The Norwegian DSO Arva is joining the project "Flexible power grid by dynamic operation" and will add 40 Heimdall Neurons to their grid, making it the largest Dynamic Line Rating deployment of its kind.
Arva started implementing Dynamic Line Rating solution from Heimdall Power in their grid back in 2018. 8 Heimdall Neuron sensors were installed on Arva’s power lines enabling a windfarm with an installed capacity of 250MW to connect to the existing grid without delays. The installation of the Heimdall Neurons took only 2 days. Arva avoided a 10-year process of concessions, planning, and building, and could put a 30 MEUR grid investment on hold.
Arva is estimating that they will receive grid connection requests for a capacity of 1500MW over the next 10 years. To meet this increase in consumption Arva is now looking at the system level – moving from Dynamic Line Ratings to Dynamic System Ratings. The same technology will now be used to optimize large area grids, helping Arva to connect e.g. new seafood industry, green industry, hydrogen production, electrified consumption (electric vehicles and ferries), and more renewable generation.
To get the system level monitoring of DLR, Arva is adding another 40 Heimdall Neurons to their 132 kV regional grid. This will monitor bottlenecks giving them the possibility to increase the capacity at critical sections of the grid. The solution will also optimize the integration of Arva’s grid towards the TSO Statnett.
“As we know that it takes 5 to 10 years to build new grid, we know we need to utilize the existing infrastructure more efficiently to meet the needs of these new customers.”
Fredd Arnesen, Dep. Manager Planning and Maintenance, from Arva
Flexible power grid by dynamic operation
The project “Flexible power grid by dynamic operation” is part of the Centre for Intelligent Electricity Distribution (CINELDI) which was kicked off by the DSO Linja in March. The project will look at the benefits of system wide monitoring and the values of instrumenting several lines in a power grid.
Maren Istad is coordinating all the pilot project in CINELDI. She states that related to Arva there are several important research areas for CINELDI.
“Can we, in the short-term perspective, utilize the existing grid better and connect more grid customers within the required safety margins? In the long term, we are looking for possibilities to postpone grid upgrades by operating the grid closer to the limits, but still within an acceptable risk level. This large-scale system level pilot will help us answer which data and analyses are necessary to achieve this” she says.
Istad also points out that this project allows CINELDI to explore how data from neurons can be displayed in the operation center for possible synergies with other measurements used in monitoring of the grid. “It allows us to investigate how the new information can be used to assist automated deployment of flexibility, e.g. demand response. Knowing the actual capacity of the power grid also means knowing when flexibility, e.g. demand response, is necessary” Istad concludes.
ABOUT CINELDI
Centre for Intelligent Electricity Distribution (CINELDI) is one of the Centres for Environmental-Friendly Energy Research in Norway. CINELDI is led by Sintef, and has several Norwegian grid companies as partners. The centre works towards digitalising and modernising the electricity distribution grid for higher efficiency, flexibility and resilience.
The use case
The 100 km grid that will be instrumented is a complex grid with a lot of hydro power production and consumption. To secure N-1 and avoid or resolve occurring congestions, the TSO does a lot of re-dispatching with large cost for society. In many situations there is not enough capacity in the power lines to distribute production out to the transmission grid. Because of these limitations in Arva’s power grid requests for new connections have thus far been declined, slowing down electrification of society.
The main goal for this project is to provide insight into the real capacity in the power lines. How can this insight help Arva operate the power grid more efficiently and utilize existing grid infrastructure in a better way.
