News articles 16.05.2019
Skellefteå Kraft Elnät chose Aidon as the provider of its entire metering system renewal
Three years of experience in Aidon’s technology convinced Skellefteå Kraft Elnät to choose Aidon as the provider of the entire remote reading system renewal covering 62,000 customers.
– The first phase of the project has shown that Aidon’s system performance and reliability are very good. We are also pleased with the support we received from Aidon during the project. That is why we have decided to continue working together to renew our entire system, says Clas Berglund, CEO of Skellefteå Kraft Elnät.
In the summer of 2018, the Swedish Government decided on new operational requirements for electricity meters. To meet them, all Swedish electricity distribution system providers must replace or update their electricity meters by the end of 2024. The purpose of the reform is to strengthen the position of customers in the changing electricity market and, for example, to improve the reliability of distribution networks. Skellefteå Kraft Elnät is one of the first companies to start the renovation work. The first phase of its system project focused on replacing meters in sparsely populated areas.
– In our previous system, the communication was one-way, and we received one reading value from the meters every 22 hours. Now the connectivity is independent of the electricity network, and the RF radio network is self-healing. Meters now integrate into our processes in a completely different way than before. They send situational and deviation information about, for example, the start and end of a power outage, as well as alerts about, for example, zero wire faults and over- and under-voltages. This is all vital information for network operation.
One concrete new thing that brings savings is circuit breaker.
– It saves us mileage. If the customer doesn’t pay their bills, we don’t have to drive to the site to turn off the electricity, says Robin Sjöstedt, metering engineer at Skellefteå Kraft Elnät.