Utility company Vimmerby Energi & Miljö AB introduced dInsight Analytics Platform from Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) in their entire grid in 2019. Since, dLab’s solution has helped the company to keep track of incidents in the power distribution – from the overlaying grid, in their own grid and even in the customers’ facilities. 

Vimmerby Energi & Miljö AB (Vemab) is a regional utilities company in the middle of Småland, managing heat, electricity, water, and waste for 5000 customers. Vemab’s grid is 350 km of mainly cable, running through the town of Vimmerby and surrounding lands. Two large industries are connected to Vemab’s grid: dairies manufacturer Arla and brewing company Åbro Bryggeri.

– We wanted to keep track of the incidents in the grid in a better way, that is why we chose dLab’s solution. Now we see everything in detail – from incidents in the overlaying grid to incidents in the facilities of our customers, even. To be able to monitor the grid this closely is a great advantage, says Per Svensson, Head of Distribution at Vimmerby Energi & Miljö AB.

Last year, a telling incident occurred; in August dLab’s system signaled for a fault in the north part of Vimmerby, but there was no outage registered. When Vemab’s maintenance team went to the location, it turned out to be a construction site where the excavator operator had accidentally damaged an electrical cable.

– The contractor actually stood there with his phone in his hand, ready to call us, when we turned up, says Per Svensson That incident is such a good example of how quickly we could react, and how our fault detection can be improved using dLab’ solution.

Vemab is actively using dLab’s solution, meaning that the grid operations team check the system on a daily basis, and if something is wrong, they can decide on actions much faster.

– One advantage is that dLab’s system helps us build awareness of the grid’s condition; we can for instance verify that a certain voltage dip in the facilities of one of our customers comes from the overlaying grid or from disturbances in our grid. For industries with sensitive gear, that is very important to know, says Per Svensson.

– It’s great to see that Vemab really uses the data coming from our analytics platform to improve their operations processes – that is the basis of data driven, modern utilities operations, says Fredrik Akke, CTO at dLab.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.

The majority of The Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate’s suggested new indicators for measuring smart grid development can be met with the data analytics solution from Dlaboratory Sweden AB. – A true verification of the viability of our solution, comments Erik Severin, CEO of dLab.

The Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Ei) has been given – through EU’s revised electricity market directive (EU 2019/944) – authority to supervise and evaluate smart grid development in Sweden. As a part of this commission, Ei has analyzed which indicators would suit this task.

– Reviewing these suggested indicators, dLab’s patented grid incident analysis solution can deliver many of the values needed for evaluation – an important verification of dLab’s mission to contribute to the building of smart grids, globally, says Erik Severin, CEO of dLab.

Ei’s report Ei R2021:07, “Indikatorer för utvecklingen av smarta elnät”, published recently, states that the development of smart grids should focus on energy transition (integrating new production and technology), energy efficiency and a reliable and resilient grid. And to be able to work with these aspects, the DSOs need to incorporate new grid technology into their scope of work.

dLab is a company working in the forefront of data analytics and electrical engineering, offering a solution to monitor and analyze incidents in the grid. dLab’s dInsight Analytics Platform enables DSOs to take small incremental and measurable steps towards a more effective, resilient, and reliable grid through a deeper understanding and a more data-driven organization. The aim is to build the new smart grid through data analytics, a view that seems to be supported by the indicators Ei proposes.

Out of the 13 possible indicators that Ei regards as relevant for measuring and evaluating smart grid development, dLab contributes to at least eight of them. Mostly in regard to indicators focusing on monitoring, control, and automation. Among the indicators dLab matches are security of supply, transmission loss, load factor, utilization factor, and level of automation in the substations.

– To be able to meet the majority of Ei’s proposed indicators for a smart grid with our solution is truly satisfying. It is a confirmation that we are on the right track. It seems that the market is ready, and we are definitely ready, says Erik Severin.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.

Regional utilities company Karlskoga Energi & Miljö AB has been using the smart data analytics solution from cleantech company Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) since 2020. A useful solution for avoiding power outages and identifying faults, dLab’s system is the starting point for the energy company’s digitalization journey.

Energy company Karlskoga Energi & Miljö with its subsidiary Karlskoga Elnät has around 15 000 customers along a 1 700 km grid in the middle of the beautiful region of Värmland. Digitalization is a high priority throughout the organization, whether it means providing fiber optics for consumers, or the dInsight Analytics Platform from dLab.

