Acea partners with Nokia and Sirti on smart grid development in Rome
Italian energy distributor Acea has kickstarted the development of a smart grid to enhance the efficiency of the electricity network in Rome, Italy.
Innovation hub Sirti and communication solutions firm Nokia will provide Acea with technologies required for the project as well as assist with deployment, operation, and maintenance.
A new smart grid connectivity network will be developed for fast, resilient, and secure connectivity of grid devices and the utility’s communication with distributed intelligent assets.
The project will enable Acea’s remote control of primary and secondary cabins to be improved, a development that is expected to enhance grid automation, monitoring, reliability, and customer services.
The network to be installed will have three hierarchical levels and will be evolved to 5G in the future, resulting in an improved flow of information between Acea’s control room, smart meters, surveillance cameras, and other grid assets.
The project is expected to enable the utility to offer new services including smart city operations, accelerate the energy transition and meet rapidly changing customer demands.
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The initiative is an effort by Acea to leverage innovative solutions to modernise its grid and business processes in line with emerging business cases.
Acea is also participating in the PLATform for Operation of Distribution Networks (PlatOne) smart grid initiative with 12 companies from Germany, Belgium, Greece, and Italy and RSE, Enea, Siemens, Apio, and Engineering.
The project includes sharing best practices on how blockchain and other smart grid technologies can be used to optimise consumer energy consumption and the intelligent operation of the grid.
The project is investigating how intelligent grid monitoring can help address voltage over and under load due to increased penetration of distributed resources.
Since July 2021, Acea and its partners are testing how photovoltaic plants, storage battery and an “intelligent” energy management system can help provide energy flexibility to address grid imbalances.
The pilot will be expanded to test how to optimise consumer electric vehicle charging for the benefit of the grid and electrification of the transport system and decarbonisation. Find out more about PlatOne.
