the global smart energy elites 2016 -...

The GlobalSMART ENERGY

ELITES 2016

Projects and People

METERING &SMART ENERGY

INTERNATIONAL

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Foreword

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The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016

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FOREWORD

Foreword 2016 marks a significant year in which Metering & Smart Energy International celebrates 20 years of delivering the most up to date, relevant utility news and information to energy professionals and decision makers around the world. Throughout the year, we have looked back at some of the key trends, opportunities and challenges faced by utility executives and marvelled at how these have evolved over the past several years.

As the market has progressed and adapted to change, Metering & Smart Energy International has also evolved to reflect the developments in the smart grid sector beyond metering to include themes such as interoperability and integration, smart cities, homes, cars and regulation.

Part of our expanded focus included the launch of ‘The Most Influential People in Power’ in 2014, a brand extension of Metering & Smart Energy International which identifies and celebrates the work of individuals that have influenced and drawn attention to the trends that have brought about the sweeping change in the utility industry. These trends include accelerated growth in renewables and distributed energy resources, a rise in intelligent grid-tied technologies, increased consumer power and forward-looking legislation.

Keeping in line with the evolutionary theme, in 2015, ‘The Most Influential People in Power’ rebranded to the ‘Global Smart Energy Elites’ – representing an expanded focus highlighting not only those who have pioneered transformational changes, but also some of the most progressive smart energy projects globally that have changed the way utilities interact with their clients or have had a critical impact on the utility and its operations.

Highlights from last year include BC Hydro’s digital evolution for which it has leveraged advanced metering infrastructure to enable on-going demand-side management objectives

and increase customer satisfaction and theft detection. British Gas utilised its smart meter deployment to drive customer engagement and boost its overall customer experience.

Other highlights included EDP Distribuição’s cybersecurity initiative and Enel’s efforts toward improving grid reliability with predictive maintenance software and analytics.

This year, we have collaborated with the team at Engerati, Metering & Smart Energy International’s sister portal, to highlight projects chosen by the Engerati community as part of the European Utility Industry Awards, part of European Utility Week. Areas of collaboration include:

Energy retailProjects which showcase innovation in the energy retail sector whether customer engagement or new energy retail models such as bundled services with, for example, electric vehicles.

Grid intelligenceProjects which has shown significant innovation and advances related to the function of transmission and distribution management.

Energy revolutionEnergy projects which have delivered a significant capacity of renewable generation to the grid, integrated innovative technology enabled services and successfully demonstrated the 'revolution' journey.

Community energyProjects that have delivered significant benefits to the community it serves as more communities and businesses start playing an active role in the generation and consumption of energy.

The remaining four categories - AMI and smart metering: water, gas or electricity,

cybersecurity, the digital utility transformation and emerging market project are carried over from 2015 and feature projects that have demonstrated innovation and critical thinking in their respective areas.

Coming to a decision on the final projects is always a challenge, as every year we receive a great deal of submissions, many of which have shown initiative in driving operational efficiencies, implementing policies and integrating novel solutions and services, with the common goal of delivering the best customer experience possible, increasing profitability and achieving sustainability goals.

Says Claire Volkwyn, managing editor, Metering & Smart Energy International, “The Global Smart Energy Elites is not an awards programme but rather, a look at projects against which utilities of all shapes and sizes across all regions can benchmark themselves. Furthermore, the projects selected serve as an example of how utilities the world over are challenging perceptions, innovating and embracing technology, and engaging with their customers in a completely different way.”

Lastly, we’d like to extend a special note of thanks to our sponsors Itron, Meters and More, Landis and Gyr, SAP and Johnson Electric.

We hope that you, our readers, find the projects featured in this guide and the insight from the teams responsible for their success, enlightening and that they serve as a reference when considering your own smart grid implementation.

Happy reading!

Best,

Amy RyanEditor: Global Smart Energy ElitesDeputy editor: Metering & Smart Energy International.

Sponsored by: In association with:

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The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016DIRECTORY

DIRECTORY INDUSTRY PROJECTS

6 Tonga takes its first steps toward smart grid

7 Guam Power Authority boosts customer satisfaction with AMI

11 Southern Water AMI saves 25 million litres a day

14 Meters and more around the world

18 Southern Connecticut Gas drives meter data efficiencies with AMI

22 Utility hack demonstrates vulnerability in security defences

25 ComEd journeys toward creating the 21st century grid

28 Snohomish County PUD leverages the cloud to modernise operations

32 Grid Intelligence (EUW)

33 H2020 Nobel Grid

34 The InovGrid demo site

36 Self-healing solution streamlines CEMAR’s energy system recomposition

40 Avista takes a unique approach to grid modernisation

42 Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation leverages AMI toward distribution efficiency

45 Gearing up utilities with the fastest virtual power plant

46 Power-to-Gas technology suitable for primary balancing energy market

47 Customer Load Active System Services (CLASS) project demonstrates demand management through voltage control

48 Powering the future with the biggest solar farm in Europe

48 Aspern Smart City Research: integrated energy research for the future

49 EDP creates value beyond the meter with ‘Smart Home’ business

51 Eesti Energia's mobile app for smart energy consumers

51 Grønn Kontakt (GK) Electric Vehicle digital platform

52 EE-ISAC – A joined up approach to cybersecurity

55 Sustainable Järva - creating sustainable communities for the future

TEAM PROFILE

10 Guam Power Authority AMI rollout

13 Southern Water AMI rollout

16 Meters and more AMI rollout in Spain and Romania

20 Integrating Itron OpenWay Riva IoT as an enabler of the modern utility grid

24 Snohomish County PUD penetration test

27 ComEd’s digital transformation

31 Snohomish County PUD SAP One Programme

39 Companhia Energética do Maranhão (CEMAR) reinforces grid with self-healing technology

44 EVNHCMC’s (Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation) AMI network at Saigon Hi-Tech Park

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The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago located in the southern Pacific Ocean, about 3,000 miles east of Australia. Tonga’s single, vertically integrated electricity utility, Tonga Power Limited (TPL), is a state-owned enterprise serving 20,000 customers, both commercial and domestic, on the four main islands.

Tonga is highly dependent on imported fuels to meet its energy requirements. Grid supplied electricity is generated using primarily imported diesel fuel. Accessible, affordable and sustainable electricity that is environmentally responsible and commercially viable has been a high priority for the kingdom.

Hence, in 2010, a 10-year Government of Tonga’s Energy Roadmap (TERM) map was developed. It set the goal of generating 50% of the electricity requirements of the nation from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. The two key drivers for TERM were to insulate Tonga’s energy costs against oil price shocks and to improve access to modern energy services in an environmentally sustainable way.

In 2011, the Tongan Government signed an agreement with the Government of New Zealand on a multi-year network upgrade project. The main objective of the project is to improve the rural and pre-urban low voltage network in villages in Tongatapu to provide safe, efficient and reliable electricity distribution networks to the houses and businesses in those villages and districts.

In the project’s first year, TPL reported that the network upgrade for Puke Village which was the first village to be completed, line losses dropped from 34% to 2%.

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AMI AND SMART METERING

Tonga

Improving network operationsOne of the immediate business challenges facing TPL was disconnection. TPL disconnects approximately 10% of its meter population every monthly billing cycle as part of its payment management processes. From an operational standpoint, this is a very time-consuming and costly exercise as engineers have to be sent onsite to execute each disconnection manually.

The re-connection process is an equally taxing exercise for TPL, once the customer resumes with the billing cycle. The sheer geographical distance which the Kingdom spans is also a challenge in itself. Hence, there were compelling business reasons for a smart metering network to allow the automation of this disconnect/reconnect process. TPL also faces significant non-technical losses due to energy diversion and theft. As a result, TPL sought to establish a prepayment programme to enable its customers to pay in advance for the electricity they consume. Doing so engages consumers in managing their electricity usage, improving revenue collection and reducing delinquent account risks and operational costs.

With more engaged consumers gaining insight into their usage needs and budgets, the costly disconnect/re-connect situation can be further improved as well. Distribution transformer monitoring to reduce equipment failure due to voltage issues associated with distributed energy resources (DER) is another important application for TPL.

TPL implemented Itron’s OpenWay Riva IoT solution to provide reliable core AMI functionality, distributed intelligence and

advanced communication capabilities to improve grid safety, efficiency and reliability, while also providing a device-based computing platform for consumer engagement. The project scope involved the deployment of 15,000 meters and 25 network collector devices, all managed by the OpenWay Operations Centre (OWOC) Services system.

The managed service offering allows TPL to scale quickly to production and to offer pre-payment functionality. Itron manages and maintains the meter network, enabling speedy installation and implementation, negating the need to set up IT systems on-site.

Software-as-a-ServiceItron handles all data collection as a service and implements the solution as a software and network-as- a-service model. As such, both time and cost to implement the solution are greatly reduced while accelerating time to value and mitigate project risk. TPL uses the system for voltage monitoring, disconnect/re-connection and detecting energy theft. The solution also brought about great convenience with “over-the- air” firmware/software upgrades and configuration changes.

The utility has made a guide available to its customers through its website, which serves as an educational document detailing FAQs about TPL’s meter rollout.

TPL will leverage the solution for other utility services, allowing the development of other applications that can leverage the platform, such as streetlight management. TPL believes that the deployment has laid the foundation toward realising its vision to be a smart island and part of the energy elite.

takes its first steps toward smart grid

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The utility began installing advanced metering infrastructure in 2012 after receiving a smart grid investment grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Over the next two years, the utility deployed the Gridstream advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) solution, provided by Landis+Gyr, which included an RF mesh network and more than 50,000 advanced meters. The RF mesh is suitable to Guam's terrain where it is difficult to get line-of-sight to every meter from fixed site communication systems. GPA completed this phase of the project in 2014. Since then, the utility has completed several firmware and command centre upgrades, employed business intelligence dashboards using smart grid data sources and initiated bids for network functions.

reduction in truck-rolls for service calls, as well as a 3% reduction in line losses – equating to approximately $1 million for the utility. AMI technology has assisted with preventative maintenance by locating issues caused by vegetation and outage response by providing more accurate, timely location and restoration information.

"Customer satisfaction is influenced by a variety of factors, including how we managed billing changes after meter installations, and the improved efficiency of transactions for transient customers," said John Cruz, manager of the Strategic Planning and Operations Research Division (SPORD) at GPA.

"We've seen a sizable reduction in truck rolls for service calls and both technical and non-technical line losses. These efficiencies allow us to keep power costs lower and reduce connection fees. Customers are responding to service improvements overall."

GPA’s ePortal, ‘My Power’, allows customers to manage their power consumption through access to electronic consumption reports. According to Cruz, there are thousands of ePortal users and many are able to link use of various appliances to consumption and make informed decisions.

Outreach and smart meter educationThe smart meter deployment required extensive outreach with the move from analog meters to digital meters.

While there may have been some inaccurate readings due to the nature of the mechanical meters, a great deal of

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Improved customer satisfactionCustomer surveys conducted over a three-year period (2012-2015) show a 9% increase in overall customer satisfaction with the utility and a 13% increase in satisfaction with GPA customer service since the smart meters have been installed. The utility attributes this increase to a number of factors, such as improved service for move-in and move-out transactions, improved outage response and reliability, service efficiencies brought about by access to usage information and a communication programme to raise awareness about the project and benefits of advanced metering.

Operational efficiencies have also improved. GPA has seen a dramatic

Guam Power Authority boosts customer satisfaction with AMI

The smart meter deployment requiredextensive outreach with the move from

analog meters to digital meters”

Guam Power Authority (GPA), a progressive public power utility serving the US territory of Guam, has shown leadership in its grid modernisation programme that has allowed the utility to become more focused on customer service and driven efficiency improvements to stabilise the cost of delivering power to residents.

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The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016

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outreach, prior to rollout, was necessary for GPA to address any questions related to misbillings.

Policies were also formed ahead of deployment to reduce billing concerns. Historically, if a customer was underbilled, the Authority could legally backbill that customer. However, it was decided to waive these costs and move forward. If the smart meters indicated that customers were being charged too much, the utility credited them.

Also part of its efforts to educate its customers about smart meters, GPA addressed some of the health concerns pertaining to radio frequency energy, which the World Health Organisation has declared unharmful to human health.

Cruz noted that residential customers had the choice to opt out of smart meters, but only 26 out of 46,000 residential customers chose to do so.

Building on a solid foundationCruz describes the AMI project as foundational infrastructure upon which to build new systems and capabilities.

He adds that GPA went from virtually zero to three in the computer maturity model in a very short space of time.

“We forklifted a whole bunch of IT and contracted a whole bunch of IT support from Black and Veatch and others and it was really instrumental in taking us that far,” said Cruz.

Prior to smart meter installation, GPA relied on its customers to call about outages and inform of their location.

The deployment assisted in pinpointing clusters of isolated customers that remained without power. Before the rollout, the utility would conduct restoration operations by sending out an initial restoration team and then have other restoration groups follow.

GPA is very open about how the smart meters has aided in the expedited restoration of power – building confidence that it is restoring electricity as quickly as possible.

The utility is also involved in a project that will see it leveraging smart grid data to reduce the communications bill for Guam Power Authority and the Guam Waterworks Authority.

Cruz said: “If we’re successful, we would be able to reduce our communication bill by almost half a million dollars a year by just using the network that we have put up which has a lot of excess bandwidth.”

Guam Power Authority and Guam Waterworks Authority share a wireless network and data on wells that are down, when real-time data comes in with power outages.

Through the project; Guam Waterworks Authority’s 300 facilities will have supervisory control and data acquisition and share the same platform with Guam Power Authority.

“All of those facilities will be telemetered through our AMI meter network’s backhaul using ABB/Tropos and Smart Grid Fiber Network, which will result in cost savings,” said Cruz.

Leveraging smart meter benefitsGoing forward, GPA is planning activities to leverage advanced metering technology further as well as support the push to continue integrating solar to its generation resources. In 2015, GPA was recognised for adding the fifth largest amount of solar power per customer. Moreover, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), as of early 2016, nearly 9MW of distributed solar power was connected to Guam's grid.

The utility is also deploying advanced analytics to utilise AMI and distribution system data to manage voltage, asset loading, distributed energy resources and reliability. Further monitoring of technical and non-technical line losses is being considered. Analytics will also enable strategic load management programmes based on customer contribution to coincident peak.

Whether improving electric vehicle charging opportunities to increase EV penetration, or integrating additional solar to reduce fuel costs, the team at GPA is continually looking for ways to leverage its new capabilities.

GPA’s increased customer service satisfaction rate has proven the value and returns on investment from smart grid technology and has opened up new opportunities to reduce costs while improving quality and reliability of service.

Comparison of Key Satisfaction Ratings

52% 52%61%

70%68% 79%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2011 2012 2013

Percent Satisfied (Rating: 6-10)2011 to 2013

Satisfied with GPA overall Satisfied with GPA services

January 2014 GPA RESIDENTIAL SURVEY 2013 1

• There has been a steady increase in satisfaction ratings forGPA since 2011.

10-point rating scale:1 = “very dissatisfied”, 10 = “very satisfied”

“Satisfied:” Rating of 6-10

Prior to smart meter installation, GPA relied on its customers to call about outages and inform of their location"

GPA Residential Survey – January 2013


Distributed Energy Resources Management

DistributionAutomation

RenewableIntegration

Distribution GridManagement

TransformerMonitoring & Control

Outage Management& Restoration

Substation Automation& Control

Demand & SupplySide Management

Microgrid Management

MicrogenerationConsumer Engagement

Meter Data Management

Demand Response

Electric VehicleIntegration

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John J. Cruz, Strategic Planning and Operations Research Division (SPORD) manager provides insight into the Guam Power Authority’s 'special forces' team and the advanced meter infrastructure project.

What impact has the project had in the organisation?

Guam Power Authority’s Strategic Planning and Operations Research Division (SPORD) played a key role in moving the smart grid initiative forward. The advanced meter infrastructure project completely transformed our Customer Services Division (CSD), Information Technology Division (ITD) and Meter Shop which falls under GPA’s T&D Division.

Our customer services division added a group which included former meter readers, reconnect-disconnect electricians, and customer services representatives. These individuals are in charge of the AMI system and have incorporated several new business processes created under the smart grid work track: Change Management.

The reconnect-disconnect crew provide field support for the smart grid tier1, tier2, and tier3 networks. Prior to its foray into smart grid, GPA would make 600 to 800 truck rolls every month to connect new customers and disconnect and reconnect delinquent paying customers. Now, GPA performs about three truck rolls a month. GPA has two meter readers for reading the 26 opt out customers.

