Tech talk | On the grid edge
Image: Siemens
In a decentralised energy system with increasing proliferation of distributed energy resources, visibility on this grid ‘edge’ is becoming ever more crucial.
Though the ‘edge’ has been talked about for years, it is increasingly taking central stage as more and more homes and businesses take up solar and battery systems, switch to electric vehicles ((EVs) and heat pumps and instal the smart appliances that are advertised as bringing more convenience to life.
In broad terms the edge is where the utility and customer meet and is effectively represented by the meter – the utility side in front of the meter and the customer side behind the meter.
With this growth of decentralised resources and the increasingly complex and unpredictable power flows, some of the risks include the likely emergence of hyper-local capacity constraints and that ageing infrastructure can be put at risk.
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But there has been what Itron has termed a ‘control gap’, with the challenge that whereas a typical SCADA manages approximately 1,000 assets per million customers and a typical advanced distribution management systems 10,000 assets, that to the point of service is a further two orders of magnitude greater at around 1 million points.
But that is changing, with the evolution of IT and other technologies opening the way for a variety of new products and services to provide visibility and control to address the challenges of the evolving grid.
Itron’s grid edge intelligence portfolio
A pioneer of edge intelligence in the energy sector, Itron has consolidated its offerings into a cloud-based edge intelligence portfolio combining connectivity, analytics and applications with intelligence for AMI operations and optimisers for the low and medium voltage grid, DERs and EVs, coupled to a central datahub.
To simplify the process the Itron Enterprise Edition has been made available in the Microsoft Azure marketplace, also opening the way for integrating the Azure OpenAI generative AI solution for users to expedite and improve visibility on data and operations.
Among the new solutions launched are Active Transformer Load and Voltage Monitoring (ATLM/ATVM) applications to enable visibility on transformer loading and voltage statistics in real-time along with configurable threshold-based alarms.
Key for broader uptake of the solutions is partnerships with other providers with these opening the way for Itron’s grid edge intelligence solutions to be integrated into Schneider Electric’s digital grid solutions and to GE Vernova’s new GridOS Data Fabric alongside the GridOS apps.
A further partnership is with the Mobility House as part of its Fast & Flexible Interconnect (FIX) programme for charging of EV fleets in constrained distribution systems.
Don Reeves, senior VP of Outcomes at Itron, reports that customers have advised that the company’s Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio can enhance grid capacity by approximately 20% through the optimisation of existing grid assets.
“Utilities are operating in a more complex environment than ever before and there is a real sense of urgency that change is needed to ensure grid reliability, resiliency and sustainability and improve the customer experience.”
Landis+Gyr and Span partnership
Landis+Gyr has announced a partnership with home electrification technology developer Span, with the first joint product combining their respective solutions to deliver a grid edge solution with circuit-level billing-grade metering, DER visibility and controls.
Describing the co-innovated solution as “a whole-home multi-asset virtual power plant (VPP)”, Werner Lieberherr, CEO of Landis+Gyr, says: “The partnership not only expands our flexibility management platform but also helps [utilities] reduce costly grid infrastructure investments required for electrification. We’re particularly excited to bring SPAN’s service upgrade avoidance capabilities and intuitive app experience … to drive energy efficiency and flexibility.”
While full details of the solution are still to be released, the companies promise to evaluate it in pilots with US utilities starting later in the year.
Siemens Gridscale X
Siemens has launched Gridscale X as a modular software to scale grid capacity and handle the complexity of DERs.
A key component of Gridscale X is DER Insights which is designed to unlock visibility over the distribution grid, with features including the location and behaviour of DERs, grid impact identification and digital grid mapping and modelling.
“With the electrification of everything and the exponential growth of DERs, there is an urgent need for increasing grid capacity fast,” says Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO Siemens Grid Software, pointing to the use of such software as enabling utilities to focus on critical infrastructure upgrades and reducing the impact and occurrence of grid equipment failure, outages and technical debt.
Users of these or similar softwares are invited to contact us with case studies.
Jonathan Spencer Jones
Specialist writer
Smart Energy International
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