Current Technologies for the Electric Power Market

2024

A Russian modem for data transmission through the power grid is presented

On October 22, 2024, the Research Institute of Communication Technologies of St. Petersburg University of Telecommunications presented an innovative development - the NB-PLC modem for organizing communication channels through electrical networks. The device provides data transmission through the existing electrical wiring of buildings and power lines. Read more here.

EDO and platform solutions. The Ministry of Energy told how the digitalization of power in Russia is going on

The key area of ​ ​ digitalization of the energy industry in Russia is the introduction of electronic document management and platform solutions. Deputy Minister of power of the Russian Federation Eduard Sheremettsev spoke about the development of digital systems on October 15, 2024.

It is noted that companies of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) should send reporting documents to various government bodies, each of which operates its own information systems, carried out according to different principles and methodology. Reporting, its composition and structure are regulated by various federal laws and by-laws. As a result, a situation is created when fuel and energy organizations are forced to repeatedly provide identical indicators in accordance with different requirements. This reduces efficiency and can create various difficulties.

Digitalization of power in Russia

In this regard, the fuel and energy sector requires the introduction of information exchange standards and the creation of "one window" by analogy with the Unified Portal of the Public services. Sheremettsev points to the need to create new effective tools that "will not only eliminate the inflation of requirements from various government agencies, but also optimize the forms and types of data provided." In the future, it is planned to completely abolish the practice of duplicating the provision of information.

The Ministry of Energy, together with the Ministry of Digital Industry, Rosstat, individual organizations of the fuel and energy Ministry of Digital Development, as well as IT developers, is working on a project to implement a mechanism for collecting data from legal entities. The goal is to effectively obtain indicators from enterprises and their distribution between GIS departments. Sheremettsev stressed that in the field of public administration there is a GosTech platform, which contributes to the unification of approaches to the creation of information services, and the Ministry of Energy is engaged in the design of the Power^[1]

2023: The main trends of digitalization of power are named

In August 2023, the team of the Intersectoral Center for Technology Transfer and the Research Center in the Field of IIUnnivalence Innopolis prepared an open patent and marketing report "Application of artificial intelligence in priority sectors of the economy." This document lists, among other things, trends in terms of digitalization of the energy sector. Special emphasis is placed on the possibilities of artificial intelligence.

Renewables

AI can be used to predict renewable energy generation (VEI), analysts say. Technologies optimize the integration of VEI into power systems, increase their predictability and help build the optimal balance of capacities - both in current modes and in the future.

Optimization of power systems

Experts believe that artificial intelligence will help shape the optimal operating modes of power systems - from forecasting consumption to predictive analytics.

Forecasting

As the researchers note, AI will provide forecasting of demand and price situation in the electricity market - demand management, including the operation of distributed generating facilities and energy storage systems during the period of peak consumption by switching to backup sources. Advisory and prognostic systems make it possible to make accurate forecasts of the level of load and the volume of electricity generation of solar, wind and fuel power plants. In addition, AI will help predict demand and prices in the electricity market, and recommendation systems will help evenly distribute loads in the network based on information about network utilization and device usage.

Service

Artificial intelligence is expected to increase the efficiency of the use of energy equipment, including the replacement of scheduled distribution repairs with predictive maintenance.

AI and safety

Another trend is due to the fact that artificial intelligence is able to track unauthorized access, as well as predict critical situations, breakdowns and problems at facilities.

One example of the successful application of AI in power is the Smart Grid project launched by Enel in Italy. The project created a digital platform for managing power systems based on machine learning algorithms. Thanks to this, it was possible to reduce the downtime of power systems by 20%, and the cost of maintenance and repair of equipment decreased by 30%.

However, the use of AI in power also carries some risks, such as the possibility of errors in the operation of algorithms, threats to cybersecurity and problems with data availability. Therefore, the introduction of AI in the power requires a serious approach and strict control by specialists.

