CEZ Romania Highly Appreciates PRIME PLC pilot delivered by ADD GRUP
ADD GRUP is excited to announce that the pilot project in Craiova (Romania) has been successfully finalized. It’s been a challenge due to very tough project deadlines but we are happy to inform that the results made us proud again of our product as well as our implementation team contribution to deliver the pilot during a very short time frame.
The aim of the project was to test various smart meters produced by different manufacturers and to show how current smart grid technologies can benefit the energy segment of the whole country affecting the balance statement results of the consumed and supplied electricity.
Romanian CEZ serves 1.4 million customers on a regular basis and is known for the electricity distribution in the south-western part of the country.
While in the process of establishing the ground for the beginning of the smart meter trial project, CEZ pointed out the major concerns related to the project as well as the goals. Expectations were high but not unreal. The distributors of electricity wanted to understand the technologies and choose the best one responsively, taking into consideration the specific conditions of the region, the amount of time needed for the massive smart meter roll-out, the strong points of different connection possibilities and the reputation of the vendor based on the experience in other countries.
The distributing company wanted to ensure efficient interfaces of applications and enable data statistics as well as more frequent data analytics which will help reduce the fraud attempts and tamper attacks. The proposed smart metering solutions have to be remotely monitored and supervised; have to enable energy savings, transferring all the data registrations every 15 minutes, so that all the unauthorized accesses to the meter are registered and dealt with. As well as that, the system has to provide detailed information on the detected defects that affect the signal, reduction of interruptions and control the rational usage of electricity in accordance with the needs of consumers.
For this pilot project CEZ has chosen several substations and all vendors had to provide their complete solution with counters, repeaters, filters, hubs and HES. The main criteria were the solutions with stability index and speedy data collection, execution of commands (switching on and off), configuration of counters, overall maintenance of the system. After a very constructive dialog with representatives of CEZ, ADD GRUP offered to implement ADDAX IMS. ADD GRUP, being very competitive, managed to provide the meters, that could stand out and perform the result which satisfied Romanian Utility company to the fullest.
ADD’s positive contribution to the pilot project will remain unconditional. The Romanian CEZ Group has responded very optimistically and being present on the country’s market ever since 2005, buying and selling of electricity on the wholesale market, the company believed in the success of the testings. As for ADD Grup, this project is a challenge we welcomed with great excitement. The principal goal was to show that ADDAX IMS system is competitive and reliable and with so many strong contestants in the pilot project it’s never easy to stand the competition. Together with CEZ our company decided to fight the problem of manual intevention in the system and money losses due to difference in electricity indicators.
PRIME meters and the favorable outcome of ADDAX IMS system installations have been also acknowledged by CEZ consultants (third party company), who performed the role of project management and advisor to CEZ. They expressed gratitude for high level involvement and responsiveness of ADD GRUP technical team and appreciation regarding the classic PRIME meters ADD Grup proposed for the trial purposes. In their letter to ADD Grup, their representatives state that ADDAX smart meters have shown a magnificent result at 99,9-100% in a 24-hour and 48-hour period. The connection was stable at all points – 95,5% for all installed devices and there were no issues detected along the way.
The pilot-project provided much help to understand and choose the direction to go for in order to please both consumers and electricity providers in the country so that the upcoming massive meter roll-out procedure is prosperous and collaboration between parties is fruitful and long-lasting.
About CEZ Romania: CEZ Romania is a part of CEZ that has been present on the Romanian market ever since 2005. Company’s mission is to ensure the distribution of electricity including operation, maintenance and development of electrical equipment in order to distribute electricity from producers to consumers. For more information on CEZ Romania, please visit: http://www.cez.ro.
About ADD GRUP: Developer and Manufacturer of AMI solutions (Smart Meters, Communication Infrastructure and related software, collectively known as Advanced Metering Infrastructure) based on open standards PRIME, G3-PLC, Wi-Sun. For more information on ADD GRUP, please visit: www.addgrup.com
ADDAX IMS is a technologically advanced AMI platform that combines robustness with high interoperability with most popular communication technologies: PRIME, G3-PLC, 3GPP. Contractors appreciate its seamless connectivity with Home and Wide Area Networks (HAN and WAN) that gives flexibility during system deployment and operation. For details on ADDAX IMS please visit: http://addgrup.com/product/addax-ims.