Work safely in energy switching stations

The Federal Council's Energy Strategy 2050 aims to fundamentally restructure the energy system and promote alternative energy. However, when it is no longer a few large power plants but many small solar panels or run-of-river power plants that generate electricity, many new measuring points, information and lines will be needed to control the electrical energy grid in a reliable manner.

This is why switching must be carried out more often in transformer stations. But switching the switching elements is dangerous. "A mistake can still be fatal," says René Meier from the Competence Center Distributed Secure Software Systems at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts - Information Technology. Together with experts from IDS Switzerland, a leading manufacturer of grid control, telecontrol and automation technology, Meier has developed an intelligent software system to expand existing control technology systems. The system guides energy technicians safely and specifically through the circuits using a smartphone app.

Work steps assembled in a modular system

For the "Smart Energies - Energy Management of the Future" project, funded by the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI), Meier's Mobile Systems research group broke down the work of the switching teams into very small steps. Each individual step became a small box that you can click on. "Previously, the energy engineers had to lug the documents around on paper; in future, the app will provide the steps," says Meier.

The app automatically assembles the boxes in a kind of modular system to create guided and synchronized workflows. "Preparation at the plant, arrival, preparation on site, safe switching, additional orders, feedback, reporting - each element has its own characteristics," says Meier. "Some have to be synchronized with other teams, some only displayed, others acknowledged by the user. Some can be interrupted, others not." The system also provides additional information, such as a map with directions, information about the higher-level supply network, the type and circuit diagrams of the systems or the required type of protective clothing.

Additional info tags on the systems 

The project is due to be completed in spring 2017. IDS Schweiz AG plans to launch it on the market in 2018. Andy Kreuzer, Managing Director of IDS Gruppe Schweiz AG, points above all to the benefits of increased security and better control that the system brings. "The employees at the head office are always informed. We know when which person is on site because they have to acknowledge it," says Kreuzer. "And we know where each team is via GPS. This gives us clean documentation, even in the event of an emergency." To ensure that a technician switches to the right device even in an emergency situation, the research team also wants to equip the systems with information tags that provide information if necessary.

(HSLU)