
• Single consolidated

Network view

• Move from Reactive to

Proactive maintenance

• Reduced outages

• Increased Asset utilisation

Solution Results and Benefits

UKPN: Distribution Network

Visibility - Data to Information

Business Challenge

• Provide greater visibility of

Power Flows across the

network to enable better

management of complex

Load Profiles and

Distributed Generation in

the future.

• The UKPN PI System was

used to combine data from

disparate sources through

PI AF. Development of a

visualisation solution using

MS Silverlight, Visiblox &

Bing Maps

Demonstrates the business benefit of improved collection, utilisation and visualisation of Network Data to support Low Carbon, Asset Management, Network Planning, Operations and Control.

Outcomes inform UKPN Telemetry and IT strategies to deliver optimised network monitoring and control.

2


UK Power Networks

3

Electricity Distribution Network Operator (DNO) serving more

than 29,000 square km across London and South East of the

UK

Their three networks (London Power Networks, Eastern Power

Networks and Southern Power Networks), use more than

160,000km of underground cables and overhead lines to

distribute electricity.

UK Power Networks’ responsibilities include:

• Maintaining the safety and reliability of the electricity

networks

• Connecting new customers’ premises to electricity

• Extending and upgrading the network to meet changing

needs

UK Power Networks Operational Area


Capula

4

Independent System Integrator

Specialist in Automation & real-time IT

Focus on Energy & Utilities

Established more than 40 years

National coverage across UK&I

~350 staff, £40m turnover

Now part of Imtech NV


DNV - Project Background

5

Low Carbon Network Funded Project – commenced 10/2010

OFGEM (UK Regulator) provided £500m to fund projects to

explore:

• New Technologies

• New Operating arrangements

• New Commercial arrangements

The objective of the funding was to drive innovation that will

support and enable a UK wide low carbon economy

The learning and outcomes from all LCNF projects will be shared

across all UK DNO’s

UK Electricity Distribution Networks



6

UKPN has RTU’s at all primary and nearly half of its secondary

substations at LPN (c. 7,500 sites)

Use of RTU data was focussed on immediate identification and

rectification of local issues by UKPN Control Engineers to

interrogate “on the spot” …but limited RTU data was originally

stored on the central UKPN PI System

UKPN has had a PI System for over 10 years but like many

organisations had not realised significant value from this stored

data

Given the move to a Distributed Generation model there was a

need to provide better visibility of power flows and complex load

profiles in order to manage the Network efficiently




7

Funding for the DNV Project was granted to fully utilise the

primary and secondary RTU’s across three networks: LPN, EPN

& SPN

The DNV Project demonstrates the business benefits of smart

collection, utilisation and visualisation of data both for current

business processes and carbon transition, including:

• Identification of localised load growth and changes in load

patterns

• Understanding where Distributed Generation is masking load

and its impact on planning, outage calculation and restoration

• Understanding whether assumptions about the duty cycle of

assets such as tap changers, transformers etc. are accurate



DNV - Initial Architecture

8

Prior to the project UKPN was

collecting data from their RTU’s

through ENMAC & Corgis

interfaces and storing it into

a single PI System

Data was accessed through

standard OSIsoft visualisation

Tools PI ProcessBook and

PI DataLink

Data was not organised into

any asset hierarchy and there

was no connection to external

databases

- Raw real-time data

Server

Side

Client

Side

PI

Server

Visualisation Key

Corgis Data

ENMAC Data

PI ProcessBook

PI Datalink


DNV - Implemented Architecture

9

During the project the OSIsoft PI System

was upgraded with the addition of two

further servers:

An application server running PI AF,

SQL server and DNV databases and

background tasks

A web server serving the front end DNV

visualisation application

Existing ENMAC and Corgis interfaces

were moved to the GE Power-On system

Interfaces were implemented to PI AF for

asset databases in Power-On and Ellipse

SQL

Server

Side

Client

Side

AF

PI

Server

Power-On Data

Powersense Data

Data

Cleansing

Algorithms & Information

Visualisation

Weather Data

Asset Information

(Power-On, Ellipse,

Etc.)

- Raw real-time data

- Data cleansing operations

- Network configuration &

asset information

Key


DNV - Solution Components

10

The UKPN OSIsoft PI System was upgraded to 250,000 tags with additional capacity planned in 2014

The UKPN OSIsoft PI System was enhanced through the addition of PI AF

GE Power-On (ENMAC) - The UKPN Distribution Management System passes data to the PI System

Visiblox Charts, a powerful development tool is used to create fast and stylish Web-based charts

Bing maps is a web mapping service provided as part of Microsoft’s Bing suite. Custom pins with colour

feedback functionality have been developed on top of this platform.

Microsoft Silverlight is a powerful development tool for creating engaging, interactive user experiences

for Web and mobile applications.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is an enterprise level relational database management system developed by

Microsoft and widely used throughout the software world to manage vast data-stores


DNV - User Interface

11

The DNV application allows asset and real-time data

to be displayed and analysed in a number of differing

and complimentary ways in an intuitive tab-controlled

interface.

