Siemens has secured a six-year software contract with Austrian distribution operator Kärnten Netz GmbH to provide digital modelling, network visibility and flexibility management across the electricity system in Carinthia. The operator has selected three applications from the Gridscale X portfolio as it prepares for a greater concentration of distributed generation, electric vehicles and heat pumps. The agreement addresses the operation of existing distribution infrastructure, where monitoring and control information can become increasingly important as patterns of electricity generation and consumption change.
Kärnten Netz has selected Gridscale X LV Insights, LV Management and Flexibility Manager. The applications are intended to improve visibility of the low-voltage network, support active operation and outage management, and identify congestion that may be eased through flexible resources. The companies have not published the contract value, individual rollout dates or a quantified improvement in usable capacity. Their six-year agreement concerns software deployment and operation; it does not itself provide for construction of new grid circuits.
Low-voltage distribution networks were designed around flows from higher-voltage substations towards final customers. As rooftop solar installations and other distributed resources grow, power can be exported from local circuits and voltage levels can move outside traditional demand-led patterns. Additional connections for vehicles and heat pumps increase the range of loading conditions operators must accommodate. Better visibility of the configuration and expected behaviour of feeders can help identify where equipment is approaching a constraint, although software cannot remove the electrical and thermal limits of a cable or transformer.
LV Insights will help build a more detailed picture of low-voltage equipment and operating conditions. LV Management adds functions for active operation and outage response, allowing engineers to relate changing network conditions to the relevant feeders and assets. A network model is only as useful as its underlying information: incorrect connectivity records, outdated equipment ratings or missing measurements can distort estimates of voltage and loading. Data validation and integration with existing operational systems will therefore be part of making the new tools effective.
Flexibility Manager addresses a different part of congestion management: whether users or distributed generators can adjust their operation at a location where capacity is constrained. A battery, controllable demand or other suitable resource may be able to change its output or consumption during the relevant period, provided that the network operator can identify and activate it. This can improve the use of existing capacity, but only where contractual arrangements, communications and the availability of resources support the required response. Persistent constraints may still require reinforcement of cables, transformers or substations.
Installed photovoltaic capacity in Carinthia is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to Siemens. Larger volumes of local generation create more variable loading and voltage conditions, particularly when solar output is high while nearby demand is comparatively low. Those conditions can affect reverse power flow through feeders and the use of transformer headroom. Network monitoring and forecasting give Kärnten Netz a basis for choosing when to request flexibility, alter operating arrangements or plan reinforcement.
Austria’s developing Electricity Industry Act is expected to create more scope for local flexibility markets. Under such arrangements, network operators need reliable forecasts of where constraints will occur and mechanisms for calling on resources that can relieve them. Siemens’ software combines the network-model and flexibility-management functions needed to support that process. The agreement does not specify the eventual market rules, which will determine how services are contracted, activated and settled.
The digital-twin approach envisaged by Kärnten Netz extends into lower-voltage infrastructure rather than stopping at major substations. That is a demanding data integration task because the information available about individual low-voltage feeders, connected equipment and customer-side resources can vary considerably. Planners must also distinguish modelled conditions from direct measurements and account for uncertainty in demand and generation forecasts. The contract’s emphasis on LV Insights and management makes those operational data questions central to the outcome.
Kärnten Netz managing director Eva Tatschl-Unterberger said the operator wants a digital grid model that can identify constraints and support outage and congestion management. She expects better use of assets and cost savings, but the companies have supplied no financial estimate or operating performance baseline. The results will depend on connecting the network model to current data, embedding it in control-room workflows and securing access to flexible resources where congestion forecasts indicate they are useful.
The deployment will extend digital modelling into parts of the distribution network where operators have traditionally had less real-time information than at major substations. The three selected Gridscale X applications provide complementary functions for visibility, active operation and flexibility, with Carinthia’s growing solar installations increasing the need to understand changing power flows. The next test is the quality of the deployed network model and its use in decisions on outages, congestion and local flexibility over the six-year contract period.
