REFERENCE CASE

SMART GRID - COMMUNICATION, METERING & LV MONITORING

Brasov, Romania

Reliable innovation. Personal solutions.

RC-BRASOV-SMARTGRID-EN-1014

www.ormazabal.com

Transmission & Distribution (T&D)

Smart Grid

Project Information

Background

Challenge

Year: 2013
Customer: Electrica SA
Local Partner: Flashnet SRL.
Location: Brasov, Romania
Solution: Smart Grid;
Communication, Metering and LV
Monitoring
Products: OpenGrid Networking,
Distribution + Metering, api-2000-sa
MV-BPL, IDC 9710 Data Concentrator,
LV Insite Monitoring Device

The climate - and energy package is

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

2010 Electrica launched the first smart

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

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

The Romanian power supply and

Distribution Company, Electrica SA has
implemented a smart grid pilot project
in Brasov, Romania together with the
partners Ormazabal and Flashnet.
The initiative offers smart metering
capabilities over the existing power grid.
Furthermore the project implements a
Ormazabal: A pioneer provider of more flexible infrastructure to the power
smart grid solutions, Ormazabal grid and ensures that the grid meets the The ultimate goal was to design a fully
focuses on the development of EU targets for the following decade.
functioning smart grid system that would
complete systems in the power sector
use medium voltage (MV) Broadband
in order to meet the increasing energy Based on the Ormazabal technology Powerline (BPL) as a backhaul
needs global wide. Ormazabal was and Flashnets system integration communications technology, pulling
selected as the vendor of choice based abilities, Electrica is one of the first voltage and current measurements to
on its complete system offering and power company in Eastern Europe detect grid events on the low voltage
the unique experience on the PRIME to prove that the PRIME (Powerline (LV) lines and read meters using simple
technology.
Intelligent
Metering
Evolution) power line communications (PLC)
standard can be a reliable and cost networking technologies. Flashnet
Flashnet SRL.: A hardware and effective solution for smart meter/grid could benefit from their long experience
software integrator. Flashnet creates deployments. The unified architecture in telecom by providing the backhaul
and implements intelligent systems for provides reliable communication and communications and integrating the
smarter cities and better infrastructure. control throughout the grid. The solution Ormazabal Smart Transformer Station
Flashnet was chosen as the preferred provides the Distribution Company (STS) solution within the network.
system integrator based on the previous with full awareness of its customers The STS is a solution that gathers
successful projects deployed in the and assets, while acquiring better grid information from the grid and carries
Romanian smart metering market.
intelligence through smart metering it between substations and ultimately
back to a coordinating data center.
and LV monitoring.

Transmission & Distribution (T&D)

Smart Grid

Approach
The
first
step:
choosing
the
deployment area for the pilot solution.
Several transformer stations were
chosen, covering approximately 5,000
residential and industrial customers in
Brasov.
The second step: planning phase,
with the aim to create an intelligent
distribution transformer station, using
the Ormazabal System Solution. The
solution is a PLC smart metering system
based on the PRIME standard for an
IP-based backbone communications
system using broadband over power
line (MV-BPL) on the MV network, and a
comprehensive suite for sensing solutions
to monitor the LV grid information and
events, as well as station monitoring
for movement, humidity, temperature,
smoke and flooding.

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

Figure 1: Electricas MV connections

The Solution
By using this architecture, Electrica
didnt need to overbuild a parallel
communication network in order
to connect the substations. By
avoiding using other communication
technologies, such as general packet
radio service (GPRS), the power
The most critical events on the grid distribution company reduces the initial
require immediate awareness and investment, but also reduces future
response.
Consequently,
Flashnet recurring operational expenses.
planned
and
implemented
the
communication network as an essential Using this reliable and cost effective
connection
between
element to the smart grid deployment. network
To be most effective, the communication substations, the smart grid design
capability should provide a low latency continued with establishing a reliable
link to the real time events being central communications hub at one of
measured, such as system stability, the central stations. All traffic from each
equipment health, outages, faults, and substation would be transported to this
demand response coordination and location, aggregated and sent to the
events. MV-BPL devices were installed data center. This central communications
in each of the designated substations, hub also reduced the costs for wide area
and were coupled onto the MV lines network (WAN) connectivity requiring
to establish a communications path just a single wireless link to the data
with the devices located in the adjacent center, instead of separate wireless links
from each substation.
substations.
When
designing
this
solution,
Ormazabal and Flashnet decided
to take advantage of the existing
MV connections between Electricas
substations and deploy an IP-based BPL
(Figure 1).

Electrica needed to gather data from the

grid through the substation equipment in
order to manage its asset identify critical
grid conditions and read individual
meters. This is where the STS concept
was further leveraged (Figure 2).
The IDC data concentrator is located in
the distribution transformer station and
functions as the gateway to meters and
other in-premise devices. It acts as the
head-end of the PRIME PLC system on
each low voltage secondary, and also
manages the higher layer advanced

Figure 2: Smart Transformer Station

Transmission & Distribution (T&D)

Smart Grid

metering infrastructure (AMI) functions

for each connected meter, including
meter data collection, control and
configuration.
The LVA modules deliver comprehensive
sensing of the low voltage grid. The LVA
solution offers advanced metrology
capabilities, providing current, voltage
and power (real, reactive and apparent)
measurements, as well as advanced
power quality measurements, such as
THD and harmonic analysis.
However, simply providing sensor
data from a multitude of points can
overwhelm a utility companys ability
to process and make sense of the
information in order to improve the
reliability of the distribution system.
True awareness cannot be achieved by
simply collecting sensor data. Instead,
Electrica needs to be able to analyze
the data and extract meaningful
information from it. Through a
combination of intelligent sensing
solutions, edge based software analytics
and data mining software capabilities,
the STS solution allows analysis to be
located both centrally and at the point
of sensing, giving Electrica distributed
control and automation of present and
future network activity, such as reclosed
operation,
distributed
generation
control and demand response.

Figure 3: Smart Transformer Station in Brasov

Customers Key Benefits

Conclusion

Electrica is planning to invest an

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

Complete end to end smart grid

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

Electricas smart grid deployment

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