The layout of the screen is structured as follows:

1. Help Option (inc. Video clips)

2. Navigation and Favourites Sidebars

3. Application View Tabs

4. Settings Sidebar

The application has a wealth of configuration options accessible through two side bars (2 & 4) which can

be collapsed to devote more screen space to the main application

1

4

2

3


DNV - GIS Tab

12

The GIS Map provides a geographical view of

the network

When a substation, transformer or feeder is

selected from the hierarchy a pin is displayed

on the map

A number of variables can be applied to

these pins to view changes over time or

summary values (data from PI AF and

PI Server)

Functionality includes:

• Normal Bing-Maps functionality

• Time slider control, to pan data values during the selected time range

• Click on a pin to view asset details

• Double-click to search nearby assets by various parameters (e.g. capacity to add a given load)


DNV - GIS Tab

13

GIS Map pins can show the following data:

Static pins show the location of and

information on selected assets

Colour-feedback pins represent data

values as a colour on the pin and size

represents a second value

3-Phase pins: rectangular pins with 3

sections representing the voltage, current or

total harmonic distortion on each phase

Load Profiles show the load profile colour that the site profile most

closely matches for each day on the time slider, which can also show how the usage changes over time

Connected Generation uses colour to show the amount of connected generation at secondary sites

Quadrant pins show 4 colours representing a value summarised over summer/winter and

weekday/weekend, e.g. capacity to provide additional load


DNV - GIS Tab

14

Non-asset information (shown as triangular pins) from

UKPN’s New Connections database has been linked

into the DNV application

Existing load can be displayed with this potential

additional load added, based on the connections load

profile

Capacity to support further additional load can also be

shown on the GIS Map

Both are displayed as Quadrant Pins showing the

ability to support the desired load during summer and

winter, weekdays and weekends

Ability to also find all nearby new connections by

searching on the GIS Map

Spare capacity report shows the total spare capacity of each site to support specific load profiles

during the seasonal and weekly periods


DNV - Time Series Data Tab

15

The Time Series Data tab allows the user to generate graphs

illustrating data measurements over a defined period of time

1. Chart Area – displays the raw and/or clean data from the

PI Server through PI AF

2. Data List/Legend Dropdown - this has two tabs:

a. the Data List tab displays all possible data streams

applicable to the assets selected in the PI AF

hierarchy

b. the Legend tab lists the data streams currently

displayed on the graph

3. User Settings – this collapsible side-bar allowing user to

change chart settings for individual data streams

1

2 3

a b


DNV - Analytical Data Tab

16

The Analytical Data tab allows the user to produce analytical

graphs on data measurement calculations over a defined period

(e.g. by hour-of-day), for selected sites

1. Chart Area – Displaying calculated, summarised and collated

data e.g. maximum load by day of week

2. The User Settings collapsible side-bar allows the users to

change the calculation and collation settings, as well as the

trace types

3. Graph/Table Tab Selection – the analytical values used to

populate the graph can also be saved to a csv file for export

to 3rd party applications such as Excel

1

2

3


DNV - Reports Tab

17

The Reports tab allows the user to request, queue, and retrieve

reports on selected site(s) over a defined period

Reports are generated on the server using PI AF and PI Server

data, with progress monitored from the application

A number of pre-configured reports are available to the user, as

well as the facility for them to define their own report criteria

Standard reports can also be scheduled to run at pre defined

intervals

Inbuilt functionality to view report data for selected rows on GIS,

Time Series and Analytical tabs

Reports can be made public to share with other users and can be

saved locally to load into 3rd party applications e.g. Excel


DNV - Planning Tool Tab

18

The Planning Tool tab allows the user to view grouped and

summed values from all levels of the PI AF hierarchy

Replacement for original excel spread sheet which offered

limited flexibility

Specified and driven from end user requirements and

interaction

Ability to view individual and summed loads, calculating

times of maximum group load over a 400 day period

Ability to drill down into half hourly data from the PI Server

Ability to export a Maximum Demand report, to feed into 3rd

party distribution planning tools, e.g. DINIS


DNV - Quick Launch Tab

19

A Quick Launch tab has been created to simplify access to

information and which gives rapid access to the most commonly

needed scenarios

These options will multiply as the use of the application grows

Each Quick Launch or Shortcut opens a settings window showing

all applicable settings in one place pre-configured to agreed

default values

In most cases the user only needs select which asset to apply the

required Quick launch or Shortcut

Implementation of the Quick Launch/Shortcut approach was

developed in partnership with the UKPN user base and improves

the user experience and efficiency


DNV - Summary Dashboard Tab

20

A Summary Dashboard tab has been created

give an initial jump-off point for further

investigations

The dashboard is driven by a daily report which

summarises several key performance indicators

retrieved from the PI Server

The history of each indicator can be viewed in a

trend

Each KPI has an associated report showing the

most critical assets contributing to the KPI value


The DNV application was adopted as a Business as Usual

Solution by UKPN and has already delivered the following

benefits:

• Network wide overview and Reporting

• Early identification of Network problems

• Outage avoidance

• Optimised Asset utilisation

• Understanding of long term usage trends

• Enhanced Power Flow analysis

• Improved Network capacity planning

DNV - Business Benefits

21


DNV - Future Developments

22

The DNV application is continually being developed and

the key areas of focus are:

• Further Visualisation development

• Addition of PI Notifications

• Additional Low Carbon Load profiles

• Additional Data Cleansing operations

• Migration to HTML 5


Mike Collins & Alistair Frith

[email protected]

Business Sector Head – Utilities & Industry

Capula Ltd

www.capula.co.uk

23

mailto:[email protected]


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