EOS, Switzerland

For many years, Landis+Gyr has supplied energy systems to Energie Ouest Suisse (EOS). Landis+Gyr and EOS have worked together to replace an old system with a new system which not only satisfies their current needs but prepares them for future targets and allows for faster data transmission. With thanks to a competent work ethic and harmonious collaboration, Landis+Gyr and EOS have successfully completed the project.

Course of Action
The project was carried out in several steps over a period of one year. In a time consuming effort, the new system had become operational and all of EOS’ substations upgraded. The functionality was updated periodically. In the final step the complete system became operational and the deadlines defined at the beginning of the project were fully met. With thanks to a close collaboration between the Landis+Gyr and EOS teams, the challenging project was an outstanding success.

Customer Benefits
The new Landis+Gyr system centralises data collected from all EOS measurement sites allowing them to provide data to their partners’ (local suppliers) in the shortest possible time. The system allows EOS to centrally upload and process data reducing maintenance costs for both EOS and its partners. The centralised system gives stakeholders the flexibility to respond to new requirements. The high flexibility of the system allows for easy re-definition of data in the event of any company changes.

EOS Solution Design
EOS has approximately 65 substations in the grid which read 500 load profiles. Their target was to increase the amount of substations to 130 thereby doubling the load profiles to 1000. The data collected from the substations is transferred to several databases. Most of the substation devices are Landis+Gyr FCL substations and some are of type Landis+Gyr FAG. Both were highly reliable and were to remain in the network.

However, when they were initially installed the highest baud rate was 150 and the transfer of data was slow. The speed of data transfer was never an issue while the substations were read by seven local data collection systems. However, in order to collect the data centrally, the data transfer rate had to be increased. For this project, the communication channels of all the substations equipped with Data Concentrators (FCL) had to be upgraded to the maximum baud rate of 1,200. This could only be done by permanently modifying and reconfiguring the systems.

Communication technology
Each substation was connected to the respective data collection system through WT channel technology using fast fibreglass cables (MUX technology). The bandwidth had to be increased in order to raise the data rate of the FCL to its maximum limit and ensure it was fully usable.

Requirements
As part of the system specifications, potential bottlenecks were identified during a workshop that took place in Lausanne, Switzerland. These bottlenecks were taken into account and implementation took place in several phases.

65 Substations (FCL, FAG)

• Each with 5-8 metering points
• Total of 500 load profiles
• Integration Period 15 minutes
• Communication via fibre optic and telephone
  

Data acquisition (Converge)

• Data acquisition and processing performed every 15 minutes
• Validation of meter data
• Metering data stored in database (for up to one year)
• Data acquisition in 4 minutes
• Process data for customers
  

Method
Due to a lack of experience in continuous data acquisition, it was not possible to accurately predict the performance of the new system. Landis+Gyr recommended using two parallel systems which would initially process half the measuring stations. In the course of the project, the performance of the system was improved five fold and therefore, EOS’ initial performance requirements were more than met. Today, it takes less than four minutes using a single data collection system to transfer the data to EOS’ processing system. The second system remains currently in stand-by and is used as a back-up system. Other functionalities which were specified, such as automatic usage of back-up communication lines and reading in the event of a buffer, were added within one year by installing the latest software releases.

History
For over ten years, Landis+Gyr has been supplying energy systems to ENERGIE OUEST SUISSE (EOS), a strategic holding company held by six partner corporations, based in Switzerland. The core activities of EOS are generating, transporting, trading and selling energy in Switzerland and other countries.