The researchers add that the use of artificial intelligence in power opens up great opportunities to improve the efficiency and reliability of energy systems. The use of machine learning and data analysis technologies allows you to optimize the operation of power systems, improve the quality of energy production and reduce the cost of maintenance and repair of equipment. However, it is necessary to take into account potential risks and ensure strict control over the operation of AI in energy systems.

The use of artificial intelligence in priority sectors of the economy

2021: The Ministry of Energy presented 3 projects for the digital transformation of the electric power industry in the regions

On July 5, 2021, it became known about the projects prepared by the Ministry of Energy for the digital transformation of the electric power industry in the regions of Russia. We are talking about the following initiatives:

Digital Assistant "My power"

This is a single information service in the regions for the services of resource providers in the housing and communal services sector. The project plans to launch 43 services in all regions of Russia. Among them are monitoring and data analytics services for key beneficiaries, intelligent accounting services, electronic maintenance of the connection procedure; calculators for calculating the cost of connecting to infrastructure, etc.

"Active Consumer"

This project involves the introduction of a new relationship system in the wholesale electricity and capacity market (OREM) - the creation of a target demand management market. The Ministry of Energy proposes to organize a regulatory selection of demand management resources for the provision of services from 2023 onwards, as well as the development of the microgeneration segment. According to representatives of the ministry, this initiative will ensure a decrease in the cost of capacity (with competitive selection of capacity) for consumers of OREM to 5% and a decrease in electricity costs for consumers participating in new market sectors by up to 10%.

Digital Industrial Safety in the Fuel and Energy Complex

During the implementation of the national program "Digital Economy," it is proposed to develop a platform solution for collecting and analyzing data to assess the technical condition of the infrastructure and personnel of the fuel and energy complex, allowing companies to make operational decisions in the event of emergency situations. The platform is expected to provide government agencies with risk control tools at the state level and the ability to quickly respond to emergency situations at the fuel and energy complex assets.^[2]

2019: Accenture: Just 9% of energy companies were able to boost profits with new technology

A study conducted by Accenture shows that energy companies could increase their capitalization by using several digital technologies at once.

Every second head of energy sector companies admitted that he is trying to effectively combine rapidly developing technologies. At the same time, only 9% of business leaders who participated in the survey said that their revenue and profit growth was achieved thanks to digitalization.

When asked what is the reason for the lack of a result, 38% of respondents said that they lack a culture of experimentation. 32% of energy executives cited insufficient security and trust in data. Also among the reasons: the inability to measure the effectiveness of investments in digital technologies and the lack of digital skills (31% each).

"Our experience with companies in digital transformation shows that many lack an integrated approach to using new technologies and the ability to adapt them to existing business models. As a result, enterprises do not get the most out of their digital investments, "the study says.

The authors of the survey believe that energy sector enterprises are too focused on trying to combine technological and business goals into one strategy. At the same time, many do not pay due attention to the development of ecosystems: only 5% of respondents replied that their ecosystem can increase the value of using digital technologies.

Accenture identified several key technologies that could increase capitalization in the energy sector, and calculated the share of the increase:

• robotization - 8%,
• use of digital twins - 8%,
• augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) - 28%,
• artificial intelligence - 12%,
• big data - 27%.

According to Maria Grigorieva, Managing Director of Accenture Technology in Russia and Kazakhstan, to more actively digitalize the energy industry in the Russian Federation, companies lack strategic goal-setting - a clear understanding of how to solve certain problems using technologies. In addition, a certain culture of change is needed.

"Distrust of technology, unwillingness to take responsibility for the long term, a long decision-making cycle and the lack of an IT base: equipment, IT landscape and network resources also interfere," she notes.

According to Maria Grigorieva, of the technologies presented in the report, Russian power engineers are actively in demand and use robotization, mainly for General Service Centers (CSCs).

"As for digital twins, there are few scaled solutions in this direction so far. To use the technology, you must first focus on analytics collection. Nevertheless, many energy companies in Russia are actively making prototypes and are already trying to use digital twins, "says Maria Grigorieva.

AR/VR technologies are also actively developing, mainly for employee training. As for business applications, so far we are talking only about a large number of pilots and testing virtual and augmented reality.

