More efficiency in the energy transition: How PlanOps changes planning and operation of grids
When growing challenges have to be faced with scarce resources, collaborative workflows and shared digital tools can yield great benefits.
With the number of PV systems, wall boxes, and heat pumps steadily rising and in response to new regulations and initiatives encouraging flexibility management, distribution grid operators have put their focus on low voltage grids. As a result, grid operators are under a great deal of pressure: The rising number of connection requests must not only be processed but also evaluated and met with regard to their impact on the grids. This means increased monitoring, systematic expansion measures, and, if necessary, grid-oriented control measures. This has pushed many companies to their limits.
We know that our customers are currently already very busy with high and medium voltage grids — but there is more. “There are hardly any resources left to meet the new challenges surrounding low voltage grids, “, says Philipp Erlinghagen, co-founder of envelio. Considering the sheer scale of the infrastructure, Erlinghagen adds, the continuous monitoring of low voltage grids alone with only limited resources is impossible in most distribution grids. The VP Product points out that “envelio’s largest German customer, Westnetz GmbH, is responsible for about 60,000 low voltage grids.”
Strategies So Far: Reinforce or Control?
With these challenges in mind, many grid operators focus their strategy on preventing the need for control measures as defined in section 14a EnWG: Grids that are already showing problems or are expected to do so in the near future should be expanded or reinforced exactly where necessary. The strategy’s success depends on two critical parameters: The time it takes to electrify heat and mobility and the feasibility of expansion measures.
In many cases, this strategy will certainly work out. But in others, it won’t. Take, for example, urban grids, in which existing or new buildings are increasingly equipped with charging points and heat pumps. It is therefore essential to reliably monitor the grid state and keep the grid controllable also on a low voltage level — and to automate these workflows.
The Road to a Computable Grid Model
The prerequisite for implementing these strategies is a digital twin of the grid in which all of the existing data is merged to form a computable grid model. At first, this digital twin is static and therefore primarily suitable for planning tasks, such as evaluating connection requests or strategic grid planning. However, by intelligently integrating real-time information from stations and smart metering systems in private homes, the digital twin can be expanded to serve as a real time grid model that can support grid operations.
This is what envelio is currently putting into practice with the Intelligent Grid Platform. Based on this, the IGP can create grid state estimations in the low voltage grid by the minute, and implement the entire process of grid-oriented control measures in accordance with section 14a EnWG. The entire process is automated via the CLS interface of the smart meter gateway. But even the best digital solution can only be used to its full potential if the company’s organization and its processes are coordinated accordingly.
The tasks and requirements of the grid planning and grid operations departments are inherently different, when it comes to the low voltage level. And oftentimes, they don’t have much contact. Both departments gather valuable knowledge about the grids. In the light of future challenges, it is crucial that they exchange this information. Thanks to their calculations, planning teams, for instance, know which grids are critical, and what type of connections have been requested and where. That is also interesting to know for grid operations teams which could, for example, reinforce the digital monitoring in this specific segment.
In turn, grid operations specialists can let planning departments know when new assets are put into operation or in which grid area measurements indicate a problem. This way, planning departments can perform targeted simulations or even plan reinforcement measures. This plays a crucial part in using resources more efficiently and making the grid more transparent for everyone involved.
Planning and Operations Closely Linked: PlanOps — the Key to Efficiency
In order to efficiently implement this approach, envelio has come up with its PlanOps concept. PlanOps is short for planning and operations, which will have to be brought together more closely in the future. Similar to the DevOps approach in IT, a continuous, recurring and close collaboration between planning and operations can unlock new efficiency potential.
The PlanOps concept ensures that grid planning is not solely based on static assumptions, but that it can be adjusted and refined dynamically based on measurement data from grid operations. In addition, PlanOps can help optimize the use of limited resources — whether they be personnel, material or financial resources. But what exactly does the new collaborative PlanOps workflow look like?
To give an example: The planning department is responsible for evaluating short- and long-term grid capacity from a planning perspective, as well as for grid expansion and the planning involved. The operations department on the other hand focuses on grid operations and grid monitoring, as well as on performing maintenance measures and processing error messages. Both sides are in constant exchange with each other, working on the same grid model and with the same level of information.
In each phase of the grid planning or grid operation, both sides give each other feedback and incorporate it. In smart grid solutions such as the Intelligent Grid Platform, a seamless communication between both departments and corresponding applications is guaranteed.
If, for example, a new heat pump is connected to the grid, it is immediately integrated into the digital twin. The operations department can then evaluate the impact of the additional load on the grid, and pass their feedback on to the planning department. The planning department can use this information to reassess and adjust planning assumptions and to make more precise short-term and long-term grid planning.
How The PlanOps Engineer Orchestrates the Processes
However, PlanOps is not meant to be understood as a giant feedback loop in which feedback is only incorporated after all phases have been completed. Instead, PlanOps orchestrates all of the processes surrounding the grid, brings them together and coordinates them. And the conductor? In the future, that might be a “PlanOps Engineer”.
When planning and operations are intertwined, it takes specialists who are experts in both fields. A similar development has taken place in another industry: When cars, for example, started to contain more and more electronic systems that were closely intertwined with its mechanical systems, a new profession emerged: The mechatronics engineer. An expert in both fields.
What Does a Future With PlanOps Look Like?
Many grid operators are starting to realize that their current strategy for operating and planning low voltage grids may not be enough. That makes it evident that this topic has to be fundamentally reassessed. However, a typical control system, usually based around static grid models and oftentimes involving manual evaluation processes, is far from ideal for the “mass market” in low voltage grids. Instead, the way of working in planning and operations should be reassessed and should be refocused on digitalizing and automizing the grids.
In the future, PlanOps could be part of the solution: Based on a shared digital twin, the two departments collaborate permanently. Thanks to the metering systems, they continuously provide each other with feedback that is based on real-time data and their shared grid model. The impacts of newly connected grid participants can be taken into account for both short-term and long-term grid planning and in a way that is transparent to both departments. PlanOps engineers are experts in both fields and orchestrate the planning and operations of low voltage grids.
This solution can help unlock new efficiency potential and increase the grids’ integration capacity for renewable energy sources and new consumers. At the same time, the increased transparency in low voltage grids ensures that the high security of supply in German grids can be maintained.
With the Intelligent Grid Platform, we can guarantee that existing data can quickly and reliably be merged to form a digital twin of the grid. Now it is up to grid operators to reassess their organization and their processes and to adjust them where needed. It is only when planning and operations have a shared view on the distribution grid that it can be ensured that all the relevant information is quickly stored in the system, evaluated, and, ideally, can be used across departments.