When it was decided to go ahead with the project, how was the make-up of the team determined?

SPORD led the grant effort and the smart grid execution. The team suggested that GPA needed to create a smart grid programme management office. We detailed the development of the management office and work teams in the project execution plan delivered to the DoE. We had to revise the team make-up according to the commitment of each business unit to the programme. We used the business units most committed to the programme to get things done.

John M. Benavente, our current GM and past 'Utilities Czar', created a smart grid taskforce to guide the project until it was established and more commitment was drawn from all parties.

Big changes can be embraced or held at arm’s length. These transformational steps require ownership and leadership from the top to go smoothly. John provided that.

What personal learning have you taken away from being part of this project?

Seeing the project through to completion took heart, determination, courage and a desire to make things better for customers. Mercy Castro, utility services manager, won a Knowledge, Innovation, Technology and Excellence (KITE) award for her leadership overseeing customer services during this critical period for GPA’s meter-to-cash work stream.

The DoE gave us a 10% chance for success. Having faith in ourselves and our teammates, resilience and flexibility, and an unshakeable commitment to the right outcomes brought us through. There was

Guam Power Authority AMI rollout

so much scope and so little time, that we organised 'special forces' groups to put out whichever fire was hottest.

We had a name for these special teams: 'The Insurgency'. We believed in making transformational change to better serve our customers.

What strength and unique perspective did you bring to the team?

I have a strong software development background, as well as communications, SCADA, operations, finance and leadership with small group dynamics. In the time that I have been with GPA (20 years), I initiated many new developments - outsourcing power plant management, WAN, internet-based technology, VOIP, GPS for substations and so on.

Roel Cahinhinan, GPA’s smart grid lead, brought his knowledge of GPA customer meters and meter related processes. While in SPORD, Roel worked on a number of high profile IT related projects such as VOIP, major network upgrades and communications. His eclectic mix of talents was perfect to lead the different work streams.

How was IT/OT integration managed?

Our vision was to converge IT and OT management. IT is responsible for the infrastructure and end-point operations and maintenance. Customer Services Command Centre personnel and disconnect-reconnect electricians perform field operations and maintenance with the support of IT and SPORD. Taking cybersecurity into account, we believe this is the best way to optimise resources and safeguard the systems we built.

What are your top 3 predictions for the sector for 2017?

1. More powerful analytics2. Moving into the Internet of Things to better serve future

customers3. Engaging customers by improving existing and creating

new services

TEAM PROFILE

Pictured: Guam Power Authority Customer Service team


Southern Water became the first UK water company to introduce compulsory water metering in 2010 when, in a risky, ground-breaking move, it began a five-year programme to impose meters on 450,000 customers. It changed the way they pay for water changing the way they pay for water. The south east of England was officially declared ‘water-stressed’ by the UK government – giving Southern Water the authority to compulsorily install meters.

The programme was seen as an opportunity to help the region reduce its water consumption, but also a chance to exploit intelligent water metering technology to bring a host of unique additional advantages – from eliminating estimated billing to reducing leaks.

No longer would customers pay according to the rateable values of their homes (rateable values are used by water companies to work out how much to charge people without a water meter). The company knew this would put bills up for tens of thousands of people but it would help conserve the most precious resource – water.

Forcing customers to have water meters was a particularly bold move which threatened the company’s

To date, 62% of metered households are saving on average, £162 annually.

Savings have been independently corroborated by an extensive four-year investigation by Southampton University – the first comprehensive study on water consumption in the UK for 30 years. The research studied the water consumption of 250,000 newly metered households comparing it to that of areas where meters already existed, allowing the effect of the programme to be separated from any variations in water use due to seasonality or to changes in economic conditions such as unemployment.

Said Dr. Mirco Tonin, an associate professor at the Southampton University: “Our research finds a strong decrease in water consumption, more than 60 litres per metered household , due to Southern Water’s metering programme. The reduction is not a ‘one-off’. There is a general trend of continuing reduced consumption over the 2½ year period of the first five bills after switching to metered charges.”

Some 40% of properties already have meters but that figure has risen to 90% in 2016, with the remaining 10% (largely high rise blocks of flats where meter installation is difficult) in the following few years.

Southern Water AMI saves25 million litres a day

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reputation, particularly as, at the time, the Consumer Council for Water warned that metering would increase the annual bill for a family of four from about £500 to £700. The pioneering programme aimed to reduce consumption by 10% – the UK average when having a meter installed - but customers are using a huge 16.5% less water. This equates to a regional saving of 25 million litres of water every day across Kent, Sussex and Hampshire.

The reduction in water demand has also had a positive impact on a customers' bills.

Metering vans merely have to drive past customers’ homes and the on-board equipment automatically captures meter readings.

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Tailored meter solutionAfter an extensive tour of meter manufacturers, which included the middle East and America, Southern Water opted for the ‘Gladiator’ model ‘P’ meter – manufactured by Arad Technologies of Israel. The flow of water causes a piston to rotate within its chamber – each piston revolution being equivalent to a known volume of water.

This process is standard practice with many water meters but what makes this meter unique in the UK is that it has a transmitter and processor built into its head which transmits a reading every 11 seconds. This is then captured automatically on a small terminal by a meter reader who simply drives past the installation.

This ‘automatic read’ facility allows 3,000 readings a day to be collected by one man in a van – 12 times the volume captured conventionally by a single meter reader. In high density areas, readings can increase to 8,000 a day.

Moreover, this meter is equipped with a leak alarm facility which, when introduced, was unique in Britain. The leak alarm activates when water runs continuously through the meter for four hours. The

alarm is picked up when the meter is read (four times in the first year) so that a leak can then be identified and repaired. This is a salient benefit for customers and the company, particularly as a substantial 20% of leaks occur in customers’ pipes.

This leak alarm facility also allows a customers' bill to be accurately assessed as the exact day that a leak commences is now known, as is the customers' water consumption pre and post leak. Previously an amount of guesswork had to be applied to the account of an unmetered property when apportioning a refund for leaks.

Estimated bills, one of the main sources of customer complaints, have become a complaint of the past as the practice is eliminated by universal metering.

Additionally, the number of disputed bills is considerably reduced due to the accuracy of automatic meter reading. The Gladiator meter also provides a reading at the end of each month, allowing accurate records to be kept which are essential when setting, for example, seasonal tariffs and tariff changes. Another ‘plus’ is the meter’s ability to raise an alarm if it is tampered with, reporting exactly when the offence has taken place.

Customer engagementSouthern Water decided that, if its metering programme was to be successful, it had to take each customer on a journey so the utility launched an information campaign which has won national awards for the detailed and comprehensive way it communicates metering messages to customers. This contributed to water usage being cut by 12.5%, even before meters were switched on, in homes where customers were informed that meters were coming.

An integral part of Southern Water’s strategy has been a targeted number of practical water efficiency audits, intervention measures and behaviour change advice for homeowners in partnership with NGO partners Groundwork and the Income MAX Community Interest Company. These two-hour home saver audit checks involved a booked appointment, assessment of water and energy use, the fitting of water saving products and personally tailored behaviour change advice for each homeowner. In addition, these visits involved targeted hardship assistance measures designed specifically to assess householder’s needs; with appropriate help for those struggling to pay utility bills by identifying the benefits they are entitled to. The ‘green doctors’ who carried out these visits also held events for groups to offer practical advice on becoming more water and energy efficient and to distribute relevant water saving products in partnership with local authorities, football clubs, schools, universities and housing associations.

The utility’s meter deployment contractor Balfour Beatty worked in partnership with charity partner Groundwork on a street by street basis.

The scale and depth of the metering programme has delivered fundamental changes to the way Southern Water now interacts with customers. The integration of widespread meter deployment with water efficiency interventions and advice has for the first time shown the business how concentrated and integrated steps can have multiple benefits. Partnership working is now an essential part of Southern Water’s ongoing plans with a significant financial investment in time and resources with national parks, housing associations and local authorities as examples. Changes to the use of language and terminology have also been built into a recent water bill redesign process, making them easier to follow.

The scale and depth of the metering programme has delivered fundamental changes to the way Southern Water now interacts with customers”



13

The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016

Ben Earl, water efficiency manager at Southern Water expands on the added benefits of the utility’s smart meter rollout, wider company initiatives to increase water efficiency and his predictions for the sector in 2017.

How is Southern Water’s meter rollout being leveraged to initiate other water efficiency projects? What do these entail?

Southern Water’s recently concluded compulsory metering programme has made it something of a test case in the UK water industry where water efficiency measures are concerned. With over 90% of customers now metered, and Southern Water putting significant funding into a water efficiency programme for Asset Management Programme (AMP6), many are watching with interest to see how we are seeking to persuade our customers to reduce consumption, and how customers respond to these efforts. Reflecting on the fact that we operate in a water-stressed area of the country, Southern Water has committed to achieving a reduction in its customers’ water consumption from 148 litres to 133.7 litres per person per day, and has an outcome delivery incentive from Ofwat to match.

We know that 60% of our customers are better off after having a meter installed and 40% are worse off. The majority are better placed, but for that 40%, who in a lot of cases reluctantly had a meter installed, there is a real challenge. We need to come up with some tools to help those customers make a real difference to their family finances by careful management of water. We know that water isn’t the highest on everyone’s list of priorities – energy costs are higher – but when you factor in the fact that nearly a quarter of your energy bill is hot water usage at home, then water efficiency is very important.

Can you expand on some of smart water technologies deployed by Southern Water?

We have smart meters that can be read by drive-by technology which is far less disruptive to customers. We are testing a fixed

Southern Water AMI rollout

area network for readings every day in properties surrounding our head office and are exploring apps that help the customer get real time data on water use on their phone or tablet.

What are some of the utility’s development plans over the next 2-3 years to further encourage water savings and conservation?

The water efficiency programme is split into four areas - domestic, SMEs, schools and community. We are exploring behavioural science to look at how best to encourage customers to reduce consumption, testing a community incentive tariff to link reductions to community good causes and exploring gamification to further incentivise actions.

What personal learning have you gained, and how it has benefitted your customers and the utility?

The greatest legacy has been in the total approach to the new business plan that is now being delivered, which once again, contains water efficiency on a very significant scale.

Southern Water recently commissioned a study from environmental think tank Green Alliance showing that the average household can save up to £78 a year on water and energy bills by implementing simple water efficiency measures, such as fitting water-saving devices on showers and toilets and not overfilling the kettle.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for the utility sector going forward?

For the water sector, Southern Water's exit from the non-domestic retail market with the onset of competition in 2017, is an immediate challenge to ensure that demand reduction is effectively co-ordinated in the future. There will inevitably need to be a “resetting of priorities” going forward and if you consider the Scottish market, water efficiency has been an important part of the package on offer to customers. The retail margin is so small that customers want a bit more from the retailers, and water efficiency is one of the services that has been identified.

For utilities more generally, there is a challenge – a challenge of trust. Water efficiency is good for customer bills as it can push expensive asset resource provision further down the road. This gives utilities the perfect opportunity to share the benefits more with customers and support the most vulnerable, which if done in the right way, will help customers to trust their provider more.


• Market opening will be a fantastic opportunity and a co-ordination challenge

• Becoming even more customer focused • Further developing meaningful partnerships

TEAM PROFILE

Pictured(fromleft):JustineLewis,waterefficiencyassistant,SouthernWater;BrendaEdwards,waterefficiencycontractmanager,SouthernWater;SallyLambert,communityeducationmanager,SouthernWater;BenEarl,waterefficiencymanager,SouthernWater.

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The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016AMI AND SMART METERING

Enel smart metering solution

In 2001, Enel started deploying its own Automated Metering Infrastructure under its Telegestore project, and was the first distribution system operator at European level adopting smart metering on a large scale.

Enel has currently installed 34 million smart meters in Italy and sold more than 4 million smart meters to other Italian distribution system operators. Leveraging the experience gained within the Enel Group, its Spanish subsidiary, Endesa, begun rolling out a new generation metering infrastructure in 2010, adopting the Meters and More protocol. Endesa aims to install more than 11 million meters by 2020.

Currently, this solution is being validated through pilot projects in other European and Latin-American countries, where the distribution company is owned by Enel,

in order to test the Meters and More protocol technology under different working conditions.

Endesa’s smart metering system able to adapt to new regulations

On 1 April, 2014, the ‘Voluntary Price for Small Consumer (PVPC)’, a price-setting mechanism used by the government came into being for determining the cost of energy on the electricity bill in Spain. With this new methodology, the price of electricity is calculated for each day and hour based on the daily energy market.

The 8 million smart meters that have already been installed on Endesa’s network are PVPC compliant and have these new prices reflecting in their bill in accordance with their hourly consumption throughout the day. This allows consumers to adjust their bill, adapting their electricity consumption to the time slots in the day when electricity is cheaper.

Meters and More around the world

Some of Endesa’s deployment milestones include:

• 2011 – 1 million meters• 2012 – 3 million meters• 2013 – 4.2 million meters• 2014 – 5 million meters• 2015 – 6.8 million meters• 2016 – over 8 million meters (as of

August 2016)

The smart meter rollout has succeeded in terms of facilitating consumption information interchange between DSO and customer, allowing them to make smart choices regarding their energy use. Furthermore, the deployment has assisted in eliminating estimated bills and detecting fraudulent activity with alarm and event log features.

Adopting the Meters and More protocol has also prevented the need to deploy a dedicated communications network which has simplified rollout. Some of the primary features that have made the Meters and More protocol suitable

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for rollout includes data security and privacy through authentication and encryption, flexibility – due to its data model and application layer and comprehensive protocol stack – using the same application layer and data model on different communication interfaces (PLC, optical port, GPRS).

A primary challenge identified at the outset was customers’ acceptance and engagement, and thus, Endesa’s information campaigns have been crucial to overcome customer push back and rejection.

Similarly to other utilities deploying smart meters, the advanced meter infrastructure serves as the basis to satisfy the needs of future smart grid development and value added services.

To this end, Endesa is also developing projects where data from smart meters is used for other distribution processes such as operation, maintenance, planning and customer information. One example of these developments is the MONICA (Advanced Monitoring and Control) project in the Malaga smart city area. Endesa has launched the MONICA project with the aim of developing, testing and assessing a series of powerful monitoring tools that perform realtime diagnostics in medium and low voltage distribution grids.

Smart meter rollout in Romania In Romania, Enel has installed 30,000 smart meters based on the Meters

& More through its local distribution companies in 2015, following approval from the Romanian energy regulator (“ANRE”). In 2016, further 110,000 smart meters will be installed.

Another utility company operating in the country that has chosen to adopt the Meters and More protocol is E.ON Romania, who has installed 250,000 smart meters, to primarily address non-technical losses.

Other objectives include remote connection/disconnection, remote meter reading, improved claims management and quality of service for its customers.

The next steps will be determined by the requirements which will be issued by the National Regulator at the beginning of 2017 as part of Romania’s national roadmap.

Smart meter projects in Latin AmericaFurther afield, the Meters and More protocol technology is being tested under real working conditions in several Latin American countries including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Argentina, with the aim of contributing to the development of energy networks in these countries. In Chile, Colombia and Peru, there are on-going pilot projects involving 100,000 customers.

In particular, Chilectra, a distribution company in Santiago, Chile and a member of the Enel Group is currently leading the pilot projects in Latin

America, with 50,000 smart meters expected to be installed by the end of the year.

In Brazil, Ampla Energia e Serviços, Enel’s distribution service operator for Rio de Janeiro also took its first steps toward intelligent energy management in 2012, when it began its smart meter rollout in Búzios based on the open Meters and More communication protocol.

Adopting the Meters and More protocol has also prevented the need to deploy a dedicated communications network which has

simplified rollout”


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Giacomo Gargano, general manager in the Board of Directors of Meters and More and Simone Chiappi, deputy chairperson, Meters and More and vice president of Smart Metering at E.ON expand on how the smart meter rollout in Spain and Romania is laying a solid foundation for future smart grid and smart city development.


The majority of the business processes have been affected by management changes. The

organization was also impacted in the regional units. The Endesa smart metering project has required the setting up of a very important logistic organization to coordinate the equipment reception and coordinate their distribution among all territories where Endesa distributes energy to its customers (114 deployment areas).

The project organization has been structured across three levels: • The first involves a core central group, responsible of the

systems and equipment definition, planning and logistic, training, and communication to the customers, monitoring and operation tasks and the project management office.

• the second level involves the nine internal territorial units that control and monitor the 114 operational areas for meters installations

• the third level involves the 114 external operational areas for meters installations and 54 for concentrators installations.

Each of these operational areas corresponds to a contractor.