"The ability to manage a company using big data technology is not yet fully used by power engineers. Either due to the fact that enterprises do not have the opportunity to collect reliable data, or the company does not use data analysis and conclusion technologies. In this case, artificial intelligence can come to the rescue, "adds Maria Grigorieva.

In general, according to Maria Grigorieva, it is important for energy companies not only to prototype new technologies, but also to be able to deploy them in a real environment and scale.

"In the event that the selected pilot can bring results, it is necessary not to postpone the decision to scale it in the long haul, but to implement as quickly as possible in order to benefit from self-sustaining initiatives. You also need not be afraid to accept the fact that some attempts may fail and not give the necessary exhaust, "she says.

2018: Technological trends in the Russian power automation market

The IT market in power increasingly heterogeneous every year. In general, we can say that the industry is in demand for software and technologies that increase productivity and ensure uninterrupted operation of the energy complex. However, these can be both traditional tools for automating the work of large companies, such as electronic document management (ECM) or business analysis (BI) systems, and innovative products: predictive analytics based on machine learning algorithms, the Internet of Things (IoT) or artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize production and business processes.

At the same time, it should be noted that advanced technologies are more popular abroad and only in the last few years they have begun to penetrate Russian soil. The domestic industrial sector is taking the first steps towards innovative business transformation, - says Roman Konovalov, General Director of ID Management Technology.

Strengthening the role of information security

A number of technological innovations, such as the industrial Internet of Things, real-time information technology systems and solutions in the field of optimizing the production and distribution of electricity, have caused global changes in the energy industry around the world, opening up qualitatively new growth opportunities for it. In this regard, the problem of developing uniform standards for the use of IT in territorial-distributed companies comes to the fore.

One of the most significant risks for such organizations lies in the field of data protection, so a special role in these standards will be assigned to the organization of the information security system, the means of its safe storage and processing, - says Sergey Lapenok, Marketing Director of X-Com.

Most of the IT products implemented in energy companies are business critical, which means that they have increased requirements for information protection.

Now tools for protection against both external and internal threats are popular on the market, including cryptographic encryption, antivirus programs, as well as centralized management and delineation of access to confidential data, depending on the position of the employee in the company, adds Roman Konovalov.

According to Dmitry Livshits, General Director of Digital Design, the trend towards security, in particular, the security of APCS and KII, received a second wind due to increased attention to it from the state, which assessed the price of risks in the field of information security of the energy complex and adopted relevant regulations.

This trend has already transformed into specific tasks set for all energy companies, and we have already begun implementing projects in this direction, he says.

Backup Data Centers

Big data accumulated by energy companies needs to be stored and processed somewhere. In this regard, there is a need for new resources and continuous modernization.

The forecast for the next 2 years is a trend towards building backup sites, creating backup data centers in order to secure the IT infrastructure and ensure its uninterrupted operation regardless of force majeure and other factors, - notes Alexey Malyshev, General Director of Sonnet.

Outsourcing

An increase in the number of digital tools for manufacturing and business management leads energy managers to the question of whether it is possible to build an IT infrastructure in such a way as to maximize the potential of each specific IT solution and at the same time gain a high synergistic effect from the interaction of IT systems.

At this stage, they are thinking about giving the processes of installation, configuration, support and modernization of the IT ecosystem to outsourcing - the demand for IT consulting and IT support is growing. One of the reasons for the popularity of IT outsource is the ability to clearly determine the KPIs for which the integrator team will be responsible, from the response time to the client's request to the number of system failures. Guaranteed indicators are entered into. SLA - Quality of Service Agreement This allows energy enterprises to make the contractor's work completely transparent and controlled, - says Roman Konovalov.

Sergey Lapenok, Marketing Director of X-Com, adds that outsourcing IT functionality to third-party service companies eliminates the need for power engineers to maintain their own staff of expensive IT specialists and frees up the resources necessary for their main activities.

