Safely through the energy networks via smartphone

The operational management of electricity grids, which was previously straightforward, is becoming increasingly complex for energy suppliers as a result of the energy transition. Up to now, the power supply was basically top-down from the generating power plants via substations and transformer stations to the consumers. The power plants produced electricity continuously and in a consumer-oriented manner, more or less independent of the time of day and the weather.

Complex energy networks

However, everything is already different today, energy generation is becoming increasingly decentralised - and the energy transition, as formulated in the Federal Council's Energy Strategy 2050, is leading to a considerably more complex power supply. A large number of decentralised energy generators are emerging, which need to be integrated into the power grids. Buildings will be equipped with solar collectors to produce electricity when the sun is shining. Wind turbines produce decentralized electricity, but not when there is no wind. Biomass power plants generate energy on agricultural farms. These decentralized sources of electricity have consequences for the energy plants. New metering points must be installed, additional lines must be laid, the capacity of existing lines must be increased, and additional electricity generated must be distributed to consumers. Many of the new metering points are likely to be intelligent smart meters, which will provide utilities with additional information about the electricity consumption of individual buildings.

Thus, on the one hand, the power grids are being pushed to their limits to a much greater extent and thus considerably more switching operations are required in the grid. On the other hand, the knowledge about the power grids among the employees of the energy supply companies (EVU) is significantly smaller than before, since the fluctuation of employees is increasingly higher today. Due to the increasing cost pressure, many EVU also have a decreasing number of employees. Specific support for employees in the maintenance and switching of power grids is therefore becoming essential in order to guarantee the supply of energy and compliance with safety regulations.

Intelligent work support

Up to now, an employee has compiled and documented a corresponding switching sequence before a circuit in the power grid. In most cases, a simple document in the form of a circuit program was sent to the technical employee who finally executed the circuit. A circuit program created in this way is not optimized in any way and the required safety standards for the execution of the circuits depend on the author's knowledge of the plant characteristics. Many RUs today respond to this situation by requiring the maximum safety precautions for each circuit, even if they would not be necessary due to the type of plant. Moreover, when a complex circuit requires several teams of technicians to work efficiently, communication between the teams is very demanding and costly.

The smartphone app "Smart Energies" offers several approaches for improvements here. Smart Energies analyzes circuit-relevant data in power grids to automatically generate safe workflows for teams of technicians. Smart Energies generates personalized, guided workflows for circuits in the power grid, so-called workflows, which plan and graphically display the individual, possibly parallel activities of the individual teams. These workflows are generated automatically, based on the analysis of data obtained from existing control systems. Innovative optimization algorithms from the field of machine learning, such as Job Shop Scheduling and Travelling Salesman, are used to calculate the workflows. Thus, the deployment time of the employees can be minimized and at the same time the safety can be increased, because the individual activities of the teams are synchronized. After this process, it is also possible to plan exactly how long the entire deployment of the employees will take. As a result, shifts can be planned with fewer reserves and the duration of possible shutdowns can be minimized.

The individual elements of a workflow are automatically assembled into guided and synchronized workflows in a modular system. Preparation in the plant - approach - (protective) preparation on site - safe switching - additional orders - feedback - reporting. Each element's own characteristics are taken into account. Some elements need to be synchronized with other teams, some only need to be displayed, some need to be acknowledged by the user. Some can be interrupted in time, others must be completed.

Safe working

Through the graphical interfaces on a smartphone, teams can also call up the current work progress of their colleagues at any time. Since teams acknowledge individual work steps as soon as they are completed, the control center can retrieve the current work progress of all teams, even in the event of danger, and forward additional instructions to the teams as needed. In the event of unforeseen and thus unplanned events, workflows are automatically resynchronized and communicated to all teams (and, of course, to headquarters), ensuring safe working even under such circumstances. The activities actually carried out are recorded in full and can be integrated into the work report once a switching job has been completed. Smart Energies also helps staff manage the complexity of the equipment and the variety of devices that have been installed in the switching stations over several decades. To ensure a technician is switching on the right equipment, they are equipped with information tags that can be scanned by the app and provide additional guidance when needed. An interactive and personalized document management function allows access to the relevant protection guidelines and device data sheets at any time and in the right place.

Smart Energies was the missing element to utility operations management systems. The smartphone app offers the employees of the energy suppliers maximum support in the area of switching and on-site work. Work processes are supported on site, personalized and interactive, be it in the area of time optimization or schedulability, be it with a maximum supply security and personal safety.