The large volume of field operations required to define special procedures that allows to assume a roll out with zero accidents.

How was IT/OT integration managed

From the first time, the ICT organization was integrated in the project team and all the actions and milestones were shared. Its very important to minimise IT systems development and start-up times. From the first day, the smart metering system was fully integrated into the existing commercial and technical IT systems of Endesa, including the mobile work force management system. Changes and impacts on legacy systems and processes were minimal, since it is a modular solution with configurable interfaces which are independent of the systems used in the company. Thereby, Endesa has been able to capture business benefits from the very beginning of the rollout period and very high levels of successful fully automated remote operations were achieved.

METERS AND MORE AMI ROLLOUT IN SPAIN AND ROMANIA

What is the biggest challenge for the utility sector?

Endesa's smart metering solution has been designed to support the advanced functionalities that are needed in next generation electrical grids. In this sense, Endesa is making the first step toward the development of smart grids.

Smart metering constitutes the technological base for the evolution of these grids and the technological vanguard to reinforce our commitment to energetic efficiency and sustainability. Smart metering allows the implementation of smart grids across the electrical distribution system, since it brings solutions for the development of smart cities, for the integration of distributed generation, the incorporation of renewable energy to the grid, electrical vehicle recharging and public lighting management.

We are committed to developing the advantages that smart metering offers to electrical systems, such as giving reliable and continuous information about grid behaviour. This allows for the quicker solution of grid incidence and makes it easier to manage and operate the distribution grid. In the same way, we have to keep going on in improving the global efficiency of the electrical system, decreasing distribution losses and improving the management of energy demand, energetic efficiency and decreasing CO2 emissions.

What are your top three predictions for the sector for 2017?

1. Smart metering offers the opportunity to reinforce opportunities for energy efficiency and sustainability.

2. The evolution of smart metering will allow for the improvement of the operation and management of the grids and the intelligent management of energy demand.

3. There will be an evolution in the volume of data, along with supporting big data management and big data technology. This will allow, in the short term, an improvement in services to customers and the establishment of intelligent management of energy demand.

What personal learning have you taken away from being part of these projects?

Maintaining direct and close relationships with all team members and creating a powerful customer communication plan to provide information and feedback are critical to the success of any deployment. One important challenge is customer acceptance and customer engagement. Information campaigns have been crucial to overcome this challenge. Another consideration has been the logistic coordination to install thousands of meters everyday.

TEAM PROFILE

Meters and More AISBL

Call: +27 21 700 3565 I Email: [email protected] I www.spintelligent-training.com

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Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG), an AVANGRID company, is leveraging Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to streamline operations and enhance safety in the state of Connecticut.

Headquartered in Orange, Connecticut, SCG serves more than 200,000 customers across 23 towns in Southern Connecticut. In 2015, SCG completed its project to modernise its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, helping the company optimise the delivery of natural gas, improve

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customer service and streamline business operations.

Southern Connecticut Gas specifically wanted the system to be scaled for customer growth, provide hourly reads for all customers, and offer remote shutoff and enhanced security features. The solution gives SCG greater insight into its assets, more control over its system and the option to offer more services to its customers. Its AMI system delivers insight needed for energy conservation and offers cost savings and predictability, application

Southern Connecticut Gas drives meter data efficiencies with AMI

availability, file delivery, field network device repair and replacement.

Improved meter data readsThe network assures a 99.8% daily read rate for daily demand metering. With approximately 30% of SCG’s meters indoors, the utility is in a better position to obtain daily data across the system amid these more challenging conditions. The utility is already realising read rates of more than 99% in the categories of Daily Demand Metering (DDM), DDM Interval Data, non-DDM Daily, Overall

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In addition to providing services to Southern Connecticut Gas, Itron has partnered with SGC, Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG, also an AVANGRID company) and has installed two systems. The first is a mobile AMR system that CNG is managing and the second, an AMI network that Itron manages for daily demand reads. Since the initial contracts were signed, both SCG and CNG have extended networks into new growth areas that were unplanned when embarking on the project. Several geographic areas in Connecticut currently include propane, heating oil, and natural gas. The ability of the

network to expand has allowed the companies to expand their respective natural gas infrastructures as needed and accommodate customers changing preferences for heating sources.

Now that the full system is complete, Southern Connecticut Gas plans to utilise analytics and custom reporting more extensively. In addition, the project has already expanded into additional service territories. The utility is also establishing system integrity monitoring points and taking data and integrating it into their back-office analytics.

Daily, and Overall Interval. Itron manages all meter readings, integrating them into the SCG billing system and customer portals. The company is also providing cloud services, managing all back-office software support, network and system uptime and maintenance. The meter system that has been replaced transmitted usage information of SCG customers to a specially-equipped vehicle that employees would drive through neighbourhoods collecting the data. The new meter reading modules will transmit customers’ usage data to devices mounted on utility poles.

Southern Connecticut Gas specifically

wanted the system to be scaled for

customer growth, provide hourly reads

for all customers, and offer remote

shutoff and enhanced security features. ”


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TEAM PROFILE

Mark de Vere White, president for Itron’s Global Electricity Business Unit, evaluates the effectiveness of the OpenWay Riva IoT solution to enable the utility modernisation programmes undertaken by Washington-based Avista Utilities and Tonga Power Limited in the South Pacific Ocean.

What impact have the projects had?

The OpenWay Riva IoT solution is helping utilities, including Tonga Power Limited and Avista Utilities drive new applications and decision-making to the edge to take action in near real-time. In Tonga, the utility has set a target to generate 50% of its electricity from renewables, including biomass, solar and wind, by 2020. Tonga is better able to monitor and manage the integration of renewable energy into the electric grid, ensuring grid reliability and energy security. In Washington State, Avista is looking to modernise its electric and gas network and lay the foundation for smart city applications. The solution has been adopted to deliver current and future capabilities, and provide the flexibility and foundation for additional applications to meet the evolving expectations and needs of its customers.

When it was decided to go ahead with the projects, how was the make-up of the teams determined?

Itron’s delivery services team is organised and assembled by geography. At Tonga, the company delivered OpenWay Riva solution as a managed services offering, which allowing TPL to scale to production speedily and offer prepayment functionality out of the box. Itron maintains the network and data collection saving time and cost to implement the solution, while accelerating time to value and mitigating project risk.

Integrating Itron OpenWay Riva IoT as an enabler of the modern utility grid

What personal learning have you taken away from being part of these projects?

I have the privilege of leading Itron’s Global Electricity Business. In this role, I have met with many utilities and heard from them about the challenges they face. I’m committed to supporting our customers in finding the best path to meet their objectives.

What do you see the biggest challenge being for the utility sector going forward?

Every day, utilities are challenged to deliver more reliable and lower cost energy and water to their customers. This in the face of increasing demands on the electricity grid, including electric vehicles, renewable energy and distributed generation, is driving utilities to move away from a centralised generation and delivery model to a dynamic, distributed collection of microgrids that will need to be synchronised, monitored and maintained in real time.

While the industry has seen recent momentum with smart grid technologies designed to improve efficiencies, there is still work to do in order to reach the next major turning point. Simply moving data around will not address the challenges utilities face or capitalise on new opportunities.

This is where the ‘Active Grid’ comes in. With the Active Grid, decisions are made at the edge of the utility network, optimising analytics where they need to happen, enabling utilities to run multiple applications in edge devices, and creating capabilities not available before in the industry.

What are you top 3 predictions for the sector for 2017?

The Active Grid: The Active Grid analyses data continuously at the edge of the network, dispatching insight rather than bytes. Today’s challenges require a solution built for the IoT world and this will require open, standards-based platforms that serve as the foundation for the future.Open Collaboration: The Active Grid can and should involve many companies and technologies. It provides an open application, interoperable environment enabling third-parties to embed the technology into their devices or to develop apps to run on the platform. Business Outcome Based Services: The pathway to implementing the Active Grid is far bigger and more complex than any one company or entity. Providing fully delivered operational outcomes can help a utility more quickly realise the benefits of an Active Grid. Relying on industry experts to help generate true business outcomes allows the utility to focus on its core business and customers.

Mark de Vere White

itron.com

At Itron, we believe that the way we manage energy and water will defi nethis century. We connect people, devices and information through technology and services—and in the process, we build more insightful utilities, stronger communities and smarter cities.

From integrating renewable energy at Reunion Island off the coast of Africa, to encouraging 40% of customers at the largest utility in the Netherlands to conserve water, or partnering with Charlotte, North Carolina on their smart city vision, we are helping create a more resourceful world.

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there is no silver bullet for meeting all of our cybersecurity needs .”

The penetration test or ‘pen test’ was coordinated to provide both SnoPUD and the NG with valuable experience. The NG was able to exercise their cyber defence team and the Public Utility District was able to test their detection and response procedures to attacks in real time, exposing weaknesses in the utility’s contingency plans.

A distinct advantage of bringing in the NG to do the penetration test was that once the NG was familiar with critical infrastructure networks, they will then have the ability to perform a swift and effective response to a real attack. The NG cyber defence team drew on technically trained members of Air and Army units, and cyber experts from the state’s technical companies who have enlisted in the NG.

During the exercise, SnoPUD’s smart grid test lab was the target of the attack, as it replicates actual systems, from EMS, SCADA and substations, as well as battery storage devices and distribution automation systems. The hackers sought to attack the utility’s operational systems, such as substation controls, along with administrative systems, such as human resources and customer service.

has successfully conducted many ‘table-top’ exercises, these hypothetical scenarios were never physically tested."

The hacking event highlighted the ‘reactive’/defensive nature of SnoPUD’s security defences. The utility was monitoring what it thought it was supposed to be monitoring (doing what they thought they needed to do). The hack revealed that there are many other factors that needed to be taken into consideration and several other points that required monitoring and control. The point is that, because the mind-set was “this wouldn’t ever happen to us,” their defences wouldn’t have been adequate to prepare SnoPUD for those scenarios that were thought to be ‘far-fetched’.

The thought was – “these hypothetical attacks aren’t possible – why should we monitor for those scenarios, if the likelihood of them happening was slim to none?”

Today’s smaller to medium sized utilities could potentially be used as training grounds for hackers who intend to perform more sophisticated attacks on larger utilities with the same assets and systems.

“The exercise showed that no one is invincible or immune to threats – no matter how ‘good’ cybersecurity systems are,” said Beberness.

Utility hack demonstrates vulnerability in security defences

In a one-of-a-kind exercise, Snohomish County Public Utility District (SnoPUD) teamed with the Washington State National Guard (NG) to engage the NG Cyber Team in a historic collaboration that gave the NG Cyber Defence Team the opportunity to ‘penetration test’ the PUD network.

The end result was that, despite some pretty sophisticated systems and a number of defensive actions, the hackers were ultimately able to breach SnoPUD’s defences within 22 minutes.

The hack was a thought out and researched plan of attack – there was a strategy behind it. It was successful in the sense it took 22 minutes from point of entry into SnoPUD’s network to the complete download that could have potentially been a malicious attack payload.

Method of attackThe attack was carried out using a method often found to be the root cause of intrusion and a very real threat – a phishing email. In an interview, Benjamin Beberness, the chief information officer for the Snohomish County PUD said that employees were told beforehand that there was a planned test, but were not aware when the test would occur. The email seemed legitimate in that it appeared to be an internal communication from the IT helpdesk. It was sophisticated and very well executed.

When asked why SnoPUD had decided to carry out, what could be viewed as an extreme test of its defences, Beberness said: “There were several factors including having too much confidence in SnoPUD’s existing security defences. While SnoPUD

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CYBERSECURITY

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In a blog post, Billy Rios, founder of WhiteScope LLC, NexDefense ICS cybersecurity fellow and tech lead in this initiative said that reports seemed to suggest that SnoPUD did not have the appropriate cyber defences in place.

“This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, SnoPUD was not only in complete compliance with NERC CIP, but it also followed-best practices that aren’t enforceable. The facility even went above and beyond by investing heavily in cybersecurity protections,” added Rios.

IT-OT convergenceThe penetration test revealed that the hackers were able to infiltrate the SCADA network through SnoPUD's corporate network, despite these networks being separate. Addressing the misconception that by simply separating the SCADA and corporate network ensures complete system security, Beberness said: “There is the thought that by creating an 'air gap' between the corporate and SCADA networks that the SCADA network cannot be penetrated through the corporate network.

“An ‘air gap’ means that there is no physical connectivity in any way between your SCADA system and the outside world. Today, efficient and effective operations will not support that. This means that most utilities, if not all, cannot 'air gap' their SCADA system. Segregating the SCADA network from the corporate network with a DMZ (demilitarized zone) in the middle is just the base or starting point from which to build more robust security controls.”

He goes on to say that, “firewalls are also often relied upon as the ultimate cybersecurity feature, however firewalls

are just one layer in your defences. Today’s firewalls are becoming like Swiss Army Knives and claim to provide all the security features you would ever need. Companies are going to have to look at this trend and determine their direction based on risk and the capabilities they want the firewall to provide. One thing is for certain, there is no silver bullet for meeting all of our cybersecurity needs.”

SnoPUD – a benchmark for cybersecurity In a statement released by the Washington Military Department, Beberness notes that testing network vulnerabilities is essential, even for utilities like his, which serves just 337,000 customers. He compared the situation to that of the hijackers of the planes on 11 September, 2001, which utilised a small airport in Florida to test their capabilities first. He wonders if a hacker wouldn’t try their luck on the Snohomish County PUD before branching out to a larger power grid attack.

Benjamin Beberness, the chief information officer for the Snohomish County PUD speaks with Col. Gent Welsh and Major General Bret D. Daugherty.

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“We all have similar systems,” said Beberness. “If we’re not secure, what’s to prevent a hacker or terrorist trying to get into our network and do something broader. We take cybersecurity very seriously.”

In a visit to Washington State Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Ashton Carter, United States defence secretary said, “This is a pathfinding way of doing things. Bring in the high-tech sector in a very direct way to the mission of defending the country. Absolutely, we are going to do more of it.”

The exercise was presented to the Cyber Guard in Washington, DC, as an example of the partnership the Cyber Guard can have with US critical infrastructure in the fight against cyber-attacks and provided a roadmap for continued engagement to the mutual benefit for all parties. This exercise is also now serving as a gateway to create a national programme for states to work with their local National Guard units in detection and protection of cyber assets.


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In an interview with the team behind the Snohomish penetration test, Paul Jacobsen (PJ), security architect, SnoPUD; Lt. Col. Thomas A. Pries (TP), WA ANG J-36 Cyber Operation Plans, Washington Military Department and Benjamin Beberness (BB) chief information officer, SnoPUD share their personal learnings from the exercise, the impact that the project has had on the organisation and insight into some of the challenges experiences by utilities today.


PJ: It helped us to identify both the strengths and weaknesses in our defensive posture. Several “shortcomings” were known, but many were new and potentially unknown by us due to vendor vulnerabilities. The project exercised our awareness of the lack of some controls and provided us with a task list which spawned a project.

TP: The greatest impact for the Washington Military Department is the great relationship that we’ve formed with one of Washington’s leading utilities. This relationship is a potential catalyst for broadening the success we had with SnoPUD to similar utility providers as well as other critical infrastructure sectors.


PJ: Our team was made up of the operations team, management and security teams. We had two internal “trusted agents” familiar with the architecture who were kept ahead of the progress of the engagement throughout.

TP: The decision to go ahead with the project on our end occurred in mid-2011. However, it took until late 2012 to get all the permissions to move ahead. The final team comprised of members of the Washington Air National Guard, Army National Guard and Washington State Guard.

BB: It was determined early on that SnoPUD would minimise the number of people who would know everything that was going on. We called them “trusted advisors”. The organisation was informed the operation, but not exactly when it would occur.


PJ: Trust your people, but keep them engaged in the process. Don't rely solely on technical controls – users are your weakest link. Verify all of your technical controls and ensure that

Snohomish County PUD PENETRATION TEST

processes are understood by all and document them. Know your tools and their capabilities.

BB: First and foremost, cybersecurity is a continuous journey and we have to continue to learn. This means we have to constantly look for ways to improve our cybersecurity programme and understand the new methods that hackers are using to infiltrate organisations.


PJ: The integration of IT/OT was a big part of the engagement since OT was the primary target. OT had not experienced this type of test and were not prepared for it and the resulting exposure. The reaction was one of anger and misunderstanding. IT operations also had a similar response, but were more familiar with the incident response process and how to react in an orderly, controlled fashion. It really enhanced the integration due to the conversations that followed regarding the penetration test.


