Smartgrids arrives at the low voltage dispatch centers

One of the greatest challenges of a Distribution System Operator (DSO) is to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of service, while improving efficiency and decreasing operational costs. EDP Distribuição (EDP Group), Portugal is the Low, Medium and High Voltage Distribution System Operator in the country, with more than 6 million customers, over 400 HV/MV Substation and 60 thousand MV/LV Substations, including 80 thousand km of HV/MV network and about 140 thousand km of LV Network. The management of LV network interruptions is supported by an Outage Management System (OMS) that receives the trouble calls from customers, tries to determine their scope and, therefore, make all efforts to quickly restore energy supply. This is essentially a reactive process since, typically, there is no LV network monitoring. InovGrid, EDP Distribuição´s project for Smart Grids, introduced new equipments and tools that allowed to rethink the management of outages in LV networks.