Future-proofing distribution grid management for Elvia in Norway
As a key milestone in their digital transformation, Norwegian DSO Elvia has implemented our smart Gridscale X portfolio to build a Digital Twin of their low-voltage grid. By combining data from multiple sources with intelligent software, Elvia can now maximize the performance of their existing infrastructure and accelerate the energy transition.
Challenges
- Exponential rise in data and complexity through high penetration of DERs (solar panels, heat pumps, EVs), especially at the low-voltage level of the grid which lacks visibility
- Need to increase grid hosting capacity fast.
- Stable power supply and quality, despite fluctuating infeed and hardly predictable consumption behaviors
Keys to success
- Intuitive usage thanks to user-centric development process
- Leveraging existing data for building one common digital grid model
- Scalability due to cloud solution
- Seamless integration with existing tool landscape
- Open, yet highly secure software for easy integration of various data sources and data exchange
Customer benefits
- Full transparency of low-voltage grid
- Increased usable grid capacity
- Fast identification of critical grid segments, averting overloads and outages
- Increased grid stability
- Targeted investments, saving time and resources
- Complete LV grid model with minimal maintenance effort
Working with Siemens, we deployed an advanced and future-proof product that will help us to accelerate and handle the energy transition. With increased flexibility and oversight over our grid, we can now manage our low-voltage system in a much more efficient manner – from planning to operations and maintenance.
Erik Jansen, Head of Grid Operations of Elvia
Full transparency, increased capacity, and higher efficiency
Elvia, Norway’s largest power grid operator, manages, maintains, and expands a network that spans an area slightly larger than Denmark. Like many European DSOs, Elvia faces increasing pressure from rising energy demand and the rapid growth of distributed energy resources. Norway already leads the world in heat pump adoption and electric vehicle sales—factors that intensify the need for grid expansion, which is both time-consuming and constrained by multiple limitations. Gridscale X LV Insights supports Elvia in making targeted investment decisions and unlocking additional usable capacity from its existing infrastructure. The Digital Twin of the low-voltage grid delivers dependable insights and real-time visibility across departments.
Exclusive webinar: From Insights to Control
Let’s rethink grid management and explore solutions for LV grid transparency, planning and management – bringing planning and operations closer together. For better managing the unpredictable nature of DERs. For faster outage handling. For smart ways to maintain a grid model and improve operational efficiency.Keeping customer satisfaction high
Many Elvia customers are now ‘prosumers’—not only consuming energy but also producing, storing, and feeding it back into the low-voltage grid. Combined with the rapid growth of large solar and wind parks, this has made the distribution grid far more volatile and difficult to predict. It became essential to transform this “black box” into a transparent, data-driven system that enables the DSO to identify issues before customers even notice or report them.
By using LV Insights, Elvia is able to leverage the full benefits of the Siemens Xcelerator and the Gridscale X portfolio as it seamlessly integrates into its existing system landscape, including Spectrum Power™ 7 ADMS. It allows them continuous innovation and smooth updates without user disruptions.
Unified grid model as source of truth
Because of legacy systems, Elvia’s data and information were confined within individual departments. By using LV Insights’ grid model–building capabilities, Elvia developed a complete and unified grid model that now acts as a smart data translator for the entire organization. Information that once lived only in the control room can now be shared across multiple teams. And the benefits go even further. As Jørgen Sivertsen Åsrud, Control System Engineer at Elvia, explains: “Our grid model maintenance is significantly reduced, and we can manage voltage outages much more efficiently and automatically.”
Access exclusive webinar content
From Insights to Control: Enhance Grid Management efficiency with your co-pilot for flexible low voltage grid management. Gain access to our on-demand webinar and explore solutions to unlock grid flexibility at scale.
