CKW AG - Efficient network planning with measurement data

"Thanks to iRIX, their agile project management and "big data" know-how, we can now mesh the various measurement data, gain better insight into our distribution network and have a sound basis for making cost-optimal decisions."

André Kübler, Head of Asset Management Networks

Initial situation
CKW is a leading provider of integrated energy and building technology solutions and has been supplying Central Switzerland with electricity for over 125 years.
This electricity procurement has been in a state of flux for some years now. While peak demand used to be calculable, it has now become more dynamic and is also influenced by various factors such as the use of electric vehicles and renewable power generation. In order to ensure efficient grid planning in the future, various measurement data must be collected and evaluated.

Challenge
At the time of the project start, measurement data from the transformer stations and smart meters of private households were collected in various Excel spreadsheets. The format varied depending on the supplier and source, which meant that at that time neither overarching comparisons, evaluations nor predictions were possible.

iRIX was commissioned to automate and standardise the data retrieval from several systems. A scalable solution was also to be found so that the data management could grow with the company.

Solution
For this project, code-free, visual data pipelines were built on the Microsoft Azure platform. Data is extracted in raw form from various external databases and stored in a Azure data lake. They are then further unified with the Azure product Synapse Analytics. Another pipeline prepares the data so that it can be used in Azure Dedicated SQL Pool.

Added value for the client
Thanks to the data solution developed jointly by iRIX and CKW, questions about regulatory compliance with network loads and voltage quality can already be answered simply and quickly, where previously various manual sub-steps were necessary. The involvement of the customer in the agile process was particularly appreciated, which meant that the incremental development of the digital solution was always in focus.

The next step is to optimise data quality, enrichment and use. In this way, another big step can be taken in the direction of analytics of the electricity grids.