Digital monitoring prevents device breakdowns and provides savings

The development of digital monitoring solutions at Fingrid has proceeded so well that the majority of the company’s substations will be brought within the scope of digital monitoring by 2025. Sensor systems that continuously measure data on the conditions of devices will enhance maintenance and ensure the reliability of the main grid. This is a pioneering project on a worldwide scale.

Although the security of supply on the main grid is good, the devices in Fingrid’s substations occasionally suffer characteristic faults and sometimes even explosions, which disrupt the power supply and give rise to excess costs. In the last five years, Fingrid’s grid management, digitalisation and ICT units have joined forces to study ways of improving the reliability of substation equipment using digital monitoring solutions.

“Back in 2016, we noticed that IoT technology had developed to the point that the digitalisation of substation monitoring began to seem realistic,” says Tuomas Laitinen, Senior Expert at Fingrid and manager of the project to develop a digital monitoring solution for substations.

The benefits, such as boosting the efficiency of maintenance and preventing breakdowns, were clear. The only question was whether the change could be made in a cost-efficient and genuinely scalable way. There were no ready-made solutions on the market suitable for use as substation monitoring systems. Among other means, innovation competitions were used to identify partners to develop a solution.

Critical devices first

Laitinen says that the development work has so far focused on the devices in which problems arise most frequently and which are critical in the event of faults.

“Measurement arrangements were implemented by modernising conventional measurements and including some new methods. For example, audio signals indicating faults were previously detected by the human ear, but, in the future, they will be detected using acoustic sensor systems. The system saves the sound from the device and compares it with the sound profile of a device operating normally,” Laitinen says.

In terms of detecting faults due to the explosion of a device, the solution seeks to forecast faults in many ways, including by using sensors to measure electrical discharges from devices. However, identifying the correct types of sensors and measurement methods is just one aspect of the development work.

“We have improved our methods for data transfer and mining data about the conditions of devices from the mass of data received from substations. In addition, real-time data must be presented to end-users in such a way that they can make the right decisions,” Laitinen says.

For certain device categories, the aim is to switch from time-based periodic maintenance to a state when technicians mainly visit substations because a deviation is detected by the automatic monitoring systems.

Digital monitoring to become comprehensive by 2025

The first phase in the development of digital monitoring systems was successfully concluded last spring. According to Laitinen, the monitoring system now works as an entity.

“The project is proceeding in phases, and the next thing to do is deploy the systems we have already developed into substations, alongside continuous development. The savings arising from the changes in the maintenance models for certain device categories will cover the costs of updating the monitoring solutions in forthcoming stations.”

The aim is to have digital monitoring solutions in use in the majority of Fingrid’s substations by 2025. This means tens of thousands of sensors and huge volumes of data will need to be managed.

“We are facing a major change, both on a sectoral level and on an international level. The change will improve the efficiency of maintenance, as well as the availability and reliability of the network. The goal is for us to continuously receive data from all substations on the functionality of devices. This will allow us to learn more about the devices, and thereby ensure the reliability of the network.”