Implementation of modern maintenance strategies

One of the main trends for Russian energy companies is the introduction of modern maintenance strategies (maintenance and repair of equipment), based on the calculation of indices of the technical condition of equipment and complex infrastructure facilities. In addition to assessing the condition of equipment, the use of methods for assessing the probability and consequences of equipment failure also becomes the standard in this area.

Together, these processes allow you to effectively manage technical and economic resources, use them where there is a maximum need, repair the equipment that really needs it and accurately assess the volume of such work. The result of the application of such strategies is the optimization of maintenance processes, which leads to a decrease in operating and capital costs while maintaining the high quality of the equipment maintenance work performed, - says Natalya Semichastnova, Deputy General Director of Korus Consulting Group of Companies.

In fact, QRA risk assessment methodologies, RAM reliability analysis and RCM enhancement techniques are becoming the standard for the industry's flagship companies.

As for systems for preventive maintenance, equipment failure prediction and timely repair planning - they are in demand by the market, their payback is fast enough, and the value for production is high. In the near future, the number of software implementations with such functionality will grow, - said Yulia Kudryavtseva, director of strategic development at Forsyth.

Informatization of mobile teams

Another important trend is the widespread adoption of mobile devices in classic control systems used by energy companies. First of all, this is necessary for an operational assessment of the technical condition of any element of the power system.

The mobile workplace of the crawler, controller allows you to close the need for scheduled inspections, collect instrumental control indicators at those infrastructure facilities that are not equipped with real-time control systems, "explains Natalya Semichastnova.

Alexander Belov, Director of the Department of System Engineers of the Complink Group of Companies, adds that companies related to energy distribution have been actively engaged in the informatization of their mobile teams in recent years.

But the future, of course, is for online monitoring systems, in which it will be possible to monitor the condition of the equipment in real time using sensors, Natalya Semichastnova is sure.

Automate unique business processes

All energy companies (at least large market players) have already taken care of automating supporting processes in one way or another, implementing the corresponding systems (EDMS, BPM, BI, etc.), which they continue to develop, modernize, change old ones to more modern ones, expand functionality, etc. There are also modified solutions - "immigrants" from standard automation systems of basic business processes - that are adapted for the industry.

An archive of technical and design documentation has appeared in our portfolio of solutions (not only with digitization, but also with text recognition and extraction of data from documents for their subsequent analysis), confidential document flow, etc., - comments Dmitry Livshits, General Director of Digital Design.

But the real revolution is taking place in terms of automation of the main activities of energy enterprises with its unique tasks, which require deep immersion in the specifics of the industry.

So, for example, we needed to deal with the physics of hydrodynamic processes taking place in the largest transport and water-energy system in Europe - the Volga-Kama cascade of hydroelectric power plants - before we could use neural networks to automate the operation of the dispatch center. Based on the knowledge gained, we have developed a system that allows us to calculate the planned operating mode of this object. Another task - automation of planning production programs for RusHydro - also required our specialists to immerse themselves in the production and business processes of the organization, the operation of equipment and systems, adds Dmitry Livshits.

Testing sites for new technologies

The main trends are formed by the state program "Digital Economy": big data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality. These are the technologies of the future that are just beginning to take the first steps in terms of real applicability in the enterprises of the industry.

According to Yulia Kudryavtseva, director of strategic development at Forsyth, we will be able to assess the real return on them only in the future. But already now, for their implementation, companies are forming special platforms for testing new technologies, analyzing their readiness, allocating those responsible for digital transformation.

For a number of companies, the base for digital transformation has already been created, others are catching up: they are updating the fleet of sensors for collecting information, expanding their network, finalizing the technical infrastructure, introducing software complexes for big data analytics, she explains.

Other trends

Among other trends, experts highlight the development of the so-called SmartGrid (systems for integrated distribution and generation of energy using renewable sources), augmented and virtual reality systems for visualizing objects and technological processes, industrial Internet of Things technologies that replace the usual APCS.

These trends will give impetus to the development of technologies in the field of communication, both mobile - 5G, and industrial eLTE. They will provide the necessary volume and speed of data transfer, - says Konstantin Boltrukevich, director of the department for work with industrial enterprises of Technoserv.

