each connected meter, including meter data collection, control and configuration.

The LVA modules deliver comprehensive sensing of the low voltage grid. The LVA solution offers advanced metrology capabilities, providing current, voltage and power (real, reactive and apparent) measurements, as well as advanced power quality measurements, such as THD and harmonic analysis.

However, simply providing sensor data from a multitude of points can overwhelm a utility companys ability to process and make sense of the information in order to improve the reliability of the distribution system. True awareness cannot be achieved by simply collecting sensor data. Instead, Electrica needs to be able to analyze the data and extract meaningful information from it. Through a combination of intelligent sensing solutions, edge based software analytics and data mining software capabilities, the STS solution allows analysis to be located both centrally and at the point of sensing, giving Electrica distributed control and automation of present and future network activity, such as reclosed operation, distributed generation control and demand response.

Customers Key Benefits Complete end to end smart grid solution addressing communication, metering and LV monitoring Open and reliable metering standard Robust telecom network based on MV-BPL using the utilities asset Monitoring of the LV networking for movement, humidity, temperature, smoke and flooding.

Figure 3: Smart Transformer Station in Brasov

ConclusionElectrica is planning to invest an additional 5-7 million on the phase II of the project, in order to install smart meters in all homes in Brasov. The ultimate goal of this project is to extend this smart grid implementation to over one million of Electrica South Transylvanias customers within the next 10 years. The Phase II of the Brasov project will start early 2015 and consist of 200 Distribution Transformer to be equipped with BPL communication; LV monitoring and Prime based data concentrators (Ormzabals smart cabinet covers all this required products) communicating with 28000 single and three phase Prime meters.

Electricas smart grid deployment demonstrates how a European utility company can meet regulatory mandates in a cost effective way, while gaining more actionable, real time intelligence from the grid and improving its reliability. Pilot projects like this one are also important as proof points to the viability and opportunity of smart grid deployments in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) marketplace.