CEZ/CzechGlobe/Mycroft Mind

CEZ, one of the major providers Czech power grid, looks quite far into the future for infrastructure innovation. Wide introduction of smartmeters and accompanying technology requires large simulations to evaluate its impact on the power grid infrastructure. Recently, we used our testbed to run a simulation of 3.5 million smartmeters, evaluating impact of various behaviour patterns of non-reliable data transfers.

In the framework of the CEZ “WPP AMM” project, 35,000 smart meters were installed as a pilot at concrete consumers and alternative solutions proposed and implemented for the collection and storage of data from the smart meters. This was the reason for the decision taken by CEZ a.s working together with CEZ Mereni (Measurements) s.r.o to implement a complex simulation test in the “WPP AMM” project, whose help would enable the individual alternative solutions to be verified and which would establish how they would hold up during day-to-day operation. It was therefore necessary using experience gained during the pilot operation of 35,000 smart meters to simulate a similarly behaving grid ten times as large – with 3.5 million smart meters. A simulation environment has been constructed in collaboration with RI CERIT-SC using its infrastructure. The first tests in this simulated environment ran at the end of November 2012. By the end of 2012 extensive tests were carried out during which more than a billion measurements were transmitted and almost 100GB data filed in the database. The tests demonstrated that the solutions verified during pilot operation would hold up under the real load of full-scale deployment in the Czech Republic. They also showed what parameters the target solutions would have to fulfill. The specific simulation environment was stored as an image of a virtual cluster; this image was reawaken almost a year later when a new set of simulations for the same simulated environment was needed.

The achievement even deserved a press note

5th March, 2013 – Landis+Gyr, the leading global provider of integrated energy management products and a Toshiba Group company, has successfully completed a milestone performance test of its Meter Data Management System and Head End Solution in the Czech Republic for the CEZ Group – one of the largest utility groups in Europe. The test, which was carried out using virtual infrastructure at the country’s Technical University in Brno and the CERIT Scientific Cloud, also located in the Czech Republic, involved the installation of a meter data management system (MDMS) and head end solution (HES). The hardware was scaled for 3.5 million power line carrier, advanced metering management (AMM) meters. A real flow of data, including master data, was created using a data simulator.

Source: http://www.landisgyr.cz/successful-landisgyr-smart-metering-test-largest-in-europe/