News articles 09.06.2020

Midtkraft Nett’s project completes Norway’s mass roll-out

SmartService Norway’s Project Manager Håkon Koppergård (left) and Midtkraft’s Project Manager Jens Kristian Støa.

Midtkraft Nett was one of the last electricity grid companies in Norway to upgrade its metering system to meet the national requirements. The project was awarded to Aidon in late 2018. Now, 16 months later, Midtkraft’s 14,000 meters have been replaced and the new system is in full operation.

When the delivery to Midtkraft was completed, it was also the final of a massive four-year project where Aidon delivered new smart meters to more than 1.6 million measuring points across Norway. Around 40 Norwegian electricity grid companies are now equipped with the latest smart grid technology from Aidon.

Fluent project, fluent flow of data

John-Arne Haugerud

– We are very pleased with how Aidon and their installation partner SmartService Norway have managed the project. The people have been outstanding and it felt like they were working with us. The project was delivered on time and within budget, says John-Arne Haugerud, CEO of Midtkraft.

Although Midtkraft Nett already had remotely read meters in use before the change, they had to be replaced to meet the new regulatory requirements, for example 15 minute time series readings. At the same time Midtkraft replaced three different meter types with respective systems by one, which makes the operation and management much easier. It also simplifies the information flow to Elhub, the national database of metering data. Every morning at 7 o’clock previous day’s data from all Norwegian electricity meters is delivered to Elhub. According to Haugerud this works flawlessly with the new metering system.

– Since we were among the last companies to replace our system, we could benefit from the experience Aidon had gained from the other projects in Norway in recent years, Haugerud says. The brand new metering system provides Midtkraft Nett with a vast amount of information which they plan to utilise for efficient grid operation and management.