In english.

The electricity grid that supplies us with electricity is already monitored today so that grid owners like Kraftringen can get information about when and where there are disruptions or interruptions. Until now, the amount of sensors in the network has been limited for cost reasons and the areas they monitor are therefore relatively large. As more efficient technologies are developed and equipment becomes cheaper, the number of sensors can be expanded to get a more detailed picture of the status of the network. In this sub-project within SOM (Smart Public Environments), the number of sensors will be increased while developing a cost-effective wireless communication solution to increase the visibility of the electric power grid.

The power ring has around 100,000 customers connected to its power grid. An important task for Kraftringen is, of course, to ensure a high availability in the supply of electricity to customers. However, it is inevitable that a power grid suffers faults that cause blackouts but to minimise the impact to customers, it is important to quickly

be able to detect, locate and correct an error.

“A power grid is normally structured in such a way that a larger distribution station feeds a number of smaller grid stations connected in a loop. A little simplistically, we can say that previously we only had sensors in the distribution stations that provided information about which loop a fault occurred in. With the solution tested here, we also put sensors in the network stations and thus can get information about which stations the error occurred between and we do not have to go out and look for the fault. In this way, we can quickly reconnect the network and minimize the number of customers affected, but also minimize the total downtime,” explained Håkan Skarrie, Kraftringen.

“The technical solution is now being verified step by step, from tests in a lab environment to tests in existing power grids in operation,” said Peter Bårmann, Sensative. In addition to developing new technologies to be able to increase the number of measurement points, and where we use the radio network we have built, and the IoT platform that has been further developed within the SOM project, the project has also further developed existing data analysis and developed support for presenting the current situation picture in a map-based system. As a continuation of this project, we now want to move forward with the introduction of new advanced IoT security technologies, in order to then be mature to integrate with Krafring's regular monitoring system.

What was the result?

• A cost-effective and robust communication solution based on modern IoT technology (LoRaWAN, built within the SOM project) was deemed suitable and selected for the application. A complete solution has been developed and demonstrated to work well.

• The proven electricity metering equipment (detection of disturbances and interruptions in power grids) from project party Protrol, has been modified to support the selected communication technology.

• A suitable communication module (called LoRa modem) has been developed by Intive AB and has been adapted to the characteristics of the electricity metering equipment.

• The central IoT integration platform developed in SOM from Sensative, has been supplemented to handle data collection, decoding, translation and system monitoring of the electricity metering equipment, sent via the LoRa modem.

• In the platform, data model has been implemented to represent, store and make available the necessary specific parameters via an open API.

• Advanced interference analysis has been performed by DLaboratory's service on the sensor data, obtained via the IoT platform API, and the analysis result has subsequently been fed back to the central IoT platform.

• The analysis result has been made available together with measured sensor data for other services via the IoT platform API.

• T-Kartor's service has been adapted to the IoT platform API and presents, among other things, graphically up-to-date status.

• The information is easily accessible for future integration with the electricity distributor's (Kraftringen) monitoring system.

How is the project taken forward?

The project result can be further developed both in the specific application, and parts of the result in other applications. The power ring and other power distributors can now order and install the developed hardware in power stations. They can also choose to integrate the result with their existing monitoring systems.

Through the project, Protrol has added a new communication method to its equipment, which can make it cheaper for the customer and facilitate further dissemination of the product.

Intive AB has already further developed its hardware to suit other applications. Two direct examples are the connection of laser-based equipment for measuring the degree of filling of silos, and communication with the Modbus protocol, the information of which is thus made available via LoRaWAN and the IoT platform.

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Facts Electric Power Monitoring:

The project is a sub-project within the SOM project, which is part of the Strategic Innovation Programme for the Internet of Things, IoT Sweden, funded by Vinnova. The project started on 1 September 2017 and will end in 2020.

‍Project Time: 30/06/2019 - 18/12/2020

Project Manager: Peter Bårmann, Sensative

Project partners: Sensative, Kafringen, dLaboratory, Intive, Protrol, T-maps, Mobile Heights, DivM