Smart Grid Partnership

Kamstrup A/S and Tekla Corporation have made an announcement regarding close collaboration to increase the amount of information utilities receive on their distribution networks.

A solution for monitoring and controlling the distribution grid consists of Kamstrup Smart Meters/Smart Grid Components and Tekla DMS 

(Tekla’s distribution management system).

The common customers of Kamstrup and Tekla can integrate Tekla DMS with Kamstrup’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) into one of the most desirable Smart Grid applications – a solution which provides utilities with more information about and control over their distribution networks.

By integrating two world-leading solutions, utilities get access to a best-of-breed solution. The combined Tekla-Kamstrup solution has already shown the value with a couple of common customers, where the systems have been integrated using a third part middleware software component. 

The situation at utilities has been characterized by very little insight into their distribution grid – a handicap that has prevented them from delivering the highest quality of service. The initiation of analysis and troubleshooting has been reliant on receiving feedback from customers.
 
For this reason utilities have looked for solutions, which can help them be proactive in relation to ensuring that voltage and frequency levels are kept within the acceptable limits and which can support the troubleshooting process, when they are identifying, locating, isolating and repairing faults in the low and medium voltage networks.
 
Outages caused by falling trees destroying overhead lines are an obvious hazard, but massive amounts of 

distributed wind and solar based power generation and a foreseeable surge in new grid loads due to for example electric vehicles and heat pumps are adding to the challenges.

Kamstrup Smart Grid Components deliver all necessary data about distribution grid health to Tekla DMS, which is the tool for maintaining and supervising the switching state of the electricity distribution network and for managing both planned and unplanned outages.

Making vital information from the distribution network readily available for grid network operators is a focal point for Kamstrup as well as for Tekla. Smart Grid Product Manager at Kamstrup, Henrik Bæk Jørgensen, explains: “Kamstrup’s Smart Grid components provide information like missing phases,

missing neutrals, over/under voltage and tampering as push alarms in near real-time to Tekla DMS.” Manager of product management, Juha Haikonen, at Tekla continues: “Tekla DMS integrates seamlessly with substation automation and advanced metering infrastructure, and uses the information provided by Kamstrup’s AMI to inform the staff on duty on the health of the distribution network, so they can maintain and supervise the distribution network for a hassle-free operation.”

Kamstrup AMI and Tekla DMS integration architecture is based on web services; and the partnership between Kamstrup and Tekla ensures that the companies align the models and services used to keep the integration effort to an absolute minimum.