EDB LV Monitoring Case Study


Belgrade Low Voltage Distribution Network Monitoring System
for Distribution System Operator (DSO) “EPS Distribucija” Belgrade



DSO “EPS Distribucija” Belgrade is an electricity utility company responsible for electricity distribution in the area of the city of Belgrade, covering the territory of 2838 km2, 17 municipalities, and 123 settlements with over 1 700 000 inhabitants. It provides electricity to almost 900 000 households and business customers. The company aims to ensure a reliable and safe energy delivery to all customers.


Challenge


Electricity network expansion and increased number of customers, alongside the growing demands, resulted in deployment of an advanced low voltage network monitoring system. The solution was intended to help with the following:

• Reduce revenue losses due to energy losses
• Speed up fault detection
• Minimize customer outages
• Decrease operational and maintenance costs
• Balance supply and demand
• Improve overall efficiency

As Netico already had a very good cooperation with “EPS Distribucija” Belgrade on the separate project involving development and implementation of the automation and control system of the medium voltage grid in Belgrade, Netico received the contract to create, adapt and integrate an automated system for low voltage network monitoring across the whole consumption area.



Solution


The implemented solution included Netico’s M2C multifunctional measurement cabinets, paired with the Netico Hive server application. Apart from fulfilling all the initially set project goals, Netico’s M2C cabinets, equipped with NTPM110A smart energy sensors, enabled monitoring of various energy parameters, including energy quality. This provided a significantly better insight necessary for future grid development and customer satisfaction insurance.

The project implementation included:

• Installation of 350 M2C cabinets in medium to low voltage transformer stations (10/0.4 kV) at different locations of the selected consumption area
• Netico Hive server installation
• Integration with the medium voltage automation system
• Integration with the medium voltage SCADA via DNP3 protocol
• Integration with the GIS system
• Integration with the Billing system



Outcome


Netico successfully met DSO “EPS Distribucija” Belgrade requirements, contributing to the more reliable energy distribution service.

The installed system provides the following:

• Monitoring of transformer medium/low voltage energy parameters (10/0.4 kV)
• Monitoring of power quality of the delivered energy
• Monitoring of transformer load for the purpose of “re-sizing” or network reconfiguration in order to achieve optimal transformer loads
• Enabling an optimal setup plan for voltage regulators, from low to medium voltage transformers
• Precise load profile
• Reactive energy flow monitoring, which enables an optimal plan for capacitor batteries installation
• Possibility for local capacitor battery manipulation based on dynamic reactive load monitoring
• Possibility to monitor transformer thermal profile
• Power losses monitoring
• Transformer outage signalization
• Optimal power outage management
• Identification of fault currents at the low voltage end of transformers
• “Load Profile” extraction for the DMS system use