Three Finnish DSOs secure 300k smart meters and metering SaaS

Hansen Technologies, a software provider to energy, water, and communications industries, is partnering with Aidon, which supplies smart grid, smart metering and technology services in the Nordics, to provide a fully managed SaaS solution and smart meters for three Finnish DSOs.

The project covers delivery of Hansen Meter Data Management (MDM) and associated services for three major DSOs in Finland: Kymenlaakson Sähköverkko, Järvi-Suomen Energia and PKS Sähkönsiirto.

Aidon will supply each company with 300,000 next-gen smart electricity meters with connectivity services and installations, as well as Hansen’s energy metering and metering data management services for a period of ten years.

Aidon’s subcontractor, infrastructure service company Elvera, will be responsible for the device installations.

The total value of the contract is over €50 million ($54.1 million) and is one of Aidon’s largest.

The fully managed offering provides outsourced meter-reading and reporting capabilities for the Finnish Datahub.

Tommi Blomberg, chief executive officer, Aidon, commented on the partnership: “We’re in the age of digitalisation and massive data generation. This partnership with one of the Nordic’s longstanding technology leaders for energy and utilities will ensure that regional DSOs have access to cutting-edge solutions capable of addressing all their smart-metering needs.”

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Jouni Pylvänäinen, CEO of Kymenlaakson Sähköverkko Oy, commented: “Aidon offers us a competitive and modern total solution for the implementation of metering data management.

“The metering devices respond to our customers’ requirements in an excellent way, and the IT systems are implemented utilising the latest technology. This forms a solid foundation and will bring ease and cost-effectiveness to the development of new services for our customers in the future.”

In taking on the project, Hansen cites their ability to process real-time five-minute data reads, which is considered a crucial aspect of evolving market regulations.

And according to Arto Nieminen, CEO of Järvi-Suomen Energia, the new metering solution will have an important task to lock down security of supply:

“We have high expectations for using AMR (Automated Meter Reading) measurements in low-voltage network monitoring. The chosen solution also provides an opportunity for proactive utilisation [of] the data from consumption and micro production in the operation and planning of our network.”

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With diverse energy sources such as wind and solar coming online, production and consumption data needs to be much more real-time to maintain grid balance and enable on-demand management services.

Additionally, more granular data delivers greater transparency and more actionable data for end customers, especially ‘prosumers’ who also generate energy.

The new generation of meters will aim to enable households to monitor and manage their own energy consumption more easily and in real time.

According to Pertti Menonen, CEO of PKS Sähkönsiirto, this is a reflection of the importance of “real bidirectionality…where own production of electricity, various energy communities, consumption optimisation and demand response are commonplace, making our customers active players in the electricity market.”