PJ: Vendor security and the migration to a digital framework. This will ultimately cause a shift in the responsibility from analog technicians to digital technicians. The aging workforce will help in the transition, but the change out of aging analog equipment will be a long process, but comes along with great benefits such as analytics and real time reporting and alerting.

BB: Utilities continue to deploy technology further and further out. We have digitalized our substations, put sensors on our poles and wires, deployed AMI meters with some even interfacing with Home Area Networks (HANS). Utilities are also deploying more and more mobile devices to make our work force more efficient. All of this is great for our customers and our employees, but it does increase our cybersecurity risk.


PJ: Vendors will be held accountable for security (NERC is working on a standard); internet-connected control systems will be removed from internet exposure, by either a breach or management demand; C-level employees will become more engaged in cybersecurity; boards will demand reporting.

BB: Utilities will continue to deploy technology for the mobile workforce and customers. With the proliferation of technology, utilities will have to expand their primary focus of protecting the control system to protecting all of the systems, that could inhibit the reliability of the service utilities provide. This includes protecting customer and employee information.

TEAM PROFILE

From left: Paul Jacobsen, information technology services security architect, SnoPUD; Lt. Col. Thomas Muehleisen, chief cyber planner, Washington Military Department; Russ McRee, director of security response and investigation, Microsoft Windows and Devices Group; Benjamin Beberness, chief information officer, SnoPUD.

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ComEd is building upon a foundation of smart grid policy, technology, and customised services to embrace the evolution to the digital age. Its leadership has won accolades throughout the industry, including acknowledgement as a 2016 'Company to Watch' in Smart Grid News.

Policy innovation: laying the technical foundation ComEd helped pass the Smart Grid Law (formally the Energy Infrastructure Modernisation Act) in 2011. This landmark legislation authorised ComEd to invest $2.6 billion to strengthen and modernise the grid, including the installation of 4 million smart meters and switches throughout northern Illinois. This law has allowed the utility, serving 3.8 million customers, to lay the smart grid foundation for the digital utility transformation.

To build on the smart grid foundation, in 2016 ComEd supported the development of the Next Generation Energy Plan, currently under consideration by the Illinois General Assembly. This bill creates a smart

power flow to a water pumping station, hospitals, emergency response facilities, and a key transportation hub in northern Illinois, future superconductor deployment would connect critical substation equipment and could ultimately allow for networking the main substations in the Chicago Loop (central business district). These innovations create the ability to lose grid-connected power at critical sites and yet keep power flowing.

Unique among ComEd’s proposed microgrids, the Bronzeville project represents a community microgrid model, serving as the backbone for a ‘Community of the Future’. In this smart community, residents will be connected to each other and to many valuable uses of smart grid technology. The proposed Bronzeville microgrid pilot would be funded in part by US Department of Energy grants, which are enabling the incorporation of solar power and batteries into an initial microgrid footprint. Moreover, the grants are funding the development of a microgrid master controller for a first-of-its-kind microgrid cluster with nearby Illinois Tech.

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policy for the smart grid, helping to drive a clean energy future by nearly doubling energy efficiency, providing $140 million annually in funding for solar development, and increasing power resilience for critical public infrastructure.

Even as ComEd drives progress through energy policy, the power provider is also working towards building a smarter infrastructure. A few of the pilot programmes currently underway include: microgrids, superconductors, smart street lights and battery storage.

Resilience: microgrids and superconductorsComEd believes the new performance standard for the 21st century is resiliency, due to disruptive weather patterns, heightened customer expectations in a digital world, and increasing security threats. The utility is proposing to meet this challenge with critical public infrastructure microgrids around northern Illinois and superconductor technology. While these microgrids would help ensure ‘islanded’

comed journeys toward creating the 21st century grid

Grid Connected Microgrid: Microgrid customers are supplied by both the utility grid and distributed energy resources (DERs) within the microgrid.

Islanded Microgrid: Microgrid is disconnected from the utility grid and microgrid customers are supplied by the distributed energy resources (DERs) within the microgrid.

DIGITAL UTILITY TRANSFORMATION

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The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016DIGITAL UTILITY TRANSFORMATION

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In 2015, ComEd completed a comprehensive analysis of its northern Illinois service territory to identify locations and critical public infrastructure that would best benefit from microgrids. As part of the study ComEd used a holistic, data-driven approach to establish detailed resiliency metrics, creating a model to evaluate each portion of its service territory for microgrid potential. Five recommended microgrid sites are now included as part of the Next Generation Energy Plan legislation currently under review by the IL General Assembly. These five microgrids would provide for the continued flow of power for critical public services such as healthcare, transportation, emergency services, and water.

While microgrids as distribution alternatives have been discussed widely, tools for microgrid design are still in need of further development. In order

to address this issue and to optimise its investments for microgrids, ComEd has developed and secured a patent for a microgrid feasibility study tool called the MG REVALUE, or MicroGrid Robust Economic Viability Assessment with Lasting Uncertainty Enclosure. The tool uses robust optimisation techniques to optimise the generation mixture and design for the microgrid implementations studied.

Apart from its extensive grid modernisation efforts, ComEd is trialling smart cities technologies – smart streetlights – in two communities in the Chicago metropolitan area and working with dozens of other municipalities to install smart-ready LED streetlights. The electricity distributor has also begun integrating batteries into its grid, beginning with 25-50 kWh batteries that can improve pocket reliability issues and potentially be used to keep critical intersections powered during outages.

Customised innovation Apart from its pilot projects, ComEd is creating personalised services that bring value to its customers.

To develop the benefits of its expanding digital networks, ComEd partnered with two start-up analytics companies whose products allow smart meter customers to see how and when they use energy and to take action. The Bidgely application disaggregates data all the way down to the appliance level. Meter Genius shows real-time usage and offers incentives for reducing consumption in the form of points that can be used to make purchases.

In 2016, ComEd will begin to send personalised reliability reports which give customers specific information about individual reliability and outage experience, as well as improvements conducted and planned in their neighbourhoods.

Last year, ComEd partnered with environmental advocates, other energy companies, and manufacturers to create a smart thermostat rebate programme and announced the shared drive toward a million smart thermostats in northern Illinois – the largest known initiative of its kind in the country.

ComEd's grid modernisation work has produced record power reliability for customers over the last three years, resulting in Illinois being ranked second in the nation for electrical grid modernisation in the 2015 Grid Modernisation Index (GMI).

The report, produced by the GridWise Alliance and the Smart Grid Policy Centre, evaluates and ranks states based on their progress in upgrading their electric systems with smart grid technologies. The work ComEd has completed to modernise the electric grid in northern Illinois, along with the utility’s focus on customer engagement, helped position Illinois as the second most modern grid in the nation.

FASTER RESTORATION (STORM RESPONSE)• ComEd’s Storm Task Forces continue to drive real results for customers.

• ComEd earned an Edison Electric Institute Emergency Response Award for its response to the June 2015 storm affecting Coal City.

• While no two storms are identical, comparable storms show that Smart Grid investments are working. A November 2015 windstorm resulted in 44 percent fewer customer interruptions than a comparable 2005 storm.

RECORD RELIABILITY• In 2015, ComEd customers

experienced a 12 percent reduction in the frequency of outages as compared to 2014.

• During that same time, the average duration of outages has been reduced by 42 percent.

• Out of 3.8 million customers, 3 million experienced zero or only one outage last year.

• EIMA and other grid-hardening system improvements reduced storm-related customer outages by approximately 30 percent in 2015.

• In 2015, “smart switch” distribution automation (DA) investments resulted in 1.5 million avoided customer interruptions—bringing the total to 4.8 million avoided customer interruptions since 2012, with an associated $1.1 billion in societal savings, $976 million of that from DA alone.

Thanks to Smart Grid investments and ComEd’s continuous innovation and process improvement, ComEd customers are experiencing fewer and shorter power outages, with the best grid reliability in history.

DELIVERING RELIABILITY

12%REDUCTIONIN FREQUENCY OF OUTAGES

1.5AVOIDEDMILLION

CUSTOMER INTERRUPTIONS

2005136,000 customer interruptions

201576,000

customer interruptions

vs.

Storm restoration performance also

improved, with:

45%of outages

restored within

1 HOUR

70%of outages

restored within

2 HOURS

90%of outages

restored within

4 HOURS

99%of outages

restored within

13 HOURS

$1.1SAVEDBILLION

4.8AVOIDEDMILLION

customer interruptions

ComEd grid modernisation work has produced record power reliability for customers over the

last three years" ComEd utility worker installing LED light fixtures

Statistics appear in ComEd Progress Report "2015 Year In review" – denotes figures for 2015 only.

27


Val Jensen, senior vice president of Customer Operations for ComEd, talks about the utility’s team approach to its grid modernisation effort and highlights the importance of communicating with all company stakeholders to render a project the size of ComEd’s, successful.

What impact has the programme had on the organisation?

Our transformation is taking us from a company that used to be focused solely on keeping the lights on to a future-focused, innovative company that is also focused on driving the clean, lean, ultra-resilient custom energy future our customers want.


The planning and implementation of these projects has been ongoing and involves our entire senior leadership team, who are responsible for creating and driving company strategy.


Bringing all stakeholders along with you on the journey is extremely important – making sure people understand the 'why,' what has to be done, and the importance of their role. This involves constant communication with everybody involved, from employees, to community members and leaders, to policymakers.


This has been a collaborative effort among our entire senior team, all of whom bring years of experience in several expert areas including legal, regulatory, engineering, IT, finance,

ComEd’s digital transformation

environment, customer service, communications, human resources and utility/energy management.

What do you see the biggest challenge being for the utility sector going forward?

At ComEd, we see three related trends which, collectively, challenge energy delivery companies like us to refine and even rethink our regulatory and business models: increasing concern over climate change and interest in the environment; the acceleration of technology innovation; and the increasing digitisation of the economy driving new customer expectations. Keeping our regulatory and business model adjustment apace with these changes is a central challenge in our industry and will be critical to ensuring universal, equitable access to energy and its benefits in the future.


We anticipate – and certainly expect to help drive in northern Illinois – the acceleration of three trends in energy delivery company activities nationwide:

The development and piloting of new technologies that leverage the smart grid;

New uses and customisation of data that gives the customer increasing control; and

A laser-focus on customer satisfaction, continuing a ‘race-to-the-top’ that ComEd has been proud to help lead in recent years.

TEAM PROFILE

ComEd senior team:

Top row (from left): Anne Pramaggiore, president and CEO; Terence Donnelly, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Fidel Marquez, senior vice president, Governmental and External Affairs and chief officer, Governmental and Community Relations; Joseph Trpik, senior vice president, chief financial officer (CFO) and treasurer; Kevin Brookins, senior vice president, Strategy and Administration; Michelle Blaise, senior vice president, Technical Services.

Bottom row (from left): Thomas O’Neill, senior vice president, Regulatory and Energy Policy and general counsel; Val Jensen, senior vice president, Customer Operations; Erica Borggren, vice president, Communications; Timothy McGuire, vice president, Transmission and Substations; Tracie Morris, vice president, Human Resources.


SnoPUD’s leadership team

established the need for

better tools and increased access to information”

Snohomish Public Utility District’s (SnoPUD) digitisation strategy began with the acknowledgement by its leadership team that the utility’s systems, both digital and human needed to be transformed in order to improve operational efficiency and deliver the best possible service to its customers.

At the outset, SnoPUD’s leadership team established the need for better tools and increased access to information to be made available to employees and customers when and where they need it.

Key to its strategy was the utility’s need to develop a central information hub that informs its decisions and makes utility processes more efficient.

The first phase in SnoPUD’s digitalisation strategy went live in September of 2015 which served as a foundation for phase two which went live in August this year.

One of the enabling elements helping SnoPUD realise its objectives, is its partnership with SAP to deliver a platform for its corporate operations.

service system. This provides a 360-degree view of the customerincluding information about theirusage, the programmes theyparticipate in and outage history.In addition, the utility has startedimplementing the MultichannelFoundation solution, allowing it to havea complete view of its interactions withits customers. SnoPUD is also goinglive with workforce management andmobile workforce. The Washington-based utility says that its crews, whoare working in the field, are nowusing iPad mobile devices to providereal-time work management andprioritisation of work for field crews.

Snohomish COUNTY PUD leverages the cloud to

PUD procured and deployed a multitude of SAP software solutions including SAP Business Suite software, Industry Specific Solution for Utilities Industry (IS-U), Solution Manager, Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector (MCF) as well as specific finance, enterprise asset management, customer relationship management, mobile workforce, mobile management solutions, SuccessFactors and Ariba – all aimed at assisting SnoPUD run its core business operations more efficiently.

SnoPUD is the first utility to implement the SAP Business Suite on HANA (an in-memory platform for processing high volumes of data in real-time) and was able to retire 80 systems from its application portfolio. This serves two purposes. Firstly, this reduces the number of one-off systems that the utility needs to support and operate; and secondly, decreases the number of siloed systems on record and moves that data into one source.

Optimising workflows In August, SnoPUD integrated its outage information with its customer

28

DIGITAL UTILITY TRANSFORMATION

modernise operations

www.sap.com/runsimple

30

SnoPUD believes that it will see more effective routing of its fleet and more visibility of the work in the field, which will ultimately lead to better optimisation of its staff and increase its throughput in serving customers.

The utility has accrued multiple benefits since it began implementation of the project. SnoPUD reported improved business processes across the company, which aligned with industry best practices and which has the potential to realise $500,000 annually in operational savings from a loss in productivity and work having to be done over.

The project has also given rise to a comprehensive training programme for all business processes. SnoPUD says that it has greatly increased its ability to on-board staff and provide updated training as it continues to improve business processes.

It adds that, traditionally, the on-boarding and training of staff would take several months and require them to be trained by existing staff. The new training programme is completed online and can be done independently. This saves 100 staff-hours with all new hires.

Furthermore, the software deployed is helping SnoPUD achieve consolidated capital and budget development and tracking of work orders, make progress in ‘going paperless’ and having full integration of work documents. It has enabled comprehensive system and business process monitoring to facilitating notification of business process failures, process improvement opportunities, and training opportunities.

Other benefits include online employee and manager self-service for managing careers, benefits and personal information. This has allowed the HR department to reallocate one full time equivalent resource to other activities. The employee evaluation process is allowing SnoPUD to save 1.5 staff members annually.

Streamlining resourcesCombined islands of information are also providing a single source of information which can be freely accessed – breaking down work group silos. For example, the elimination of 80 systems means that there were 80 different sources of information – which is difficult to manage, nearly impossible to know the source of

30

data, and not very accessible for those who might need the information. There is now one asset system and one executive owner of the asset management process for the company.

“The true transformation is in the fact that we have been able to reduce the number of systems and modernise our utility core set of business processes,” says Benjamin Beberness, chief information officer at SnoPUD.

He adds: “We were able to accomplish so much in such a short timeframe. That has really set the foundation for our agility going forward. For us, that is priceless. SnoPUD's perspective is that digital transformation isn't just about savings; it is about setting the foundation for the future. With everything we have put in place we believe we have the digital foundation to meet the demands of our customers and the changes that the utility industry will place on us.

“Our focus now will be on continuous improvement of our operations. We also plan on using additional mobile technologies for other field groups and enhancing the customer experience.”

Digital transformation isn't just about savings; it is about setting the foundation for the future"

The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016DIGITAL UTILITY TRANSFORMATION

31


Benjamin Beberness (BB), chief information officer, SnoPUD and Garth Williams (GW), ERP programme executive, SnoPUD, expand on some of the benefits that have been realised since the implementation of its digitisation strategy, beginning with the deployment of SAP’s Business Suite software and host of workflow optimisation solutions.


BB: The programme has had a transformational impact with the implementation of consistent business processes across the organisation. The programme has not only consolidated the number of corporate systems that staff have to interact with, but it has also brought together our IT and OT systems, so they are working together in real-time.

GW: This multiyear project has touched every employee at the District to at least some extent. It has required many processes to change dramatically, and has involved many hours of training for employees. The District adopted an ERP system to build a foundation toward single source, single entry, improved data quality and improved visibility – the end result being accurate, timely, widely accessible information to make strategic decisions.


BB: From the very beginning it was decided that we needed to treat this as a change management programme and not a system implementation. To ensure that direction, we selected Garth Williams, a 37 year SnoPUD veteran, to be our programme executive sponsor. Garth has done numerous jobs at SnoPUD over his 37 years and is well respected throughout. We also assigned ownership of each of the business processes (Meter to Cash, Budget to Report, Enterprise Asset Management, Compliance, Procure to Pay and Hire to Retire) to an assistant general manager/vice president. My job was to make sure that Garth and the rest of my executive peers had the information and support they needed to achieve their goals.