Another important area is related to the use of science-intensive technologies: machine learning algorithms, multifactor optimization, big data analysis, etc.

We try to follow this trend. Last year, we managed to draw the attention of the Innovation Assistance Fund to two projects of our scientific laboratory: an intelligent dynamic map of renewable energy sources of the World Ocean and automated digitization of logging diagrams - said Dmitry Livshits.

2013-2014

In previous years, in the power, as in other industries, the main direction of automation was the financial and economic activities of enterprises. In most large energy companies, these projects are completed, or are at the stage of completion. Gradually, companies are turning to other pressing areas: they are modernizing infrastructure and data centers, introducing billing, ASKUE, and trying cloud technologies and analytics.

Among the enterprises of the energy industry, the level of automation remains heterogeneous: if network companies and the largest players of the SO UES IT systems, for example, such as dispatching systems, play a primary role, then generating companies may actually have a lower level of automation, here the emphasis on specific narrowly specialized industrial solutions. In sales companies, the level of automation is also very different and depends on the scale, region, coverage of activities, but here the focus is primarily on accounting, contract management and settlement.

Nevertheless, energy companies are watching new information technologies with interest, although they are still mastering them with caution. In 2013 and 2014, interest in cloud projects and BI, billing, geo-positioning, new solutions that allow modernizing the infrastructure, and increasing the energy efficiency of data centers increased. All these areas will grow systematically in the future.

BI и Big Data

See also: Analytical systems in the power

As of March 2014, in the TAdviser database among companies in the energy sector, BI system implementations were in seventh place in terms of "popularity" (46 projects out of almost 1,000). Due to the specifics of the industry, big data solutions remain the main driver of development. Big Data technologies are widely used to implement data management and analysis, as well as to improve decision-making processes.

Modern energy companies are also interested in introducing information systems that provide solutions to business intelligence problems, including monitoring, reporting, budgeting, analysis, as well as solving specific power problems. Energy sales companies increasingly have a need for an energy supervision system that monitors the implementation of the instructions of Rostekhnadzor of Russia and inspections of high-quality maintenance of energy facilities.

"The

role of information and analytical systems of energy management aimed at the correct use of energy resources is growing. Such software products help to form an optimal set of energy-saving measures, thereby ensuring the achievement of the maximum possible values ​ ​ of energy saving indicators, "confirms Mikhail Fedorov, head of corporate solutions at Forecast.

In the coming years, convergent solutions in the field of business analytics, especially convergent ones - for example, BI + GIS or BI + technology data - will also be in demand. There is already interest on the part of customers in solutions of this kind. This, in particular, is an operational analysis of situations, decision-making support, the formation of analytical reporting and the creation of analytical panels, as well as the consolidation of reporting, according to the CROC.

Cloud Solutions

For energy companies, data security is of great importance, so they evaluate cloud technologies carefully and treat them with caution. However, the number of such projects is growing. As of March 2014, in the TAdviser database among energy companies, cloud projects ranked 8th in terms of "popularity" (35 projects out of almost 1 thousand).

To date, IaaS solutions are in demand more than SaaS. The main reason is fear for the safety or leakage of data, including those that may have the category of state secrets. Although, for example, in the United States, applications in the "cloud" are now distributed very widely, including SmartGrid solutions.

There are not many projects based on SaaS yet, they mainly apply to not the most critical business applications, for example, e-mail services are often taken to the cloud. For example, Exchange 2013 e-mail service is successfully used by one of the largest distribution network companies - Energy Service Company Lenenergo.

Nevertheless, according to Arkady Karev, vice president of Borlas, the development of SaaS in relation to the energy industry is promising. "

Power is an inherently geographically distributed industry. At the same time, serious and large holdings have already formed in it. In them, many functional blocks are quite unified, or should be unified. To reduce the cost of automation and further maintenance of systems, using access to standardized applications and the necessary infrastructure as a service from a cloud provider will be very attractive and economically feasible, "he believes.

