New Relay Protection System implemented | Energy Networks (E.ON)
Energy Networks is one of the three business areas – Energy Networks, Energy Infrastructure Solutions, and Energy Retail – of E.ON, an electricity distribution company located in Sweden that employs around 2,100 people. Its business consists of smart energy infrastructure and innovative energy solutions. It supplies electricity, heat, and smart energy solutions to more than one million households and businesses.
E.ON in Sweden is part of the international energy group E.ON SE, which is headquartered in Essen, Germany. The Group employs around 70,000 people in 17 countries. In addition to Sweden, the E.ON Group operates in Denmark, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey.
How did the Implementation journey of IPS®EPIS start?
Due to the increased workload that today’s constantly developing power grid demands, Energy Networks started looking for a new information system that is built for handling relay protection settings. They required a functioning system for managing protection devices, relay protection settings and related documents such as test protocols, relay protection configurations and calculation materials.
In September 2024 we have successfully completed a six-months implementation project of Protective Relays solution. All scheduled tasks were completed on time, leading to a swift and efficient project completion. The complete software delivery and system implementation was solely carried out by IPS, and the entire IPS EPIS (Enterprise Protection Information System) team was actively involved in this project. The IPS software is already actively in use within Energy Networks.
Implementation
During this project we analysed, transformed and migrated data from the existing 3rd party applications residing in Energy Networks environment (protection settings, asset and other business segmented data, …). Currently, all relevant data are synchronized and validated on a single platform. IPS®EPIS represents a single point of truth for managing data related to protective relays and relay settings.
The implementation of this project occurred in five stages, starting in mid-March 2024 and was successfully completed at the end of September 2024:
- In the first stage a delivery organization was established, and the updated project plan was approved.
- In the second stage, the Default Solution was installed, verified, and approved. This involved the delivery and installation of the Solution, analysis and consolidation of functional and non-functional requirements, preparation of the low-level design of the Solution, integration of third-party sources and migration of initial data (locations, assets, settings, etc.), initial configuration of the Solution, and performing necessary configurations to handle Energy Networks different relay protections.
- The third phase included a site acceptance test (SCT) and non-functional testing (NFT).
- In the fourth stage the acceptance tests were approved.
- The final stage was the project closure.
In this project, we used a Hybrid Agile (SCRUM) / Lean Project Management Methodology, focusing on delivering an efficient solution in the shortest time under the planned budget. Agile (SCRUM) – Lean Methodology is delivering an efficient solution with the minimum viable processes. The methodology is reducing unnecessary project tasks, documentation, shortening meetings and focusing on early delivering of beneficial functionalities with a knowledge transfer to the end-user. Testing and verification were also done with modern tools, contributing to swift project completion.
Benefits
The most significant benefit of this EPIS NMM project is the establishment of a bridge between IPS®EPIS and Advanced Protection Assessment (APA), formerly known as CAPE. This allows relay setting data from the IPS®EPIS system to be transferred to APA through the Network Model (IPS®NMM), which is based on the CIM standard. This standardized integration enables the extension to other potential systems and ensures an accurate simulation and analysis of protective relays and relay settings in APA.