GW: The PUD wanted to build in the concept of ‘business’ ownership so that the project is not viewed as merely an ‘IT Project’. From past experience we knew that if this appeared as an IT project, business acceptance would be decreased and business ownership would be minimal. We organised the steering team around the SAP process pillars (Meter to Cash,

Snohomish COUNTY PUD SAP One Programme

Budget to Report, Enterprise Asset Management, Compliance, Procure to Pay and Hire to Retire) and built teams from the process areas to support the processes.


BB: Leadership and change management are absolutely critical to the success of a programme, especially one that transforms how the business operates.

GW: There has been a lot of new technical terms and processes for me to understand. However, I would say the biggest learning is the importance of getting the process owners and their management on board, get their buy-in as well as establishing business readiness and decision making processes.


BB: The team identified key IT/OT integration points for the business processes such as outage management with the customer service system and integration of the GIS with asset management and operational technology.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for the sector going forward?

BB: The biggest challenge is how to take advantage of all of the data gathered across the IT/OT systems to maintain business assets, maximise investments and gain a better understanding of the market and our customers.

GW: Leveraging the data and information that is being captured in today’s digital world to help in decision making and strategic direction, to ultimately to serve our customers better by keeping rates stable and the lights on.


BB: As the deployment of digital technology continues, all utility executives will need to become digital leaders. Utilities will also need to start their preparation for a significant increase in distributed generation and small storage units like Tesla’s PowerWall. These technologies will change the way utilities manage their distribution networks and may drive a new household to household market using blockchain technology. Utilities will be the highest sector at risk of cyber-attack and breach of the 16 critical infrastructures.

GW: Renewables will continue to be a challenge in the integration to legacy sources, slow load growth will be a challenge to rate stability, and managing new technology will be a challenge for the business.

TEAM PROFILE

From left: Benjamin Beberness, chief information officer, SnoPUD and Garth Williams, ERP programme executive, SnoPUD.

32

Smart Rural Grid, the Digital GridThe purpose of the Smart Rural Grid project is to develop the smart rural grid and explore the best ways to make the transition from the current rural distribution networks to the new using smart grid technologies and associated business concepts.

There is a need to reconsider the rural network distribution architectures that are currently used and introduce combine and test telecommunications, control and storage technologies and other systems and devices to ensure a successful inception of the new concept.

Both the interests of the DSO and retailer’s must be taken in to consideration. Typically, they use different ways to communicate with their assets. The DSO often uses their own telecommunication network (e.g. fibre or PLC via the power lines) while the prosumers’ smart meters communicate via an IP based platform e.g. mobile networks of a telecommunication company.

How the system works:The task of the players on level 4 (figure 1) is to generate 15 minute schedules for at least the next 24 hours for each asset at level 2. This optimisation task requires accurate forecasts of the consumptions and the availability of controllable loads

and generation at level 1. The objective function has to integrate the physical limits of the grid and the best economic way to deliver the forecasted electricity consumption either by DER (level 2), or purchase at the market (level 4).

The complete communication is handled with existing systems and structures (level 3). The core element of the system at level 1 and 2 is the IDPR (intelligent distribution power router). It should handle the communications within specified parameters, enable energy management when the system is grid-connected, give minimal conditions of operation in the event of network problems and enable standardisation of service (managed by the DSO) based on boundary points identified in the pilot areas. This element will be integrated into the secondary substations.

The proposed system allows managing electricity and data. This system should integrate a certain degree of openness in order to enable developing new business models in rural networks for distributors and users.

The research The research work will encompass the following:

• The Intelligent Distribution Power Router (IDPR). Enhanced control of electricity distribution, incorporating low voltage Intelligent Distribution Power Router (IDPR) devices at the level of the secondary substations, that will enable enhanced electricity routing distribution mechanisms. IDPR are power electronic devices allowing to control electricity flows for different purposes, and will have inbuilt control technology allowing semi-automatic best-mode selection functionality, in isolated or in electrical coupled mode.

• Embedding communications into electricity distribution operations. By embedding telecommunications into rural electricity networks all gathered grid data will be seamlessly made available to the operation centers, under centralised or distributed transactional modes. The communication will consist of both fall-back network connectivity in support of the operations of electricity distribution and transport networks, and also the grained connectivity at consumer/prosumer endpoints, smoothly integrating them into innovative business models of proactive and predictive distributed electricity distribution operations.

• Embedding energy storage into electricity distribution. The integration of energy storage based upon battery and ultra-capacitors technology enabling novel resilient network modes at segment level of the rural distribution network whilst contributing to further securing the quality of the service.

• Improved electricity network distribution management software. Boosted network management capabilities will allow innovative software platforms to predictably analyse all available electricity distribution data (related with both offer and demand).

The concept will be tested live in full scale at the village of Vallfogona del Ripollès. The village is located in a typical rural area in Catalonia, Spain. The density of customers is sparse. All of them are connected to a single radial of supply. The project is going to focus on those at the end of this electrical network. This will put the project results to a severe test. The target area has a great need for improved resilience and the benefits of the Smart Grid technologies we are going to develop are in high demand. Figure. 1: Overview of the Rural Smart Grid

In association with the European Utility Industry Awards

33

NOBEL GRID will provide advanced tools and ICT services to all actors in the smart grid and retail energy market in order to ensure benefits from cheaper prices, more secure and stable grids and clean electricity.

The H2020 NOBEL GRID project is developing new tools and business models that will allow all European citizens to benefit from a more secure and stable distribution network, promoting the integration of distributed, renewable energy sources and greater participation of consumer and final 'prosumer' in the energy market.

The project began January 1, 2015, with a budget of €14 million and 21 institutional partners from 11 countries and is estimated to be completed in mid-2018.

The main objective of the project is to provide solutions for all the actors in order to share the benefits of the smart grid in a fair, sustainable and efficient way. In this context, NOBEL GRID promotes, by means of new technologies and business models, collective schemes and community initiatives, giving power and protection to the final consumer, contributing to a more competitive and well-functioning internal energy markets and helps address serious social problems of vulnerable consumers.

Specifically, the project has three main objectives:• The first objective, and core to the

project, will be the development and demonstration of innovative solutions and tools in order to improve medium and low voltage electricity distribution networks, providing secure, stable and robust smart grids. This will allow DSOs to mitigate the costs of management, replacement and maintenance of the grid in the presence of a very large share of renewable energy. This will include intelligent active control of the network, of the active and reactive power flows,

fault and outage management, automatic control concepts, network synchronisation, active loads and distributed storage integration. In the end, the NOBEL GRID approach will provide all customers with better prices and access to a low carbon electricity supply.

• The second objective is the development, integration and real demonstration of new services to be provided to all the actors of the electricity distribution grid and market. This will include services for next generation distributed renewable energy integration and active demand

The first objective, and core to the

project, will be the development and

demonstration of innovative solutions ...”

H2020 NOBEL GRID project


34

response. These will be developed into three different applications for different actors as follows:1. Grid management and maintenance master framework

for DSOs (G3M Framework):2. Energy monitoring and analysis app for domestic and

industrial prosumers (EMA app):3. DR flexible market cockpit for aggregators, ESCOs and

retailers (DRFM cockpit).

• The third objective includes the demonstration of innovative solutions to lower the cost of the development and deployment of smart metering systems.

Will address this objective at three different levels:• Promoting and testing the concept of an unbundled smart

meter (USM)• Developing and testing a new smart low-cost advanced

meter (SLAM)• Interfacing with smart home environments and building

management systems (BMS)

These three objectives will be deployed and tested on a large scale in five pilot sites in five EU members’ states – Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Greece – selected to maximise the EU-wide impact, and prioritise the trials with cooperatives and non-profit partners.

InovGrid is EDP’s smart grid programme, encompassing four major elements of grid management:

1. the need for increased energy efficiency; 2. the pressure to reduce costs and increase operational

efficiency; 3. the integration of a large share of dispersed generation; 4. the integration of electric vehicles and the desire to

empower customers and support the development of new energy services.

Launched in 2007, the project will cover one million customers by 2017, focussing strongly on the concept of the smart grid, as opposed to smart meters.

As an innovative project, it provides the electricity network with information and intelligent equipment that can promote the active empowerment of costumers to make smart decisions – notably with an open platform, based on public standards. Smart decision making is enabled by the development of new tools and services supporting customers’ involvement, integrating distributed generation and electric vehicles, automating grid management, improving quality of service, reducing operating costs, promoting energy efficiency and environmental sustainability and helping to reduce energy dependence.

InovGrid enables the innovative use of data and data driven approaches with the EDP Box as a gateway to energy management, with local interaction with other devices. The interface with Home Area Network (HAN), meets micro-generation, load management and peak load reduction needs through the integration of other modules or hardware upgrades thus avoiding costs associated with full replacement of equipment.

What is the EDP Box?EDP Box is the connection between the home and the intelligent distribution network. EDP Boxes (EB), installed in all low voltage customer’s premises, offer advanced smart meter functionalities, such as real time readings on demand, load diagrams, voltage monitoring and remote services such as connect/disconnect, contracted power and tariff setup, tampering alarms, etc.).

The InovGrid demo site, enabling the value delivery in the smart grids


35

Notably, InovGrid uses an open platform, based on public standards, thus enabling the development of new tools and services supporting customers’ involvement.

The InovGrid project demonstrates Smart Grid concepts for a significant number of users and communities, by introducing novel integrated management tools which will improve service quality, reduce operating costs, promote a more active role for customers/producers, support new commercial services, increase energy efficiency, exploit the potential of distributed generation (DG), integrate the electrical vehicle (EV) and public lighting ecosystems.

The municipality of Évora in Portugal, with a population of 54,780 was chosen to be the InovCity. This project focused on 32,000 electricity customers with an annual consumption of approximately 273GWh and 138 medium voltage customers who have an annual consumption of 110GWh. Industrial activities account for 57% of electricity use, while services account for 34% and agriculture and other activities for the remaining 9%.

Demand side management (DSM) functionalities included fitting 3,550 facilities with demand response or energy efficient solutions, comprising different customer profiles. The project also included EV charging points, DG monitoring and control units and primary distribution substations.

The InovGrid and InovCity project are the example of a new paradigm in the management and operation of distribution networks and customer relations. The

use of the infrastructure set up is an innovative approach to several processes, typically lengthy and complex, bringing flexibility, more knowledge and simplicity of implementation. From the standpoint of the consumer, the ability to understand their consumption patterns and act on this information, in terms of energy efficiency measures and behaviour, is something completely new, transparent and non-discriminatory. The project demonstrates that a properly developed integration tool, facilitates the integration of DG, more efficient use of energy and a reduction in CO2 emissions, without compromising security of operation and quality of supply.

Results from large power users with sophisticated energy management systems, such as hospitals, museums, public buildings and others show that significant energy savings are achievable and gains between 12% and 20% of consumption reduction have already been seen. Results from studies of

residential low voltage clients, which included data from more than 30,000 customers was developed together with Qmetrics, an independent company specialised in market studies from the New University of Lisbon. This study, which includes a complete year’s data set, control and test groups to ensure that external variables are averaged out, performed in a context of generalised consumption reduction, shows that the average daily consumption is between 1.8% and 6%. This is a major finding, and is well above the estimated 2% that support the national business case analysis with a clear global economic net present value, and where consumers capture the large majority of benefits.

By the demonstration of a full scale smart electricity network, this project will establish findings that will set a clear path for the integration on a European scale; of renewable and distributed energy sources in electricity distribution networks with active end-user’s participation. Each of these driving activities has an intrinsic scientific value that can be examined through their contribution to the development of new technology, but mainly through their contribution to the implementation of an integrated and sustainable EU energy system.

Project focus:

• Active demand response• Integrated smart homes• Smart meter data processing• Integration of DER• Integration of EV• Monitoring and control of LV

networks• Automation and control of MV

networks• Integrated communication solution

1

HV NetworkSubstation

VHV/HVSubstation

HV/MV

MV Network2nd Substation

MV/LV

LV Network Consumers

WAN HAN

EDP BoxHead-end systems

LAN

DTC

Wide area network Local area network Home area network

Energy efficiency services

New tariffs, products and services

Mini and microgeneration

integration

EV charging network

GIS andWork Force

Management

Remote public lightning

management

MV Automation and telecontrol

DG and storage

Operations and quality of service

improvement

Network management new

tools

Systems Integration and Cybersecurity

Information Management and

data mining

InovGrid_ EDP Distribution is building a smart grid with an integratedapproach , touching several changing areas...

2

Évora InovCity was a living lab to demonstrate SmartGrid concept, includingMetering, Energy Efficiency, Public Lighting and Electric Vehicle...

InovCity store

Efficiency audits at specific customers

Microgeneration integration

New products and services to residential customers and SOHOs

DTC installed at all the 2nd

substations

Efficient public lightning

Évora key attributes1. Municipality

• 54 000 inhabitants• 1 307 square km of area (urban +

rural)2. Infrastructure components:

• 31k EDP Boxes and 341 DTC• Processes and systems integration• Communications (WAN, LAN, HAN)• New products and services pilot

3. Involvement of the majorauthorities of the region

4. Coordination with the nationalelectric vehicle charging network

EV Charging points

inovcity showroom

InovGrid – EDP Distribution is building a smart grid with an integrated approach, touching several changing areas...

Évora InovCity was a living lab to demonstrate SmartGrid concept, including Metering, Energy Efficiency, Public Lighting and Electric Vehicle...



In December 2014, Brazilian utility Companhia Energética do Maranhão (CEMAR) deployed a self-healing software solution that allowed it to recover from an outage in which 9,463 out of 9,756 customer's were hit. The recovery, on the São Luís distribution network, in northeastern Brazil, was accomplished in 10 seconds, a mere two months after the installation.

NeedsCEMAR identified the need for improvement of operational efficiency and reliability indicators and invested in automating the control equipment on the medium voltage networks, resulting in a noticeable increase in such devices’ on the distribution network over a period of time. This increase makes it possible to perform a great deal of control-actions in seconds, with no need to move field teams to the actual power outage site, since all these actions can be implemented from the operation centre in real time.

In order to consolidate these systems, as well as to improve quality and reliability of the means of communication, utilities have searched for new solutions that keep them efficient and more

36

GRID INTELLIGENCE

Figure 1: Feeders

Self-healing solution streamlines CEMAR ’s energy system recomposition

37


competitive in this market. To this end, CEMAR has deployed a centralised, self-healing system, developed by Elipse Software in partnership with PowerSysLab.

The equipment used in the recently implemented self-healing module is located in Maranhão’s capital city São Luís. Fifty-five new reclosers were installed and a few sectionalizers previously existing in the company’s facilities were recycled (including 19 feeders and seven substations) or relocated.

Sectionalizers are self-contained, circuit-opening devices used in conjunction with source-side protective devices; such as reclosers or circuit breakers, to automatically isolate faulted sections of electrical distribution systems.

With this technology, CEMAR has achieved increasingly better reliability indicators (eg. SAIDI, SAIFI) in the area served by the self-healing grid, since it can automatically calculate and execute the best set of manoeuvres to be performed on the network to dramatically reduce the number of loads affected by power outages.

SolutionThe self-healing module uses algorithms such as Load Flow and Topological Processor to detect the best set of operations to be performed remotely; the priority is to re-establish as many loads as possible in a safe and stable way. The system kicks in whenever a re-establishing or overload event is detected on the field equipment. Once the event is detected, the module initiates sequences that comply to the network’s operational limits, in order to re-establish loads with as few steps as possible, in order to simplify the operation and avoid active device degradation.

As soon as the manoeuvre to be executed is detected, the module matches the protection settings group in each device so that the selected ones can be opened or closed as needed. Then, it checks the quality of the information. If there are any inconsistencies in the current status or pre-outage in the distribution network, this action is aborted.

Each device has its own measurement, which indicates its availability to participate in the solution or to generate a recomposition event. Additionally, re-establishing and overload events are

configurable, which guarantees they will only occur at the end of a protection device’s reclosing cycle or some time after an overload is detected.

SCADA/GIS/OMS integration

The chief difference of this tool is its ability to integrate with GIS (geographic information system) and OMS (outage management system). This integration allows the use of the company’s pre-existing electric model, and retrieving the switches’ current status with no remote control. To do so, the technology will first read, via imported GIS driver, the electric network devices’ registration data, in order to detect names, acronyms, geolocation, connectivity, phases, and operational limits.

Based on the electric template of a feeder from Elipse, a network layout module generates simplified operational diagrams, allowing identification of devices via remote control that can be manoeuvred by the self-healing module. The unsupervised switches, which can change the system’s topological status and influence the automatic decision process, are also highlighted.