Infrastructure projects

IT infrastructure is and will continue to be an important focus for energy companies. This is especially true for companies operating within several neighboring regions, so the requirements for it, as a rule, are high in terms of fault tolerance and reliability. Therefore, power enterprises often turn to modernization, including server platforms and data centers. A large number of projects to create a network infrastructure, complex video conferencing systems. According to the TAdviser database, infrastructure projects rank fifth among projects in the power (67 out of almost 1,000 implementations as of March 2014).

As for data centers, the creation of separate own data centers is a rather rare phenomenon. Capacity leases are more commonly used. The data center for APCS is usually built on its own capacities, and the data center for ERP systems can use the capacities of third-party data centers. At the same time, points for ensuring fault tolerance and service support in critical situations are necessarily included in the capacity lease agreement.

The industry requires, first of all, reliable data centers for critical applications, since almost all energy companies, in addition to business tasks, have a rather serious social aspect. Accordingly, the requirements for data centers are extremely high. For example, Borlas implemented a project to create a data processing center for Chelyabenergosbyt based on Oracle hardware and software systems . This allowed the energy supplier to bring the performance and reliability of IT systems for energy data management and billing to a new level: the processing of meter readings was accelerated 11 times, the calculation of consumption and charges became 2.5 times faster.

Billing systems

power engineering specialists billing There are still several dozen in TAdviser's own database of projects in the entire history of project automation observations, but the role of billing systems for sales power companies is growing from year to year, so that implementations will continue.

Experts GMCS (included in), MAYKOR in particular, note that the modern legislative framework and regulations force energy companies to revise their management approaches. Issues related to creating a comfortable environment for interaction not only with consumers, but also management companies and other market participants, improving the accuracy of calculations and consumer loyalty come to the fore.

Solving these problems is impossible without the presence of a single billing system that can not only ensure transparency of calculations for all types of services and data on consumption, but also makes it possible to easily introduce new service schemes, tariffs and business roles if necessary. This is the so-called convergent billing, which is a single universal system that can be used to conduct mutual settlements not only for thermal and electricity, but also for gas, cold and hot water supply, and so on.

For example, the new billing system is now being introduced by one of the country's largest energy holdings - "Energy Systems of the East (RAO ES of the East)." It is based on the industry solution of Ferranti for utilities and power enterprises - MECOMS on the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. One of the holding's subsidiaries, Kamchatskenergo, has already switched to a new billing system. Now it is being introduced into Magadanenergo. The project is of great importance for the entire development of intellectual power in the Far East.

The choice of automation tool is directly dependent on the scale of the enterprise.

Oleg Zernyaev, Director of System Design at Systematics, notes that there are various billing solutions: independent development, 1C solutions. But, mainly, energy sales companies are small organizations, and they cannot afford "heavy" systems of the SAP or Oracle class, although for large companies that prefer the "monovendor" IT landscape, expensive implementations of Western solutions are possible.

PLM and CAD

Currently, PLM class systems in the electric power industry are used quite little, in contrast, for example, to the mechanical engineering and nuclear industry. CAD is in demand a little more. There are tools on the market for three-dimensional modeling of objects, electrical design and automatic formation of drawings, material specifications and reports. With the use of GIS tools, it is possible to assess and select the location of new substations taking into account existing capacities and the requirements of energy-intensive industries.

There are also areas where it is still very difficult to do without PLM and CAD: for example, energy engineering. According to Arkady Karev, vice president of Borlas, automated design, production preparation, engineering analysis and simulation systems are used here at all stages of the life cycle. So in power engineering you can find practical any CAD and ASTPP systems known on the Russian market.

There is a place for CAD in generating and sales companies. "Of course, here their role and value are much less noticeable than in power engineering. Organizations and divisions associated with supporting the operation of energy infrastructure facilities use CAD to solve various tasks related to the reconstruction and repair of facilities on the ground, the design and manufacture of auxiliary technological equipment, etc., "explained TAdviser Arkady Karev

.

A separate task is to take into account and use documentation for objects during reconstruction and modernization. However, there are not many CAD implementations in the electric power industry in the country today. Most often, non-specialized and non-tailored solutions are used for these tasks, the CROC notes. So far, CAD for many Russian energy enterprises remains a "dream."