-The solution from dLab pushes us to work in a completely new way; from monitoring and analysis to becoming proactive, using data to prevent, rather than fix a problem. This requires new knowledge in the organization, but also a new way of working, says Jimmy Lundberg, Head of Distribution at Karlskoga Elnät.

The company chose dLab’s system in 2020, and could immediately benefit from its installation, sorting out a tricky problem in one of the substations, where the normal systems were not able to identify the faults. Applying dLab’s solution made it easy to identify not only a faulty line, but also the underlying issue – some badly adjusted relay protection gear.

As more power electronics and sensitive equipment are connected to the grid, and intermittent power production from wind and solar panels or micro production is added, the power grid is put under strain. And reliable power quality becomes an issue, due to fluctuating power flows and harmonics. Karlskoga Elnät has seen a strain on the grid in the rush of many solar panel installations:

– Karlskoga has had a surge of solar panel installments, and today approximately 7 new PV systems are connected to the grid each week. These have a major impact on the grid; it is not built to have electricity fed into it through the “back door” so to speak, says Jimmy Lundberg.

– We understand there is a multitude of challenges in the power sector, not least the energy transition to a more sustainable society. A transition we aspire to support through our platform. Therefore, it is inspiring and instructive to work with Karlskoga Energi & Miljö having the ambition to use our holistic approach, where we also see the instant benefits, says Henrik Winberg, COO at dLab.

In dLab’s system voltage variations and current flow can be monitored, delivering an overall view of the power load in the grid. From that, grid planning operations can decide on new connections adding load or production in an area, or other measures, if needed.

– If truth be told, we have only just begun exploring all the possibilities dLab’s solution can deliver for us. The digitalization of the grid is only in the making, we have an exciting journey ahead of us, says Jimmy Lundberg.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.

Cleantech company Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) releases smaller, but significant improvements to the data analytics platform dInsight. By focusing on the divergences and patterns in trends over time and not just incident data, the user can faster form an impression of the grids’ condition.

Visualizing incidents over time is one of the main features of dLab’s data analytics platform dInsight. A powerful visual tool for grid analytics, dInsight is set up to support the decision-making processes in grid operations. The new update allows the user to see patterns and divergences over specific periods of time and thus get a sense of the incidents’ occurrence in a quick and easy way. Using a calendar-view to present episodes is a natural way to interpret events.

– By continuously improving the dashboards in dInsight, dLab is sharpening the tool for grid condition assessment, giving its users valuable and easy-to-read information in a familiar setting. Perceiving patterns and differences are innate qualities for humans, so it was really a matter of increasing the user-friendliness through natural behavior, says Fredrik Akke, CTO at dLab.

Apart from general improvements and cosmetic touch-ups, the update includes the following:

• New time series bar chart for incidents over time. Accumulated incidents over time have been visualized before, but this graph allows for a higher level of detail, showing individual incidents over time.
• Added event list next to the new bar chart with further details of each incident. For each incident, this list indicates the category of incident, operate delay time of function timer, as well as which feeder was affected.
• The information on the directional earth fault dashboard is now showing registered values for high ohmic earth faults as well.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.

Cleantech company Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) has developed a generic component to its grid analytics platform, called dXport. Making data export and systems integration easy, dXport opens up the possibilities of adding an extra, data driven edge to grid operations. It has today successfully been applied to a NIS-system.

Integrating different systems and tools are time efficient investments, making operations run more smoothly for companies of all kinds. It has become a fundamental part of our day-to-day activities, even in simple daily tasks, as our society has become more and more digital. Systems integration has over the last few years become increasingly important, and in technically complex operations, data export and integration are vital parts.

– Although our focus, to date, has been in developing an independent solution, adding the possibility to share our high qualitative analytics to other systems is key to us. And when the opportunity came to develop an integration with a NIS-system, we created a module that is versatile and can be adapted to other systems as well. All in line with supporting our customers in providing a better experience to their customers, says Henrik Winberg, COO at dLab.

The integration of dLab’s system with NIS resulted in an easy-to-use solution that can pin down a fault in the grid with a very high accuracy. Exporting and integrating dLab’s data with other systems will add big data, improving the accuracy in that system. Data analytics from dLab can thus be used to improve grid operations in a wide range of areas.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.