Figure 2: Schematic view of an area controlled by self-healing

Figure 3: Faulty block, and commands executed by self-healing

38

The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016GRID INTELLIGENCE

GLOSSARY:

System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI)Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI)Customer Average Interruption Frequency Index (CAIFI)System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI)

Geographic Information System (GIS)Outage Management System (OMS)Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS)

When executed, the self-healing module updates the measurement from switches, breakers, and reclosers supervised at CIM (IEC 61970 – Common Information Model) data structure, to monitor the network’s operational conditions and act upon them when necessary.

Real-life exampleOn February 3, 2015, the self-healing system was successfully deployed for the first time: after consistent protection of 11C1 breaker (Feeder1) at IAQ (Itaqui) substation, the device finished its reclosing cycle and went on lockout due to a tree on the network. This caused the technology to isolate the segment between 11C1 substation’s breaker and 2752239 pole’s recloser, thus recovering the de-energised zone via 11C5 (feeder5), also from IAQ substation.

In this occurrence, the services of 9,463 out of the 9,756 clients from Feeder1 were recovered in less than 10 seconds: it took the self-healing system 132 milliseconds to calculate the sequence of manoeuvres to be executed, the 2752239 recloser five seconds to

confirm the opening command, and the 0016659 recloser another five seconds to issue its closing. In short, it took no more than 10 seconds to isolate the fault and recompose the de-energised circuit.

In addition to the time saved in partial load recovering, this tool has also enhanced operation and maintenance resources quality, since the real-time dispatcher had to send field teams to cover only the affected segment (between IAQ substation and 2752239 pole).

BenefitsThis case illustrated the features of CEMAR’s medium voltage (13.8KV) distribution network, with emphasis on the automatic recomposition process introduced by the self-healing module.

To Ronnie Santiago Loureiro, CEMAR’s automation executive, employing this technology in a centralised system integrated to geo-referencing and operation platforms has increased the system’s reliability and availability.

According to Loureiro, this software has introduced a new philosophy

to the operational centre, one of facilitating control in order to enable other activities, like sending field teams to unrepaired places. Therefore, the solution optimises maintenance resources and reduces the time spent repairing occurrences.

The main benefits provided by the self-healing technology to CEMAR are:• Safe, stable recomposition of the

largest possible load in less than 3 minutes, which improves the reliability indicators (SAIDI and SAIFI);

• By considering overload events, the solution avoids power outages, which also improves duration and frequency indicators (SAIDI and SAIFI);

• Because it doesn’t use any scripts logic to calculate manoeuvres, the solution was quickly implemented and has low maintenance costs.

• A series of pre-existing devices from different vendors were integrated, such as NUIec’s and Tavrida sectionalizers and reclosers, and Schweitzer’s IED-controlled substation breakers, thus preserving the investments already made in the grid automation process.

...it took the self-healing system 132 milliseconds to calculate the sequence of manoeuvres...”

39

Ronnie Santiago Loureiro, automation manager at CEMAR, Jerônimo Mulinari Neto, energy product analyst at Elipse Software and Tiago Torres dos Santos of PowerSysLab Engineering and Systems provide insight into the self-healing project that assisted CEMAR to excel in reducing system interruption and outage duration leading to increased reliability and security in power distribution.


The primary benefit of the project was the improvement of continuity indicators (SAIFI, CAIDI, CAIFI, and SAIDI), due to a recomposition of large load blocks in less than 30 seconds in case of failure, resulting in financial gains and improvement on consumer satisfaction.

Integration between operation and IT systems forced a reformulation of several processes including registration updates and detecting problems which were previously not visible, leading to increased reliability and security of operations.

Implementing a self-healing system represented a change in the operational culture with the deployment of a level-3 automation, which ultimately led to increased effectiveness of operational resources, primarily on zones prone to failures.


Team members were chosen based on their knowledge of several areas covered by the project and who could perform the best assessment of appropriate risks and strategies. Knowledge management was the focus of the project and team participation kept the project up to date to get the best results.

CEMAR selected its partners (Elipse Software and PowerSysLab) based on their extensive experience in the power sector. The creation of a strong partnership between all parties largely contributed to the success of the project.


Teamwork and cohesiveness of multiple teams including operations, protection, automation, and telecommunications

Companhia Energética do Maranhão (CEMAR) reinforces grid with self-healing technology

is vital to achieving project objectives. The chosen technology, hardware and software must be scalable.

Furthermore, due to high costs and test limitations in the field, using a simulation tool is essential to align requirements and expectations from different teams involved with the project. The reliability of the power system registration is a key point, because effectiveness directly depends on it.


In CEMAR’s case, IT/OT integration applied to the assimilation of operational systems (SCADA/self-healing) and IT systems (GIS and OMS). For successful integration of these systems, we needed information reliability, as well as the update time of the IT systems involved, to fit the demands of the operation systems.

To achieve this goal, we reformulated the process of registration updates, detecting problems which were previously not visible to the operations team, such as disconnected branches, outdated statuses of unsupervised switches, and registration updates of branches in maintenance.

As this is an autonomous decision-making platform, quality and reliability of information is vital to achieve these results.


The biggest challenge of the utility sector is to implement innovative technologies as companies prepare to face new scenarios, such as the proliferation of distributed generation. This requires a change in the culture and the introduction of new technologies to maintain the quality and operational integrity of grid networks, while keeping costs low.


• Increased integration of DMS, OMS, GIS, SCADA, and MDMS systems, focusing on better control of losses, voltage quality, and relationship with customers;

• Continuity of investments to implement and supervise devices on medium-voltage networks and improvements on the communication availability with these devices;

• Investments to improve the quality of the power network registration and on tools capable of auditing such quality

From left: Jerônimo Mulinari Neto, energy product analyst at Elipse Software; Tiago Torres dos Santos, PowerSysLab Engineering and Systems

The Global Smart Energy Elites 2016TEAM PROFILE


Recent advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) technology, including distributed intelligence, machine-to-machine communications, multi-application network architecture, cloud computing, data analytics, and a new generation of battery-powered intelligent edge devices and sensors are making it possible to deliver an entirely new level of awareness into the state of the distribution network.

Avista, electricity and gas provider to nearly three-quarters of a million

40

GRID INTELLIGENCE

customers in the Pacific Northwest of the US, has embarked on an ambitious and large-scale project to modernise its electricity and gas distribution networks in Washington state, while also laying the foundation for future smart city applications in communities they serve.

The utility, which provides energy services and electricity to 375,000 customers and natural gas to 335,000 customers, is working with Itron to deploy the OpenWay Riva IoT solution, which is expected to improve electric

takes a unique approach to grid modernisation

and gas operational efficiencies, enhance reliability, reduce energy losses and enhance customer service and engagement. This also means deploying a diverse ecosystem of intelligent devices and sensors, analysing high-resolution data at the edge of the network, communicating and collaborating, and taking action in real time to manage rapidly changing grid conditions.

With the implementation of smart meters and grid devices that provide substantial computing power at the

Avista

41


then analysing it after the fact in the utility back office, Avista’s smart grid programme will utilise distributed computing power throughout its network to analyse large volumes of high-resolution data in meters and edge devices to solve grid operations challenges more quickly and much closer to the source.

The collaboration is the latest development in a long standing relationship between Avista and Itron.

Smart meter deploymentThe two companies are also working together to deploy 253,000 electricity meters and 155,000 gas meters with the rollout still in the early planning stages. In 2009 and 2010, the utility conducted a rollout of the smart meters and grid software for 13,000 customers in Pullman, Washington.

During its smart meter pilot programme, the Spokane-based utility set up a web portal for customers to use to track their usage. Customers had the option to receive email or text alerts to let them know where their consumption was allowing them to make necessary adjustment to stay within their budget.

In order to collect and analyse energy usage information and increase the energy efficiency of its utility system, Avista integrated Itron’s Enterprise Edition (IEE) Meter Data Management solutions. IEE software allowed Avista to consolidate and manage data from dissimilar meter devices.

Once completed, Avista’s smart meter deployment will serve as a foundation for future customer benefits, including faster outage detection and restoration of service, plus near real-time energy use information and energy usage alerts.

During the post-economic meltdown in 2009, when the US government's Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) Programme began pushing smart meters to utilities across the country, Avista decided to invest in infrastructure that would optimise the distributed ecosystem that would evolve over the next several years, said Scott Morris, Avista’s chairman, president and CEO. Morris noted that Avista “saw where technology on the grid edge was going, so [the utililty] invested in transmission and distribution systems to smarten them up.”

He added: “We put devices there so we could learn what is happening there (on the transmission and distribution system) with that technology.”

Industry trends fuel innovationAvista has also inaugurated a 1.0MW/3.2MWh energy storage project in Pullman, touted to be the largest capacity ‘flow battery’ in operation to date in North America and Europe.

The battery system is connected to the electric grid and stores power generated by renewable sources when it’s abundant, for example, when the wind is blowing, and distribute energy when it’s needed, regardless of weather patterns. Power from battery storage is available almost instantaneously, which provides the flexibility to quickly react to a sudden drop in power supply or increase in demand.

Commenting on the unveiling of the energy storage system, Heather Rosentrater, VP of energy delivery and customer service at Avista, said: “We all expect reliable energy that’s there when we need it. But with renewable energy, that’s not always possible if the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining – until now. We believe battery storage could be the missing piece in this puzzle. And that’s exciting!”

The key to optimising such systems, says Rosentrater, is to think beyond economies of scale to what she calls ‘economies of scope,’ that is, extending the value of the battery by finding multiple use cases for the same flexible storage asset.

Avista prides itself on being somewhat of a ‘first mover’ in the industry. The utility started fuel cell maker Relion (acquired by Plug Power in 2014) as well as Ecova, an outfit that helps companies manage their overall utility spend (acquired by French multinational Engie in 2015). Avista also had a small energy trading business at one point, highlighting its early entrepreneurial focus.

Morris notes that the utility company has extensive experience in launching and selling businesses in the ‘smartgrid’ area, and has been doing this long before most others were thinking about it.

Rosentrater concluded: “We have a history of innovation. We've just historically tried different things [and] looked at advancing technology and tried to solve problems with it.”

edge of the network and a robust distributed application platform, Avista is developing new approaches to key use cases, such as, revenue assurance and theft detection, high impedance detection and other safety diagnostics, accelerated outage detection and analysis, transformer load management, demand response, and localised management of distributed generation at the sub-transformer level.

Moreover, instead of collecting large volumes of data over the network and


Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation in Vietnam (EVNHCMC) and partners have delivered Vietnam’s first smart city communications platform to cost-effectively improve utility performance across key organisational goals including revenue generation, network performance, large-scale integration of renewable resources, improving workforce management, engaging customers, advancing operational excellence and improving energy efficiency.

This project, completed over the past year, aimed to demonstrate the optimal approach to smart energy communications to support energy efficiency and reliability for EVNHCMC.

According to a study by Zpryme, with a growing GDP, the demand for electricity in Vietnam is expected to grow by 15-17% per year.

centerpiece of Vietnam’s bid to make Ho Chi Minh City the ‘Silicon Valley of the Pacific’. The platform extends from customer meters at Hi-Tech Park to EVNHCMC’s operations centre. The RF mesh solution uses a combination of interoperable wireless spectrum technologies (including both 2.4 and 5.8 gigahertz) and has established a virtual private network across the entire enterprise.

The project has satisfied EVNHCMC’s need to integrate multiple vendors’ solutions by providing multiple technologies within a single platform. Adding to this, the communications network incorporates a variety of wireless spectrum technologies that are suited to the needs of the varied terrain, customers, and system characteristics across the utility’s distribution network.

According to EVNHCMC, the deployment of the pilot project at Saigon Hi-Tech Park

Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation leverages AMI toward

Furthermore, as a testament to the strategic importance of the energy sector to the country’s socio-economic development, the World Bank recently approved $500 million in funding in order for the Government of Vietnam to improve the capacity, efficiency and reliability of electric infrastructure in areas that are key to the country’s economic development. In addition to using the funding to improve the country’s transmission infrastructure, the project will support smart grid technologies for monitoring, control and protecting critical assets to improve reliability and reduce outages.

RF mesh AMI solutionAn RF mesh solution for AMI and distribution automation networks was deployed at Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP), the $1.5 billion business park that is the

42

EMERGING MARKET

distribution

The RF mesh solution uses a combination of interoperable wireless

spectrum technologies”


Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation leverages AMI toward

“demonstrates the effectiveness of a two-way, smart grid communications network, which is a necessary element for delivering data for energy efficiency applications. For example, to enable Time-of-Use (TOU) rates, both the utility and customer need to know not only how much total energy is used, but also when the usage occurs.”

The utility adds that the information gleaned can be used to encourage customers to adapt their use patterns to save money, often resulting in lowering peak load. Similarly, Time-of-Use data from meters contributes to better long-term understanding of use patterns, allowing the utility to anticipate peaks and take action, by, for example, allowing customers to opt into demand response programmes.

EVNHCMC deputy general director, Mr. Tran Khiem Tuan, says: “It has been immensely gratifying to see this pilot project effectively give us access to customer usage data securely, reliably, and at speeds and intervals we need to support our aims. The pilot has given us a valuable opportunity to use the smart communications platform, to test its

ability, and to get a sense of the uses we could make of it for AMI and beyond.

“The positive results of the Saigon Hi-Tech Park project have helped us to determine new technology directions for the future.”

Network distribution benefitsThe pilot included use of communications technologies appropriate for AMI and distribution network communications, which can also be used for voltage regulation and loss reduction programmes.

In July, EVNHCMC’s system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI), a measure used as a reliability indicator by power utilities, improved from 28.85 times in 2010 to 6.72 times last year.

Its average outage duration per customer served has also reduced from 3,964 minutes to 720 minutes.

The purpose of the pilot project was also to provide a communications network that will materialise into a number of energy efficiency

applications that EVNHCMC may select in its ongoing mission to provide reliable, affordable energy to Ho Chi Minh City. EVNHCMC has been successful in putting the tools in place, and proving their effectiveness to deliver long-term benefits. Beyond the pilot, the utility is looking at how to best leverage these tools and transform business process to maximise the results over time.

“The applications to be leveraged are endless,” says EVNHCMC.

“Establishing a broadband canopy with connectivity to our customers is the first step, and when that canopy is in place, we can easily connect distribution devices, video cameras, or any other smart city applications.

“We are also continually expanding our base of distributed energy resources, and having a communications platform to allow us to integrate (monitor, communicate and control) these devices in real time will surely allow us to more efficiently manage, and ultimately increase our take up of these technologies.”

efficiency

43

SMART COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM

End-to-End unlicensed wireless communications platform for smart city and IoT


44

EVNHCMC deputy general director Tran Khiem Tuan (TKT) and Bryan Spear (BS), Trilliant managing director for Asia Pacific, evaluate the scalable

benefits of advanced meter infrastructure toward improved efficiency, reliability and affordability in energy delivery.


TKT: The successful deployment of the AMI network has demonstrated a communications solution that can be scaled to support our broader smart grid strategy. It is a foundational step in EVN’s commitment to advancing the efficiency, reliability, and affordability of energy for our customers. This first project provides the Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation (EVNHCMC) a reliable, secure network that delivers data from advanced meters deployed at Saigon Hi-Tech Park to our control centre.

It establishes a model that can also be followed to connect other field-deployed technologies like distribution automation or other efficiency applications.

The AMI network also provides us the means to pursue possible demand-side management tools such as demand response or time-of-use rates that may help manage load and meet peak energy demand effectively. The use of a smart network also lays the groundwork for integrating and metering any future distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar or battery storage or electric vehicles.

The pilot project at Saigon Hi-Tech Park has met our core expectations by establishing Vietnam’s first wireless mesh AMI network in the heart of Vietnam’s 'Silicon Valley of the Pacific'. It successfully demonstrated capabilities that will allow us to expand and explore the optimal smart grid and smart city applications to meet the energy needs of Ho Chi Minh City’s growing economy, and to provide better service to our customers.


TKT: It was decided that the EVNHCMC project team would include a cross section of utility’s best and brightest from IT, metering, engineering, and the local power companies.

BS: Our team consisted of multiple experts from throughout the region with global deployment experience, along with some expertise from the US.


TKT: The need to meet double-digit economic growth and the energy demand that goes with it has confirmed and

EVNHCMC’s AMI network at Saigon Hi-Tech Park

strengthened our conviction that advanced, digital approaches that support enhanced efficiency offer the greatest promise to meeting the opportunities and challenges of this growth.