CORUS Consulting experts, however, point out that PLM systems are becoming more widespread in the global electric power industry. They allow you to keep passports of the main equipment of companies throughout their operation, which is often tens of years. During this time, the company manages to change several generations of employees who are carriers of unique knowledge on specific samples of equipment that they previously carried with them after leaving the company. The accuracy and speed of information processing in PLM systems allows you to quickly make decisions on further work with a particular equipment supplier, as well as assess the effectiveness of the introduction of new products and the feasibility of their further purchases. So these systems are the future.

SCSCS and ADMS, MR

There are three main areas of activity of power grid companies to automate the transmission and distribution of electricity, experts of the CROC note. Firstly, dispatch control, that is, control of the operation mode of the electric network. To do this, there are special solutions for ASDU (automated dispatch control systems). Relatively speaking, this is a control room with a video wall to which the current state of the network is broadcast, as well as systems that recalculate its operating modes, allowing you to simulate various scenarios, and control switches. The introduction of modern dispatch control systems has been especially active in Russia for the past five years. In particular, CROC recently completed the design of a similar system for one interregional distribution network company.

The second direction of automation in this area is the management of electricity transport. This includes the tasks of technical and commercial accounting, balance sheet consolidation, calculation of useful energy supply and losses. ASCAPC Systems and ACSCS are used for these purposes. At the same time, it is important that these systems are integrated with corporate applications that interact with consumers, including billing. transport Smart meters are also used to solve electricity problems, which can take into account several tariffs, allow you to control energy consumption, for example, turn off a particular consumer or limit his power, allocate a separate power supply and separately control the devices connected to it. In particular, such smart meters were used by us in a project for a territorial grid company to create a commercial electricity metering system. As a result, the customer will be able to significantly reduce commercial losses by taking into account previously unaccounted electricity consumption.

ASCUE/ASTUE has been introduced quite actively over the past seven years. However, due to the emergence of new laws in the industry, the already implemented systems are being modernized. Plus, new technical solutions appear, for example, smart meters are introduced mainly at the level of pilot projects and only the last year and a half.

The third task within the framework of power transmission and distribution automation is to manage the operation of power plant equipment, plan repairs and optimize plans. Systems of maintenance and maintenance class are used for this purpose. At the same time, the very focus in asset management is somewhat shifted. If a few years ago the most ambitious projects were the introduction of MRO systems (for example, FGC and IDGC), now companies are thinking more about the tasks of managing capital construction and investments (Mosenergo, RusHydro, FGC).

Smart technologies

System integrators recognize that smart technologies are more and more interested in customers, as customers want to automatically or automatically solve tasks that previously required long time or heavy labor. For example, CROC implemented an intelligent accounting system project for one regional network company, where the task was to ensure the automatic collection of indicators from more than 95% of accounting devices. Such projects not only reduce costs, but allow you to move to completely new approaches in the operation of equipment.

Oleg Zernyaev, director of system design at Systematics, said that recently the concept of Smart Grid smart networks, fully controlled from the moment of electricity generation to its delivery to the end consumer, has been widely discussed. Smart Grid technologies go hand in hand with the development of energy saving and energy efficiency, they reduce electricity losses and optimize electricity transportation.

In the Systematics group of companies, Sainer presents an interesting solution based on SAP IS-U, which allows you to connect the billing system directly with metering devices, thereby allowing you to manage the processes of an energy enterprise based on information received in real time.

The components of smart systems are also powerful solutions based on geo-information services, for example, a solution based on GE SmallWorld, which is offered by Ensys Technology. Also, Smart Grid elements include OMS/DMS class systems, SAP-based metering device management solutions.

Thanks to state support, global positioning systems (using GLONASS data) have become very widespread today. In particular, FGC is introducing a system for monitoring the company's transport, connecting more and more of its branches to it.

See also

• Russian power Automation Market
• Digital Substation Cyber Polygon (DIN)

Notes