Europe is diverse, both in terms of geography and in terms of culture. And the solutions for the energy transition in the various European countries are just as diverse. The smarter E Europe regards this diversity to be an opportunity to learn from each other and to make the energy transition happen even faster and more efficient in each of the countries. This series of articles presents innovative and successful projects from across Europe that show how a renewable 24/7 energy supply can work. The case studies should provide impulses and inspiration, turning “does not work” into “already exists”.
The recent photovoltaics boom is a challenge for distribution system operators: For each feed-in connection application, they have to analyze the grid capacity and provide a fast response to the applicant. At Kärnten Netz GmbH (KNG), this process has been automated, so that applicants can find out in just 30 minutes whether, and to what extent, a connection is possible at their location.
The Austrian grid operator has introduced automation in response to the surge in connection applications. Thanks to excellent subsidies, the number of applicants grew 15-fold between 2018 and 2022. The staff at KNG were simply unable to cope with the flood of applications with manual processing. The company would have needed a considerable number of new staff. Instead of hiring new people, KNG decided to standardize the process from the point at which the application is submitted, right through to the customer accepting the offer, allowing a switch to a fully digital process. This required complete customer data and up-to-date grid data, including electrical topology (digital twin).
Today, the process has been fully established. Customers submit their applications through a web portal. When the process had first been introduced, KNG’s staff still checked the customer data and installation data for plausibility, but even this step has since been automated. The system checks the application based on an up-to-date grid calculation for KNG’s entire low-voltage grid. This ensures that for each new application, the current free capacity is used as a basis. The calculation also includes the load flows of 160,000 connections within the grid area. The program is based on MATLAB, a software tool, and uses electrical and local data from the geographic information system, as well as SAP customer master data. MATLAB is a KNG in-house development.
If connecting a PV installation with the capacity requested by the customer is possible, the information is transferred to the grid customer information system. If the capacity requested exceeds what is possible, the system will notify the customer of the available grid usage rights (20 kilowatts maximum) and will reserve the capacity for the customer. If expansion work on the local grid becomes necessary to enable a connection, the respective team will receive an automatic order to schedule and carry out the work within the next twelve months.
If a connection can be confirmed, all the necessary documents will be created and signed by the software, and sent to the customer in digital format. At the same time, the available grid capacity is recalculated and updated. According to KNG, the automation has meant that applications are now processed within 30 minutes, rather than two or three days. So far, the system has created 10,000 automated offers for PV connections.