BS: I have found it exciting to see EVNHCMC’s ability to leapfrog ahead technologically, using an advanced RF network for AMI. In a nation which has grown from fewer than 50% of homes equipped with electricity a decade ago to today having more than 90% connected, the potential benefits of a digitalised approach are clear.


TKT: As permanent deputy general director and member of the board of general directors at Ho Chi Minh City Power Company, I bring among the nation’s most informed perspectives into the complexities of meeting both day-to-day and long-term challenges of providing energy to Vietnam’s booming industrial and high-tech business centre. I have been a leader in moving the utility to advanced automation solutions like the AMI network project as a means to counteracting the dramatic growth in electric load.

How was IT/OT integration managed

TKT: The smart communications platform provides access to both IT and OT workers, allowing customer usage data for billing to be accessed by the business office while also allowing operations to see and access meter data to monitor electric delivery. EVNHCMC used this pilot project to develop a better understanding of the various systems and business process that are affected in such a transformational project.


TKT: The greatest challenge for EVNHCMC is also our greatest opportunity, continuing to build infrastructure and intelligence to meet the tremendous energy demand of the region’s growing economy. As residents and businesses use greater amounts of electricity, we aim to meet the need with smarter, clean, reliable, and affordable power.

What are your top three predictions for the sector for 2017?

TKT: • Energy demand will continue to grow• International collaborations will continue to drive and

support Ho Chi Minh City’s role as an economic leader, particularly in high tech business

• Renewable generation and efficiency applications will continue to play an important role in meeting regional and national energy needs

EMERGING MARKET

Pictured: Bryan Spear, managing director, Trilliant (left); Tran Khiem Tuan, deputy general director, Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation (EVNHCMC) (right).

4545

REstore is an energy technology company, focused on the development and operation of automated Demand Response (DR) technology. To do this, REstore developed its DR technology platform, Flexpond.

In 2010, REstore envisioned a new way to help prevent grid blackouts using intelligent, real-time, cloud based technology. In the European DR market, more and more utilities were forced to mothball or close Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plants, and intermittent renewable energy continued to grow.

Europe’s demand response needs weren’t driven by summertime peak loads as they were in the US. The bigger drivers in Europe were and continue to be, the system-wide effects of the continent’s growing share of intermittent wind and solar power.

Intermittent renewable power creates imbalances on the grid, and these need to be managed in real-time to ensure the grid constantly keeps the balance between demand and generation.

Flexpond is the product developed by REstore to ensure demand response could offer that service.

It is a software product that offers a large-scale, reliable virtual power plant (VPP) to energy utilities and transmission grid operators.

The VPP produced by Flexpond is disruptive, as it is a 100% substitute of a gas-fired peak power plant, but it is cheaper than a physical gas-fired power plant and emits less carbon emissions than a physical gas-fired power plant, as it is based on the principle of demand curtailment. However, the technical

1. Entirely supressing power grid demand, offsetting the need for peaking power stations (consuming fossil fuels) is avoided

2. Flexpond allows for more renewable energy generation to be connected to the grid, reducing the requirement for carbon emitting forms of generation.

Putting this into context, a gas-fired peaker plant that needs to deliver primary reserve emits 1600 tonnes of CO2 per MW per year, whereas a VPP emits 0.75 tonnes of CO2 per MW per year.

An Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) that needs to deliver tertiary reserves emits 50 tonnes of CO2 per MW per year, whereas REstore’s VPP emits between 0 and 20 tonnes CO2 per MW per year, depending on the type of machines that are curtailed.

Financially, VPPs are more economical. A gas-fired peaker plant has a cost of ~£80k/MW/year, whereas a VPP has a cost of less than ~£19k/MW/year.

Flexpond’s scalability has been demonstrated by the fact that the platform initially hosted a 10MW VPP, which has been scaled up to 545MW in less than 3 years. The platform is fully cloud-based, and can comfortably scale to 3GW+.

Gearing Up Utilities with the Fastest Virtual Power Plant

REstore, ITM, Electricity North West, Schneider Electric and Aspern Smart City Research have all demonstrated projects which have delivered a significant capacity of renewable generation to the grid, integrated innovative technology enabled services and successfully demonstrated the 'revolution' journey.

specifications of the VPP are fully comparable to a gas-fired plant.

Flexpond has been used by more than 125 of Europe’s largest industrial energy consumers such as ArcelorMittal, Knauf, Celsa Steel, Praxair, Total, Umicore and Sappi to curtail their power demand without impacting their industrial processes. In the energy market, Flexpond has been used by EDF, Elia Group (Belgium TSO) and National Grid (UK TSO) since 2013.

The benefits of Flexpond for transmission grid operators and energy utilities are:

• Insight into real time availability of flexible power from the demand side

• Power delivered dynamically in the same way as generators

• Cheaper, cleaner and more reliable than a peaking power plant

In 2015, National Grid’s chief executive, Steve Holliday, announced the utility's plans to have 30 to 50% of its grid balancing services provided through DSR by 2020, and more than 50% by 2030. The company won the largest DSR contract in the UK’s FFR (firm frequency response) auctions, at 48MW and worth £6 million.

Flexpond reduces the carbon mix of UK power generation in two ways:

The bigger drivers in Europe were and continue to be, the system-wide effects

of the continent’s growing share of intermittent wind and solar power”


energy StoragepowER-to-gas

Phil DoranManaging Director, ITM Power GmbH

“In Germany there is widespread acceptance that the massive expansion of fluctuating renewable power demands the establishment of large scale Power-to-Gas energy storage to manage the resulting mismatch between energy supply and demand. According to a recent Deutsche Bank report by natural resources economist Josef Auer, Germany’s Energiewende is Driving Power-to-Gas. In our view it will also drive the renewable generation of hydrogen for the transport sector.

The UK’s ITM Power has developed an electrolyser product platform which offers unique flexibility in converting electrical power into hydrogen and oxygen gasses. The platform is called ‘Hgas’ and it allows users to efficiently convert excess renewable power into hydrogen which can be either injected into the natural gas network for long term storage or dispensed to vehicles as a clean fuel.

The use of electrolysis for energy storage is known as power-to-gas and it can increase significantly the flexibility of the electrical network needed to integrate a large level of renewables power sources into the energy system. Hydrogen generation appears as one of the best approaches to provide massive storage of electricity for periods of several days to long-term seasonal storage.

The use of electrolysis for the on-site generation of hydrogen fuel carries all of the benefits of power-to-gas and supporting roll out of sustainable hydrogen refueling infrastructure. The European Commission has identified hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) as one of the technologies needed for Europe to meet its ambitious energy security objectives, while eliminating air pollution and delivering a minimum 60% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.

HGas incorporates proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology and was the first PEM power-to-gas plant in the world to inject hydrogen into the German distribution network resulting in:

• Dynamic operation – ability to absorb time-varying electricity profiles. This is essential in order to capture renewable power when required.

• Rapid response – ability to switch on, off or modulate in <1 sec, enabling access to electricity grid balancing payments.

• High system efficiency – maximising hydrogen generation for a given

Power-to-Gas technology suitable for primary balancing energy market

input power, lowering operating costs of the system. Independently measured to be 72% at full load, rising to 77% at part load.

• Heat recovery – capturing waste process heat for use in an adjacent process, increasing overall system efficiency. RWE reported a system efficiency of 86% with heat recovery.

• Hydrogen purity – a small integrated gas clean-up module ensures hydrogen meets the stringent purity requirements for use in fuel cell systems.

• Self pressurisation – the ability to generate hydrogen at pressure reduces or eliminates the cost of downstream compression systems. HGas can self-pressurise to 80 bar.

• High power factor (cos Phi) and smart control – for easy integration.

Thüga Group and RWE power-to-gas deploymentBoth the Thüga Group (the largest network of municipal energy and water service providers in Germany) and RWE are using HGas as a transducer between the power and gas networks in Germany. The hydrogen from HGas is injected into the gas network, displacing natural gas and reducing the carbon footprint of everything downstream.

“Our tests have shown that the power-to-gas technology is able to provide primary balancing services,” Riechel, CEO of Thüga Aktiengesellschaft said. In May this year, the Thüga Group successfully subjected its power-to-gas plant in Frankfurt to the prequalification profile for primary balancing – the so-called “duel bump test”. The plant was tested to see if it met the dynamic response requirements and accuracy for primary energy market balancing.

In order to take part in the primary balancing market, the entire load being offered, must be reached within 30 seconds and be continuously available

for at least 15 minutes. The system was programmed and operated according to a load profile in single second resolution that reflects the frequency fluctuations in a real electricity distribution network. This operation simulated practical conditions in order to compensate for frequency variations in the electrical grid. “These findings show that the power-to-gas plant could be operated economically, since the potential revenues for primary balancing are higher,” Riechel said. The plant was prequalified for secondary balancing in 2015.

Two years of operation has yielded important insights for power-to-gas added Riechel.

“In the two years since starting up our power-to-gas plant, we have demonstrated the practicality of this technology."

In 2013, Thüga’s power to gas-plant was the first nationwide to use electrolysis to convert electricity into hydrogen and feed this into the gas distribution network. This deployment of PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolysis within a power-to-gas application was also a novel use of a PEM electrolyser.

According to Phil Doran, the managing director of ITM Power GmbH, “It was the world’s first of its kind, in which the technology has been put to use”. Moreover, the plant is smart-grid compatible. With the help of a newly developed real-time control unit, working within a virtual network connecting other plant, the system intelligently modulated the differences between electricity generation and consumption.

This capability is essential for the deployment of power-to-gas technology in storing large volumes of energy, as the technology serves its purpose only when it responds automatically to constantly changing conditions in the production and consumption of energy.

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energy StoragepowER-to-gas

Phil DoranManaging Director, ITM Power GmbH

“In Germany there is widespread acceptance that the massive expansion of fluctuating renewable power demands the establishment of large scale Power-to-Gas energy storage to manage the resulting mismatch between energy supply and demand. According to a recent Deutsche Bank report by natural resources economist Josef Auer, Germany’s Energiewende is Driving Power-to-Gas. In our view it will also drive the renewable generation of hydrogen for the transport sector.

Customer Load Active System Services (CLASS) project demonstrates demand management through voltage control

The CLASS project is a low cost solution which manages electricity demand by controlling voltage, while still providing a reliable service to customers.

The solution developed by Electricity North West (UK Distribution Network Operator) in collaboration with National Grid (UK TSO), and assessed commercially by Baringa Partners, has the potential of delivering over 3000MW (or the output of an entire large coal-fired power station) of instantaneous change in demand across Great Britain, and a potential cost benefit of up to £466 million to customers.

When rolled out, this solution will be one of the first services for UK DNOs in the transition to Distribution System Operation (DSO) – a key feature of the energy revolution.

The challengeAs utilities and energy companies face the challenge of making the transition to a low carbon future, demand for electricity in countries such as Great Britain is set to rise significantly. This will present new challenges to electricity Distribution System Operators (DSOs) like Electricity North West who will need to invest heavily in new network infrastructure to meet this increased demand and accommodate the increased use of low carbon technologies and renewable energy sources. This would be a disruptive programme and could mean much higher bills for customers.

What is CLASS?Electricity North West seeks to innovate continuously across its business activities to meet its obligations to customers and respond to their evolving needs and expectations. CLASS was a key project from the company’s

innovation portfolio, running from 2013 to 2015, aimed at providing flexible services at affordable prices.

The project tested a range of techniques to manage electricity consumption using dynamic voltage control. By adjusting the voltage within the existing operating bands, electricity consumption can be reduced or increased within very rapid response times. By effecting a small demand change on a large number of customers, significant aggregate demand response can be delivered with no discernible impact on end consumers.

The response times of this technique allows it to be used in a number of ways:

• Creating capacity headroom on the distribution network, deferring or avoiding the need for costly reinforcement

• Providing energy reserve services to the system operator by reducing or increasing demand on instruction

• Providing frequency response services, reacting to rapid changes in system frequency to help the system operator ensure the security of the system

The trials have been focused on Electricity North West’s network. However, the technique has been shown to be widely applicable, working with most substation designs, and most customer load types. It is expected that the approach could soon be rolled out nationwide.

CLASS trials and technologyElectricity North West worked with the National System Operator (National Grid) to carry out four sets of trials, using a range of equipment installed in the company’s control room and in

60 primary substations serving over 485,000 customers. Customer surveys were conducted to show that CLASS has no adverse effects on customer's electricity supply.

To adjust voltage, autonomous substation controllers (ASCs) were installed at the 60 substations and linked to control room management systems and on-site automatic voltage control relays. This automatically stabilises the network and keeps voltages at safe levels. An advanced network management system linked the control centre to the National Grid control centre.

The findings from the trials and surveys proved that using CLASS techniques will help meet increasing demand and simplifies adoption of low carbon technologies such as wind and solar power.

Project extensionFollowing the success of the project, CLASS was granted an extension until May 2016 by the industry regulator Ofgem, to demonstrate how the technology could be deployed commercially by DSOs to provide alternative frequency and enhanced reactive power services. DSOs do not currently participate in these markets in Great Britain.

Baringa Partners concluded that CLASS has the potential to reduce the need for the system operator to use costly and carbon-emitting thermal generators to deliver balancing services. As a result there is significant potential for the CLASS technology to reduce both consumer costs and CO2 emissions. In addition, by delivering more dependable voltage control than is available currently, the net effect of CLASS is an increase in security of supply.


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In a giant leap towards ensuring an energy efficient and sustainable future, Schneider Electric along with renewable energy management partners, Eiffage and Krinner, supported French renewable energy company, Neoen, launched Europe's 'largest' photovoltaic plant. The plant covers 265 hectares and features 983,500 PV panels, 5,000km of underground cables and 204,000 screws

in its foundations. The goal is to generate 350GWh of energy annually.

The Constantin Photovoltaic Plant in Cestas, France is backed by a €360 million investment was completed in just 10 months in early 2016.

The Constantin Photovoltaic Plant generates three times as much electricity

per hectare than other farms built in France and Europe. Functioning at its total peak capacity of 300MW, the energy farm can generate enough energy annually to service the domestic consumption needs of the entire population of nearby Bordeaux.

The foundation that had led to the farms scale and performance is built upon several electrical solutions provided by Schneider Electric:

• Design/architecture optimisation of PV production and grid constraints

• PVBox supply and commissioning (200 PVBoxes in 6 months)

• Turnkey grid connection substation (225kV) for RTE (French transmission system operator)

• SCADA and power plant controller• Long-term operations and

maintenance contact including warranties on technical availability

The technical expertise, commitment and bankability that the project partners brought ensured the completion of the Constantin Photovoltaic Plant in record time.

Powering the Future with the

biggest Solar Farm in Europe

Aspern Smart City Research (ASCR) is a joint venture research company created by energy provider Wien Energie GmbH, technology provider Siemens AG Österreich, network operator, Wiener Netze GmbH and the City of Vienna.

This cooperative partnership was established to develop some of the technical solutions that are required for the future energy environment and especially in a new real life urban district with active customers.

The Aspern Smart City Research testbed focuses on energy management, smart buildings, smart grids, smart ICT and smart users.

The pilot site implements an integrative system approach in the domains of smart building, smart grids and smart ICT at three buildings with mixed use (student homes - 300 rooms, 213 private

apartments, school campus – kindergarten and school). New concepts for user involvement are being developed and activities for a smart user participation in energy management explored.

The buildings are equipped with photovoltaic panels, solar thermal panels, hybrid panels, heat pumps and various thermal as well as electrical storage facilities. Complex ICT systems facilitate the management of the production, distribution, consumption, storage and transmission of energy.

Smart grid infrastructure included as part of the test bed includes 12 secondary substations, 24 transformers and hundreds of sensors. With these technologies ASCR explores how to turn a traditional network into a smart network. The smart grid interacts with the buildings, sends energy in various directions and also functions as a communications platform. Users receive

valuable building energy consumption information and if they wish to control the apartments remotely.

Project focus:• Transition from a passive distribution

network to a smart grid• Grid monitoring related to grid

dynamics/fluctuating voltages• Data collection by smart meters/self-

configuring field-sensors• Quality measurement• Long term and short term network

planning

Other activities include an analysis of the interaction and independencies between networks and buildings. Adaptive self-learning algorithms are used for the models of buildings and networks. Users are also very important in determining how much energy the building needs and to what extent it can offer flexibilities. Up to 111 private households have permitted their consumption-data to be measured.

The project’s impact is a picture of a functioning future energy model, determining what technologies are needed, user involvement and roles, as well as how buildings can communicate with grids in an optimal way.

