Smart Device Lifecycle Management for today’s utility
Polish distribution system operator (DSO) Stoen Operator has demonstrated a smart grid Network Infrastructure Lifecycle Management proof of concept solution, among others including TR069, CLI-based devices (managed via SSH), and LwM2M.
Smart meters, gateways, and routers to support data acquisition, and a growing array of sensors and other connected devices for monitoring and managing the grid – do you know how many of these are deployed in your company?
Smart Device Lifecycle Management
Even for the more modestly sized electricity, gas, or water DSO, the numbers can quickly add up to tens of thousands or millions over time.
Couple this with the multiple communications technologies of the connected devices from GSM and LTE for the older ones to now 5G, PLC, and the increasingly popular new device protocols like Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LwM2M) for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, as well as the wide geographical spread, for the complexity of the typical utility infrastructure to be apparent.
First and foremost, the DSO is concerned with accuracy in data acquisition for billing and managing the grid. The attention is on meeting the regulatory requirements and urgency for devices to be installed and become operational so they can start delivering value and a return on substantial investment.
But what about the management of the devices themselves, which often is not given the same level of attention in planning? With such a complex infrastructure challenges invariably emerge over their life cycle when it comes to inventory, status monitoring, and fault finding in as near real-time as possible.
Proof of concept
This was the outlook facing E.ON’s Polish subsidiary Stoen Operator, which supplies energy to over one million customers in Warsaw when the DSO launched plans for a full rollout of smart meters and more smart sensing on the low and medium voltage grids.
“Currently we have over 30,000 telco devices on the network but we will soon have many more, perhaps more than 200,000 in ten years in addition to the smart meters,” says Jakub Tomczak, Head of Metering Data Operator & Meters Department at Stoen Operator, commenting that these smart meters are PLC-based on the LV network and LTE from the data concentrators to the central IT.
“For all of this we need robust communication with deployed devices and we felt we needed a market-proven software tool to manage these devices, to monitor their status and their performance, to be able to make Firmware updates as well make some predictive maintenance.”
In search of a solution, Stoen Operator approached the Kraków-based IoT software solution provider AVSystem, whose Devices Lifecycle Solutions are deployed globally in the telecom and enterprise sectors.
“We have been analysing and benchmarking the market, and found a Polish company, AVSystem, offering an industry-proven Device Management software platform, which in our first impressions was looking quite promising. After a few meetings and defining all our expectations the company offered us a Proof of Concept of the solution for which we decided to go for,” Tomczak says.
At the time Stoen Operator had limited knowledge of the infrastructure devices’ overall capabilities and performance. Specific requirements were to create a ‘bird’s eye’ overall view of the network encompassing both legacy and the new devices as well as to provide diagnostics and insight on the individual devices to enable additional benefits such as predictive maintenance and remote management for use cases such as network reconfiguration.
In addition, Stoen Operator intended to continue the gradual introduction of other new types of devices, indicating the need for scalability and protocol interoperability.
Device visualisation
The outcome is an off-the-shelf implementation covering several devices of different vendors and protocols, based on AVSystem’s solutions deployed in the telecoms and enterprise markets, and comprises a multi-protocol offering on the Coiote IoT Device Lifecycle Management platform.
“The solution was delivered as is. We tested it with the different device types and in many different scenarios including basic integration with our headend system (HES) and we were impressed with overall performance and most important interoperability of the solution,” Tomczak says. He adds that one key requirement was the visualisation of the devices on a map to better plan and optimise the field service operations.
Wróbel concurs, saying that the solution is designed to deliver full infrastructure visibility in an online mode: “We provide a multi-protocol platform tailored upon customers’ features,” he says, noting that a ‘Mobile network operator’ API was added to the solution – additional to the original scope request – to provide data on SIM card service.
“We felt this would add some additional valuable information about device connectivity.”
Wróbel explains that the visualisation provides a global view down to the individual building and device level on a customisable dashboard, where the status and other parameters can be viewed and orders such as device reboots can be issued. Users can introduce changes to the initial configuration, on-demand with zero downtime. These changes can include advanced actions including firmware management or complex workflows.
Other notable features of the Coiote Device Management platform include integrations to cloud data platforms including Microsoft Azure, PTC ThingWorx, and AWS services.
Utility scale-up
Tomczak says that with the verification of the functional requirements in the proof of concept, Stoen Operator is preparing a request for proposal (RFP) to implement the solution across the utility footprint.
“Our next step is to go to full-scale monitoring of all our communication devices, which we should start later this year,” he says.
Wróbel adds that a goal is to integrate data from the headend system into the solution to supplement the available data with quality data, to enable for example optimising the routings with roaming network operators.
According to Wróbel, with the lack of solutions, the AVSystem offering should be of interest to other DSOs, including gas, water, and electric utilities, in Poland and more broadly in Europe and elsewhere where smart metering projects are launched and by this device management is a priority.
The company anticipates working more closely with device manufacturers, as it is currently with smart meter modem manufacturers in Germany, Poland, Sweden, and France with the provision of the modem device management. To this end among other new features forthcoming is a device provisioning tool for manufacturers to factory provision the devices as an addition to the current user provisioning either on an individual or batch basis or via a CSV file.
Tomczak says he believes other DSOs are experiencing similar challenges to Stoen Operator and recommends that they should consider ways to monitor the performance of their telecoms devices.
“With various devices from many vendors having different protocols, one unified software tool is the way to go for single visualisation and the optimisation of processes in the whole communication devices infrastructure.” “It is important to have a good partner with whom to work together with common goals. Such one that not only delivers expected features and performance KPIs but also is capable of providing insights and ideas on how to make things better and much more efficient.”
About AVSystem
AVSystem is a global leader in lifecycle management solutions dedicated to various ecosystems of connected devices. With more than sixteen years in business, the Company develops top-notch solutions dedicated to telecommunications, WiFi VAS, and the rapidly growing Internet of Things to the whole spectrum of companies, from local ISPs to multinational telco operators and enterprises. Millions of devices worldwide are efficiently connected, managed, and operated by AVSystem and its partners.
Visit: www.avsystem.com
About Stoen Operator
Stoen Operator is one of the biggest Polish Energy Distribution System Operators delivering services to the agglomeration of Warsaw, with more than one million customers. The Company intensively and consequently invests in modern technologies optimising processes and increasing the efficiency of delivered services. Since 2019 Stoen Operator is part of E.ON, a leading international energy group of companies delivering services to more than 53 million customers in 15 European markets.
Visit: www.stoen.pl