Having a security of supply in the power grid of 99,99 percent does not make Halmstads Energi och Miljö AB (HEM) to sit back and relax. Instead, the regional Swedish energy company has declared to make digitalization of the power grid their next step forward. Installing the dInsight Analytics Platform from Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) has allowed the company to analyze grid data in-depth and take proactive measures to prevent outages and make grid investments.

– The advantage of dLab’s system is that we can find faults in the grid, incidents, and disturbances, before they develop into major outages. This is how we want to work, proactively, before anything has happened, says Jonas Stenberg, electrical engineer at Halmstads Energi och Miljö.

The collaboration between HEM and dLab started out as a pilot project in 2018 but by now dLab’s digital solution covers about 70 percent of HEM’s power grid.

– It is truly inspiring to learn about HEM’s ambitions within digitalization, and their determination to act today rather than waiting until tomorrow. And we are of course very proud of being able to contribute with our grid analytics platform identifying potential weaknesses and allowing for proactive work, says Henrik Winberg, COO of dLab.

dLab’s notification service alerts users when incidents that are regarded as potentially serious occurs, which allows Jonas and his team to look up the incidents in the grid analytics platform. Early warning is valuable in these processes, when time is of the essence, so that they can do something about the disturbance before the situation deteriorates.

– The upside of the system is both technical and financial; the time saved in fault detection has a huge impact on the operational efficiency, says Jonas Stenberg. It is a very handy tool, notifying us whenever something is not right, so that we do not need to constantly monitor the grid data values. It really makes grid analysis that much easier.

The platform allows HEM to check the power quality as well, ensuring that the company’s customers get the quality they need. dLab’s application dQuality can give a hint to where to look more in depth, also saving time.

Monitoring and digitally tracking the incidents with dLab’s solution ensure that HEM’s reliable grid of today can stay reliable in the future.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.

The power quality monitoring application dQuality from Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) has turned out to be not only an efficient solution monitoring reactive power from wind production, or keeping track of harmonic distortions, but a useful tool for grid planning and investment. Monitoring power quality has thus turned out to be essential in creating a sustainable and reliable power grid.

– In grid planning, we need to know what we are up against, says Henrik Skyllerstedt, grid planning engineer at regional energy company Kraftringen. We look at several parameters to be able to make accurate and reliable grid investments, and data from dQuality is one of those. Grid planning is a major investment decision, especially in new urban developments, such as northern Lund, so it requires accuracy and rational underpinning. 

In the application dQuality, Henrik Skyllerstedt and his colleagues use data such as voltage variations and current flow from several feeders, comparing these with other data to get an overall view of the power load in the grid. From that, grid planning operations can decide on new connections adding load or production in an area, or other measures, if needed.

Power load assessment for planning purposes is just one additional use of the power quality monitoring solution dQuality from dLab. As more power electronics and sensitive equipment are connected to the grid, and intermittent power production from wind and PV or micro production is added, the power grid is put under strain. And reliable power quality becomes an issue, due to fluctuating power flows and harmonics.

A wind power plant, and even a single turbine, has a significant amount of power, and thus a capacity to influence the power quality and voltage stability in the grid. dLab’s application dQuality has a unique trait in that it can detect the reactive power flows to a single feeder line – allowing for faster compensations and restoration of the power capacity in the grid.

Harmonic distortions are another challenge coming into play with the new demands on the power grid. Power electronics can add more current harmonics and be more sensitive for harmonics from other sources. This is the case for fast chargers for vehicles (especially smart chargers where connected vehicles are acting as battery storage and supply energy to the grid on demand), battery storage power stations and solar power plants.

– dQuality monitors not only the harmonic content of the voltage in the substation, but also the current harmonics in each feeder. This makes it possible to trace the source of the harmonics, in order to be able to act if the harmonics are impairing the power quality of the grid, says Victor Bagge, systems engineer at dLab.

Monitoring power quality has thus turned out to be essential in creating a sustainable and reliable power grid. With dLab’s solution, it is possible to attain the essential reliable power quality, removing harmonics, and handling reactive power flow, while also forming well-grounded grid investments.

About Dlaboratory Sweden AB

Dlaboratory Sweden AB (publ) is a Swedish cleantech company offering a digital platform for gathering, analyzing, and presenting condition data for managing the future power grid. Our solutions enable proactive maintenance work, an increased security of supply, and fewer power outages. We are a commercial company since 2015 and the shares are listed at Nasdaq First North GM (DLAB) since April 2021.