Aspern Smart City Research: integrated energy research for the future


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Utilities worldwide are facing a new paradigm shift, which can have a significant impact on their business. A new downstream is emerging with utility-scale solar PV reaching global grid parity, local storage and electric mobility deployment, creating the opportunity for utilities to rethink their value proposition and value chain.

Similarly to other utilities today, EDP Commercial in Portugal, is seeking to leverage new business models to create new value pools beyond the meter.

To this end, EDP introduced its smart home portfolio which aggregates four of its service offerings namely, solar energy, energy storage; energy management and electric mobility.

EDP’s solar energy product is a turnkey photovoltaic solution for self-consumption, sized to fit each household’s needs and is able to reduce electricity bills by up to 25%.

The utility’s energy management application ‘edp re:dy’ is a system that allows its customers to connect and control their homes, equipment and energy in a single app, whenever

and wherever they are. This platform simulates the control of all domestic electrical equipment via smartphone in real time. EDP’s ‘edp re:dy’ solution is made up of a set of hardware and software components including:• re:dy box 'A smart box for your

smart home': Connected to the electrical equipment in the home, using communication protocols (ZigBee and PLC) and EDP smart

EDP

Smart Home solution

EDP Commercial, Grønn Kontakt (GK) and Eesti Energia demonstrate innovation in energy retail through improved customer engagement using mobile technology and new energy retail models such as bundled services with electric vehicles, storage and solar.

Utilities worldwide are facing a new paradigm shift, which can have a significant impact on

their business.”

creates value beyond the meter with


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plugs – serving as the 'brain' of the edp re:dy system. The smart meter is also directly connected to the re:dy box.

• re:dy peripherals (the electrical plugs that connect home appliances eg. media devices, air conditioning systems, boilers, solar photovoltaic system, swimming pool pump, watering systems or lighting circuits to the re:dy box). These include:

• re:dy plug: Smart plugs that make electrical equipment – TVs, consoles, washing machines, refrigerator – part of the smart home. Equipment connected to the edp re:dy plug can be: • controlled remotely • programmed• receive warnings • calculate equipment energy

consumption

• re:dy plug A/C: The EDP re:dy plug A/C allows homeowners to remotely control (turn on or off, set temperature or programme) their air conditioning via infrared signals.

• re:dy meter: The EDP re:dy meter allows homeowners to measure, control and programme the operation of various electrical circuits and their equipment (embedded equipment, lighting circuits, pool pumps, irrigation).

• re:dy solar plug: A smart plug specifically designed for solar power systems. It allows homeowners to monitor production of their solar power system.

• re:dy switch: This switch allows users to remotely turn on and off boiler and heat pumps. This ensures that these appliances are operating efficiently. The switch can also be applied to other applications such as exterior lighting.

• re:dy app: mobile app and online platform to control all household energy.

Energy storageEDP’s energy storage solution will be launched this year and will be integrated with solar energy solutions enabling customers to use energy produced in the daytime at night. The storage system will be tailored according to customer requirements.

Electric vehiclesEDP is also working toward the commercialisation of electric vehicle charging stations and has partnered with 13 automotive companies that manufacture electric vehicles eg. Audi, BMW, Nissan, Renault, and Volkswagen to offer its customers a wide array of

electric vehicle options compatible with its service offering.

Owners of electric cars are offered a special tariff with a 10% discount on electricity consumption at night. Furthermore, if a customer purchases an electric car from one of EDP's partner brands and signs up for their electric mobility tariff, it offers customers an amount equivalent to their car's electricity expenditure for the first 15,000km. Electric vehicle owners are able to take advantage of public network fast charging points which allow them to charge their car battery in 30 minutes.

EDP’s website also offers prospective electric vehicle owners a simulator tool which sp calculates how much they can save if they change to an electric vehicle.

Integrating all these services empowers power users to be ‘Promasumers’ – producers, managers and consumers of energy.

‘Prosumer’ is a popular industry term used to describe consumers who not only consume electricity, but also produce and sell energy back to the utility grid. EDP Commercial prefers to use the term ‘Promasumers’, referring to customers who manage their own generation and consumption of energy.

With the strong trend to decentralise energy management, EDP Commercial believes that these smart home services allow its customers to be part of the greater energy market shift.

EDP’s energy storage solution will be launched this year and will be integrated with solar energy

solutions enabling customers to use energy produced in the daytime at night.”

EDP re:dy mobile application


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EDP re:dy mobile application

Eesti Energia'smobile app forsmart energy consumersSimilarly to EDP's re:dy solution, Eesti Energia's mobile application is another example of how mobile telephony is being used to improve the customer experience and provide energy consumption information in a simple and convenient way.

Eesti Energia is an international energy company that operates in the energy market of the Baltic and Nordic countries, offering energy solutions ranging from electricity, heat and fuel production to sales and customer service and many other energy services.

Eesti Energia's mobile app gives customers an opportunity to analyse the electricity consumption on a monthly, weekly, daily or even hourly basis and sends useful notifications about the market price and suggestions for cheaper price periods during the next day. The mobile app also allows customers to compare invoices, pay them easily, check the electricity contract data and enjoy the special offers from Eesti Energia's partners.

The power seller decided to launch a mobile app to help its 500,000 customers make smarter energy choices and was officially launched at the end of 2014. Within a year and a half of its launch, Eesti Energia registered over 30,000 users.

The company believes that its mobile app helps to build a direct marketing channel while building brand recognition, improving customer engagement and helps it to be more visible to its customers.

GRØNN KONTAKT (GK) ELECTRIC VEHICLE DIGITAL PLATFORMElectric vehicles (EVs) represent one of the most promising technologies for reducing fossil fuels and cutting emissions. Norway has managed to provide a successful framework for uptake of electric cars that has led to EVs accounting for more than 15% of

new vehicles sold in 2015. Last year, Norway was the 4th biggest EV market in the world.

Building a sufficient number of charging points is fundamental for the future development of the electrification of the transport sector. In Norway, the government decided that the most cost-effective model was to set up a network of charging stations based on free market principles, whereby the market is responsible for building the required infrastructure. However, until critical mass is reached, the market seeks to minimise ‘unutilised asset’ risk associated with EV infrastructure build out by applying for government subsidies to help shoulder the risk and deploy the most cost-effective and relevant public infrastructure.

One company actively promoting the adoption of electric vehicles is Grønn Kontakt (GK), a project in Norway offering DC and AC charging to EV cars. Grønn Kontakt was established in 2011 by 23 electric utilities in Norway.

The first complete charging station offering services to German, Japanese and French EV cars was built by GK in 2013. GK is also operating a national charging network in Norway and has built more than 70 charging stations

across the country offering both DC and AC charging for EV drivers. In 2015 alone, the number of EV charges per day per charger doubled. Furthermore, the amount of charging stations doubled, registered customers and income doubled over a period of 12 months. The competitive environment for service providers like GK offering DC and AC charging for EV cars in Norway is characterised by varied business models, revenue creation that reflect value creation and actual costs and the commercial risks have to be shouldered by market players.

GK has created a business model based on a digital business platform, which enables remote control and management of DC and AC chargers. GK’s digital stack is made up of several elements including cloud computing, mobile platform, Internet of Things, social network and Big Data.

Apart from providing the basic customer services related to the EV charging process, GK's digital platform provides additional features online which provide a range of value-added services including charging point location, charging activities, billing, real-time asset management. The digital platform provides charging services for both drop-in and registered customers.


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EE-ISAC enables trust-based security data and information sharing in the energy sector. The private-public partnership is a joint initiative of four major European DSO utility companies: Alliander (Netherlands), EDP (Portugal), ENEL (Italy) and EVN (Austria) together with technical universities, governmental bodies and security technology providers. The smart grid and increased connectivity to the internet bring very real and new

risks to the energy industry. Privacy and cybersecurity measures need to be taken alongside the implementation of the smart grid. This is no longer just a question of protecting corporate IT systems. Cyber threats are now directed at the national and European grid, resulting in an urgent need for a collaborative approach at this level. The EE-ISAC community is a culture shift within the energy sector where collaboration and trust is key.

The EE-ISAC community enables the trust of the European utility industry to:

• Set up long lasting relationships of trust with partners across the entire value chain

• Share both real-time data and analysis within small scale trust-circles

• Learn from their peers experiences with grid security incidents and cyber breaches

As more communities and organisations start playing an active role in the generation, consumption and digitisation of energy, DENSEK (EE-ISAC) and Sustainable Järva are projects which seek to deliver significant benefits to the community it serves.

EE-ISAC –

The private-public partnership is a joint initiative of four major European DSO utility companies: Alliander (Netherlands), EDP (Portugal),

ENEL (Italy) and EVN (Austria) together with technical universities, governmental bodies and security technology providers”

A joined up approach to cybersecurity


WE TALK GLOBAL Metering & Smart Energy International is the global leader in delivering smart utility news and analysis to more than 200 countries.

We reach those responsible for AMI and smart meters, smart grid, smart energy and billing and customer services on a worldwide basis. And we have the world’s most powerful and up to date metering and smart energy database in the industry – over 100,000 names and details – and each one of them receive the content-rich bi-monthly publication.

facebook.com/Metering @Metering MeteringTV

www.metering.comContact Gerald Schreiner on +27 21 700 3500 or email [email protected]


INTERNATIONAL ANNIVERSARY1996 – 2016

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• Compare and evaluate security solutions, both from a technical and operational point of view

• Benefit from an open dialogue with industry partners, suppliers and academia

The European Energy – Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (EE-ISAC) is an industry-driven, information sharing network of trust. Both private

utilities and solution providers and (semi) public institutions such as academia, governmental and non-profit organisations share valuable information on cybersecurity and cyber resilience.

EE-ISAC creates an environment in which cybersecurity experts start talking to each other without legal or social hesitations. EE-ISAC members share:

• Information about vulnerabilities and threats

• Reports on security incidents and cyber breaches

• Technical and operational experiences with applied security solutions

• Lessons learned from past security issues

• Future challenges, security outlooks and warnings

DENSEK (Distributed Energy Security Knowledge) is a European project funded by the DG Home Affairs and is part of the CIPS programme focusing on 'prevention, preparedness and consequence management of terrorism and other security related risks'.

The project is aimed at all stakeholders within the European energy infrastructure; from energy producers to end consumers. Each of these stakeholders forms a target for cybercrime which potentially impacts the whole energy infrastructure. Current participants and EE-ISAC members include Alliander, EDP, ENEL, EVN, SecurityMatters, Accenture, Siemens, ViaSat, T-Systems Austria, Applied Risk, AIT, KU Leuven, TU Delft, Webster University, NCSC, ENISA, ENCS. Targeted companies within DENSEK include but are not limited to; energy market operators, energy producers, grid operators, regulators, telecom services providers, suppliers of SCADA systems, sensors, smart meters, research communities, EV charging infrastructure operators, ICT security service providers and consumer communities.

DENSEK aims to improve the security and resilience of smart energy grids against cyber threats. Energy grids are rapidly becoming smart through the implementation of software and IT components in the grid. Examples of such components include sensors, SCADA systems and smart meters. The consequence of this is more connections between the energy grid and the internet resulting in vulnerability for cybercrime. Protection of energy grids against these threats is not moving as quickly as required. DENSEK’s goals are to improve the sense of urgency amongst the target group and to improve the resilience of the whole European energy infrastructure against cyber-threats. Benefits for utilities include sharing both real-time security data and analysis within small scale trust circles, learn from and act upon grid security incidents and cyber breaches happening outside their own organisation, compare and evaluate security solutions both from a technical and operational viewpoint, benefit from an open dialogue with industry partners and suppliers and set up long lasting relationships of trust with partners across the entire value chain.

The DENSEK approach is:• To join forces at a European level,

against cyber threats. • To combine as many stakeholders

as possible within the energy supply chain, from energy producers to the end consumers, in their efforts to resist cyber threats. This joint effort provides possibilities to better organise the protection of our grids and to lift the resilience to a higher level.

DENSEK focuses on three concrete deliverables:1. A European energy ISAC – a

competence centre that monitors cyber-attacks and events, collects and analyses information and shares knowledge.

2. A situation awareness network – this network plays a vital role in monitoring cyber threats in European energy networks. Cyber-attacks or threats concerning any DENSEK member will be identified at an early stage and will be communicated to all DENSEK stakeholders in the network.

3. An information sharing platform – a trusted network that ISAC can use to exchange data and information with members.

EU CIP PROJECT DENSEK “Specialising in the cybersecurity of the energy grid”


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‘Sustainable Järva’ is a pilot project to refurbish old housing stock in a Stockholm suburb. Järva is a mixed neighborhood of around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom 80% have an immigrant background. There is high unemployment, and the majority of residents live in the suburb’s 25,400 apartments. Part of the project’s success depended on involving local residents. Before each renovation took place, every household was invited to meet the architects and building mangers to ensure there is a collaborative agreement on the changes to come.

The Järva community is envisioned to become a national and international model of sustainability, promoting environmental responsibility and energy efficiency while still preserving the area’s cultural and historical values.

Under the Sustainable Järva project, buildings from Sweden's Million Programme have and continue to be environmentally renovated with the goal of creating a transferable standard.

The Million Programme is the common name for the public housing programme implemented in Sweden between 1965 and 1974 by the governing Swedish Social Democratic Party to make sure everyone could have a home at a reasonable price. The aim was to construct a million new dwellings during the programme's ten year period.

The one million homes built under the Swedish Million Programme, and their equivalent in Europe in the 1960s and 70s, are especially demanding in terms of energy consumption, and also in urgent need of renovation. This type of housing constitutes one third of all buildings in

55

Sweden, while in Europe it houses more than 200 million people.

Social upliftment and sustainabilitySustainable Järva demonstrates how deep energy renovations can be combined with the social upliftment efforts in a segregated, lower-than-average income housing area. By combining social efforts and reducing energy needs in half, both goals could be met in an efficient way.

Initiated March 2010, the project contributes to Stockholm’s overall goal of becoming fossil free by 2040 and began with the retrofits of seven residential buildings (Trondheim 28, Trondheim 30, Kvarnseglet 2, Storkvarnen 4, Nystad 7, Nystad 8) between 2010 and 2014. The retrofits reduced energy consumption in the refurbished homes from 180kWh/m2 to 90kWh/m2.

The local housing company, Svenska Bostäder, has a total of 5,200 apartments to refurbish by 2020 and will use the experience gained through the pilot project to optimise its approach and techniques.

The project involves several city departments, as well as municipal housing companies, city property owner associations, and local residents. To guarantee a sustainable outcome, the city also launched ‘Järva Dialog’, a programme gathering the opinions of some 100,000 residents.

There is also a focus on renewable energy sources, with 10,000m2 of solar panels installed on 40 roofs that contribute energy to stairwell lighting, lifts, ventilation systems and laundry rooms. Other retrofits included the replacement of heat exchanger and heating distribution systems, installation of movement-based lighting controls with LED fittings, high performance tap water mixers, high performance windows

and insulation of water pipes in conjunction with sewage pipe replacement.

Key lessons learnt

Stockholm’s Environment and Health Administration drafted several key learning’s from the pilot project:

• Extensive renovations very rarely cover their costs solely by reduced energy costs and rent increases. Part of the investment must be expensed directly as maintenance.

• Goals must be firmly established at all levels for successful project implementation.

• The target for energy efficiency must be set at a reasonable level, it should not be too dependent on the tenants’ lifestyles and habits. It is important to monitor that which can be influenced and tenants’ habits are difficult to predict and influence.

• Consultation and dialogue with the residents is important to create acceptance and high credibility. It is important to have dialogue groups which are well matched in size and representativeness of residents, as well as having clear guidelines on what residents can influence.

• One lesson learned from these projects is that it is perfectly possible to carry out energy efficiency measures on listed buildings without compromising their cultural value.

• It is important not to look only at the profitability of individual measures and to know which other aspects should be prioritized.

• A lot of energy is required during the actual renovation. With careful planning in the early stages solutions can be found that reduce energy demand during the renovation.

With 200 million Europeans currently living in similar 1960s and 1970s building stock, the goal is that Stockholm’s project can become an example of good practice both at home and internationally.

Sustainable Järva – creating sustainable communities

for the future


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2-3, 21, OBC ................................................................................................................................................... ItronIFC ................................................................................................................................................ Johnson Electric9 ........................................................................................................................................................... Landis+Gyr5, 53 ......................................................................................................... Metering & Smart Energy International29 .................................................................................................................................................................... SAP17 .......................................................................................................................... Spintelligent Training AcademyIBC .......................................................................................................................... Utility Week Global Footprint

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