monitoring
remote control
SCAI’s customer oversees two primary activities for Italy’s electricity system: electricity transmission and dispatching. As Europe’s leading independent grid operator, the customer bears the responsibility of managing the transmission and transformation of electricity.
Dispatching, which effectively involves managing and balancing electricity flows through the transmission grid, requires optimal connectivity and the constant monitoring of data.
Maintaining a balance between the energy produced and the energy required is essential. Achieving this requires effective network traffic control and efficient communication between central remote-control servers and power plants.
Building on its experience with the Nemo Network Monitoring Tool developed by the SCAI Group to analyse and monitor the performance of IP networks (already implemented), the customer sought to improve its central server activity monitoring system.
The customer had to grapple with the static flow of data from servers to power plants, which made it impossible to perform continuous transmission activities. As a result, targeted checks on network traffic at interfaces were not possible, and there was no way to send commands to alter energy routes when needed to optimise energy distribution by making changes to the power grid.
To remedy this issue, SCAI created a new feature within Nemo to measure traffic flows.
The Netflow module isolates the communication protocol at power plants from other network traffic, providing real-time data on the bandwidth utilised by the central servers towards each power plant.
The way Netflow is configured allows all data flows between servers and power plants to be recorded and monitored, and for alarm thresholds to be set.
With ongoing support from the SCAI Group’s specialists, the customer’s technicians are now able to monitor the communication status between remote-control servers and power plants, extracting the required data.
The ability to configure specific alarms, such as detecting when traffic volumes drop below a certain threshold, allows the customer to identify false-positive alarm situations early and reduce the time required to resolve any faults.
The customer’s collaboration with the SCAI Group, which has been strengthened by the new Nemo feature, is ongoing and includes weekly maintenance requests and the customisation of technical features.
expertise
