Network optimization brings benefits on three levels
"There are benefits on three levels."
Osmo Siirto, Director of Distribution Network at Helen Electricity Network Ltd
- If you strive for an optimal network, your network assets can have a savings potential up to 20%.
- Allowing Network Optimizer to take care of routine planning tasks saves time and effort because carrying out this kind of thorough manual evaluation of different scenarios can take a very long time for a human.
- With Network Optimizer, the quality of network designs remains consistent.
Network Optimization in the making
Any software development is taken to a whole new level when vendor and customer work in collaboration. Helen Electricity Network has developed optimization with Trimble from the very beginning. The journey started in 2006 when Helen took part in a government funded innovation project with Trimble and Aalto University. This was followed by a larger asset management development project at Helen where network optimization was one of the topics
Benefits backed by research
"Utilities can have differing goals, criteria or principles, which has allowed us to examine what kind of network these given principles or preconditions produce," says Osmo Siirto, Director of Distribution Network at Helen. "When renewing a network, it is not the best practice to reconstruct an exact copy of the old network, but rather rethink the network structure," Markku Hyvärinen continues. "You can also see how a computer would design certain existing areas and utilize that in smaller reconstruction works. So every reconstructed part would take the network closer to the optimum," Siirto adds. "There has been research made on this, and there you will find the 10-20% potential to make your network more efficient," Hyvärinen concludes.
