Grid analysis turns potential outage into proactive repairs

Regional energy company Bjäre Kraft’s grid includes 14 000 households on the idyllic Bjäre peninsula in northwestern Skåne.

In the summer of 2020, the grid surveillance team noted repeated signals of high ohmic earth faults on a line feeding 14 substations. A team was sent to investigate the substations and noticed a burnt smell coming from one switchgear. Customers were alerted to the impending maintenance work and the switchgear was replaced daytime. When demounting the switchgear, it was revealed that the fuses had been destroyed almost completely by heat.

dLab’s dInsight Analytics Platform provides a decision support system including a broad set of features and services. One of these features is dAnalyzer, collecting grid data from its minimal hardware, completely independent of age and make, including high-resolution sensors. The data is analyzed and put into meaningful context through a web-based interface; thereby enabling proactive fault detection as well as proactive maintenance. 

dLab’s Insight Analytics platform is based on dAnalyzer, a unique patented algorithm, automatically analyzing data in substations. Harnessing this data, operations can make faster fault detection, and – as in this case – get early warnings for imminent faults. This enables efficient operations and proactive maintenance.

Bjäre Kraft has clear ambitions to create a sustainable and digitalized energy system, encouraging solar energy and connecting microproduction to the grid. Procuring and installing dLab’s smart analytics platform was the next step in this digitalization of the grid. With the platform, installed in Förslöv, Grevie, Möllhult and Båstad, Bjäre Kraft can monitor the grid’s health in real time, as well as work proactively with early warning signals, avoiding outages.