Norway’s largest DSO, Hafslund Nett reinvents smart metering with a Wide Area Mesh network
Hafslund Nett is currently deploying a smart metering system which will cover 700.000 electricity connections in Oslo area by the end of 2018. IDC (International Data Corporation), the global provider of market intelligence has produced a case study of the unique smart metering deployment. The core of the new smart metering solution consists of Aidon’s energy service devices (smart meters), Aidon’s head-end-system for the collection and management of the data from the smart meters, as well as a communication solution for data delivery powered by Wirepas.
“Our new smart metering solution combined with reinvestments in the grid, will allow Hafslund Nett to achieve its strategic priority of being the most efficient grid company in Norway,” says Steinar Drange, project leader for the technical solution in the Hafslund Nett smart meter-project.
Compared to most known smart metering rollouts, the connectivity solution adopted by Hafslund Nett has radically changed the network logic. It introduces the approach of autonomous de-centralised networks and network management by eliminating investment in specific communication network devices and additional infrastructure equipment, thanks to the innovative connectivity technology.
“With demands for more detailed measurement data and more frequent – even real-time- data acquisition, the DSOs like Hafslund Nett decided to invest in solutions that are fully scalable in terms of communication capacity. The Nordic region is the most advanced market in smart grids and smart metering, and the trend is very clear: the future is wireless. It will not take long before the rest of Europe will follow”, says Thor-Erik Naess, Managing Director of Aidon in Norway. .
Hafslund Nett strongly believes that its smart metering deployment is going to be a game changer for the way the grid is operated: the solution will allow Hafslund Nett to get more information about the state of their network, enabling an efficient and reliable operation of their grid. The roll out of smart meters is still underway and only a portion of expected benefits have been realized so far. Nevertheless, a series of elements can be outlined:
• Reliable and secure connectivity with excellent SLA. The performances achieved so far are aligned with expectations, and 99.9% minimum reliability is confirmed. Cybersecurity and data protection is enabled by proven industry standard cryptographic algorithms
• Flexibility to fulfil future needs. Once the roll-out is completed, Hafslund Nett will be able to move from the basic functionalities requested for metering operations to more complex grid operation’s needs, such as power quality management, or to enable customer facing new services, including smart homes. The technologies selected can easily manage functionalities upgrades and secure over the air updates (OTA).
• Investment and operation costs optimization. Because of the adoption of Aidon technology with embedded Wirepas Connectivity the meters (both master and slave meters) are the communications infrastructure. This means that no extra communication devices are required and this is significantly reducing both investment, installation, and operation costs. The connectivity itself doesn’t hold any recurrent fees.
• Innovation at the edge. An autonomous, de-centralized meters’ network has been created. The network is capable of dynamically and locally healing, and is for example able to re-route the traffic in case of obstacles at meter level.
“The development of mesh technologies, such as Wirepas Connectivity, during the recent years has taken such solutions to the next level. Now with the emergence and growth of large-scale industrial and infrastructure IoT we see that Wide Area Mesh is an exceptionally fitting solution for them.”, Teppo Hemiä, Wirepas CEO summarizes.
The IDC Spotlight can be downloaded at: https://wirepas.com/download/ and at www.aidon.com/hafslundspotlight
Further information:
Aidon: Thor-Erik Næss, Managing Director of Aidon in Norway, +47 900 70184, thor-erik.ness@aidon.com
Wirepas: Sebastian Linko, Vice President, Marketing, Communications and Investor Relations, +358 (0)40 023 6607, sebastian.linko(at)wirepas.com
Aidon in brief
Aidon is the leading provider smart grid and smart metering solutions and services in the Nordics. We help distribution system operators (DSOs) boost the reliability of electricity distribution by providing solutions for energy metering, data acquisition and utilisation, and management of the low voltage grid. Aidon has deployed or signed contracts for more than 2.5 million metering points in the Nordics. Aidon has its headquarters in Jyväskylä, Finland, and has offices in Vantaa in Finland, Täby in Sweden and Asker in Norway.
Wirepas in brief
Wirepas is focused on providing the most reliable, optimized, scalable and easy to use device connectivity for its customers. Wirepas Connectivity is a de-centralized radio communications protocol that can be used in any device, with any radio chip and on any radio band. With Wirepas Connectivity there is no need for traditional repeaters because every wireless device is a smart router of the network. The connected devices form the network – easy as that. Wirepas has its headquarters in Tampere, Finland and offices in Australia, France, Germany, South Korea, the UK and the United States. Things connected – Naturally