Customer case stories 24.11.2023

Efficient earth fault detection with Aidon One saves cost and improves customer safety

Elvenett is a Norwegian distribution system operator with approximately 10,000 customers operating in the Øvre Eiker area. The company is using the cloud-based operating tool Aidon One widely to assist them in their daily work of operating the grid. With Aidon One they monitor and analyse incidents and perform fault correction both in the radio-based smart metering system, in transformer stations and, not least, for precise and efficient handling of earth faults.

The earth-fault module in Aidon One – an effective tool to trust

We had the opportunity to talk to Ole Alexander Olsen, responsible for handling earth faults in Elvenett, to hear his experiences with the use of Aidon One in his daily work.

– We have been using Aidon One for about a year now and have very good experience with the solution. It has been quite easy to familiarise yourself with it and take it into use. Together with Aidon’s metering system Gateware, it has proven to be a very precise tool on which we can rely. In many cases, we currently send out alerts to our customers about remediation of earth faults based solely on the information in Aidon One. We do this when the system’s calendar view shows that there has been an earth fault in a customer installation in accordance with one of the three industry defined criteria (REN 400) and when this is the only fault along the feeder line in question.

We do the same in cases where there have been recurring earth faults that come and go on several days during the month, but which are outside the REN criteria. We then notify the customer that we have detected a volatile earth fault and supplement the alert with a record showing the time and duration of the fault over the period we observe. This is useful information for the customer, so that he, with help of an electrician, can troubleshoot his installation during the periods when the fault is most likely to occur. Customers very much appreciate this service.

Aidon One calendar view of a measurement point with a volatile earth fault.
Aidon One calendar view of a measurement point with a volatile earth fault.

According to Ole Alexander, Aidon One is also a useful tool for detecting double earth faults, where an earth fault is occurring simultaneously at several customers.

– We then get a separate alert in Aidon One at these metering points. It is important to detect these earth faults because the earth current in these cases is higher and more dangerous.

When Elvenett started using the solution, they conducted control measurements in the field to double-check that the information from Aidon One was correct.

– Over time it turned out that our measurements matched the information we received from Aidon One, and this is now a tool we trust 100% as a basis for sending notifications to customers, Ole Alexander concludes.

Correcting earth faults the “old way”

We went with Ole Alexander and installer Marius Lødemel to the field to see how earth faults were detected and corrected the “old way”. In this case, it was an indirectly measured installation where it is not possible to detect earth faults using the electricity meter. You must therefore travel out to the transformer station to first find which circuit has an earth fault, and then confirm the fault in the intake at customer installation. This is done by using a separate earth fault detector to first find the specific feeder line and phase that have an earth fault, and then unravel further.

Earth fault detected in the "old way" by installer Marius Lødemel.
Earth fault detected in the “old way” by installer Marius Lødemel.

The “old way”, before Aidon One, was used for finding earth faults also in directly connected facilities. If there were several customers on the same feeder line, one also had to measure out in the individual junction boxes and measure which house has the fault, in addition to measuring which feeder line was affected. This was resource-intensive work. Now you see this directly as an alarm in Aidon One, and can quickly clarify where the fault lies without having to travel out into the field.

Aidon One used in emergency preparedness

Late summer this year, Norway suffered from large floods. Elvenett used Aidon One for emergency preparedness to ensure that customers were notified quickly if there was an earth fault in flooded buildings. In this way, dangerous situations were avoided by notifying residents who wanted to save household goods so that they did not enter houses with flooded electrical outlets or other equipment connected to the electrical grid.

Ole Alexander Olsen is happy with Aidon One as an operating tool in Elvenett.
Ole Alexander Olsen is happy with Aidon One as an operating tool in Elvenett.

– We use the Aidon One tool in many areas here at Elvenett, and it is exciting to see how the tool is further developed and improved to be able to support the organisation within several disciplines. We have limited resources and are covering a large field of expertise. Effective tools are very important to us, concludes Ole Alexander.

Extended earth fault management functionality

In collaboration with a major Norwegian grid company, Aidon One is being developed further. The goal is to build a system solution that together with Aidon One automates many parts of the earth fault management process. This includes the work orders to manage field searches, as well as the message flow with the customer and electrician for fixing the fault. With locating earth fault in a household, we have reached almost 100% certainty. Based on the analysis the solution will automatically send a notification order to the customer for rectification. In addition, the system will automatically generate log information to proof that the DSO has complied with the requirements set out in REN 400. The solution is expected to be available during the 1st half of 2024.