Integration of the regional transmission grids into Energinet.dk

transmission grids into Energinet.dk

With effect from 1 January 2012, Energinet.dk took over the regional transmission grids at 132/150 kV level in Denmark.

These were previously owned by 10 regional transmission ser-vice operators, as illustrated in Figure 14. The previous owners’

decision to sell the regional electricity transmission grids was a consequence of the EU’s third liberalisation package, which requires gas and electricity companies to separate transmis-sion from production and trade.

Following Energinet.dk’s acquisition of the regional transmis-sion service operators, ownership of the Danish power grid is divided into only two levels:

• The transmission grid that goes down to 132/150 kV and is owned by Energinet.dk.

• The sub-100 kV distribution grid that is owned by the local grid companies.

The entire transmission grid, illustrated in Figure 15, will, in future, be planned, established and operated by Energinet.dk.

This means that close coordination between the distribution companies and Energinet.dk is more important than ever be-fore.

Whereas System Plan 2012 focused primarily on the acquisition and the takeover, this year’s System Plan has placed emphasis on the work to integrate the regional transmission grids into Energinet.dk. This takes the form of 70 new employees at En-erginet.dk from the transmission operating company N1, the newly established working relationship with the distribution companies, and Energinet.dk’s handling of a larger fleet of fa-cilities and the synergy effects of same.

Planning work concerning the regional transmission grids In October 2012, the Danish Energy Association, the grid com-panies and Energinet.dk set up a Grid Collaboration Commit-tee, whose task is to ensure the coordination and prioritisation of activities of importance to the development, planning and operation of the entire power system at transmission and dis-tribution level. The committee comprises representatives from the management teams at the Danish Energy Association, the grid companies and Energinet.dk.

The work of the Grid Collaboration Committee supports the long-term development of the energy system, with particular emphasis on dealing with principle guidelines concerning technical conditions of relevance to the entire system. In addi-tion, the Grid Collaboration Committee helps to ensure the

6. Electricity transmission

mutual exchange of information between the grid companies, Energinet.dk and the Danish Energy Association.

In order to ensure the ongoing detailed coordination of plan-ning and expansion between the 132/150 kV grids and the 10–

60 kV grids, individual coordination groups have been set up with participants from Energinet.dk and the individual grid company. These groups are used to ensure the necessary ex-change of data between the companies, and they work to main-tain a project portfolio consisting of the projects in the 132/150 kV grids and the 10–60 kV grids that may influence one another and therefore require coordination. The projects comprise:

• Connection of power-generating installations or consump-tion, where there may be doubts about the voltage level of the connection point.

• Grid expansion projects that may influence the other voltage levels.

• Substations that affect connection between the transmission and distribution system.

In order to support the detailed planning, Energinet.dk pre-pares a grid development plan every two years. This plan lays down the long-term grid structure for the coming 20 years and maps the route to same. The grid development plan comprises both the Cable Action Plan for 132/150 kV and expansions of

the transmission grid in general. The grid development plan is a reference plan, and the specific solutions are laid down in a subsequent round of detailed planning, where actual decision-making bases and business cases are prepared.

A shared business case is prepared for the 132/150 kV grids and includes all the cable projects for the coming three years. This ensures a uniform decision-making procedure and robust coor-dination between the projects, and allows synergy effects to be reaped in both planning and implementation phases. The pro-jects are coordinated with the distribution companies’ network via the coordination groups.

System operation of the regional transmission grids

As a result of the purchase of the regional electricity transmis-sion grids in 2012, responsibility for operating the 132/150 kV grids is to pass to Energinet.dk. On taking over the grids, ser-vice agreements were entered into with some of the compa-nies for periods of up to three years. These agreements specify how the companies are to continue managing the day-to-day operations until the company in question is fully integrated into Energinet.dk and thus becomes part of the operation of the overarching transmission grid.

Energinet.dk is to ensure secure, problem-free take-over of the regional transmission grids’ operations. Before operations from Figure 14: The regional electricity transmission service operators in

Denmark before purchase. Figure 15: The regional electricity transmission grid in Denmark.

FynsNet 150 kV or 132 kV overhead line 400 kV cable

the ten companies can be taken over, a number of criteria must therefore be fulfilled. First and foremost, steps must be taken to ensure that monitoring of the signals from the new stations is coordinated with Energinet.dk’s general control centre.

In addition, Energinet.dk is to make sure to obtain all docu-mentation from the former regional companies. This applies to both technical and administrative documentation. All material was obtained by the end of 2013 for three of the ten former regional grids. All material from the remaining former regional grids will be obtained over the course of 2014 and 2015.

Reinvestments and new investments in the regional transmission grids

With the take-over of the regional grids, Energinet.dk has gained a large number of construction projects – particularly as a result of the Cable Action Plan, which involves laying 2,600 km of new 132/150 kV cables and dismantling a corresponding number of system km of overhead line. With ownership, En-erginet.dk has taken over responsibility for the overall coordi-nation of reinvestments and new investments in the entire transmission system.

This growth in existing and future construction projects has demanded organisational changes, recruitment and addition of new internal competencies in order to ensure that Energi-net.dk is well equipped to accommodate this significant devel-opment in the number of construction projects.

With the organisation in place, Energinet.dk is now – as re-gards installations – ready to reap the benefit of the synergies that were expected with the take-over of the regional grids.

Energinet.dk is working intensively to ensure that, in connec-tion with the massive investments of the coming years, techni-cal standard solutions are implemented across the regional grids for both new investments and reinvestments.

These standardisations and the large volumes open up a range of obvious benefits. For example, they make it possible to pool purchases with the suppliers and thus achieve more attractive prices and contract terms, and the use of standardised solu-tions will also make it possible to improve maintenance effi-ciency. These are all conditions that must be expected to re-duce the total lifetime costs of the investments.

During the actual execution of the construction projects, new investments and reinvestments in projects can be pooled to precisely the extent required to ensure that the projects can be completed with optimal utilisation of resources – as regards both internal competencies and total resource consumption.

Holding overall responsibility for project implementation also assures the best possible conditions for efficient knowledge sharing and experience collation.

Finally, it is important to emphasise that the numerous stake-holders that will be affected directly or indirectly by the future investments in fixed assets for the regional grids – such as local authorities, neighbours and property owners, investors and enterprises – will be able to expect strong and uniform

treatment, irrespective of where in Denmark the contact inter-face may be. As a result of its large fleet of facilities and project portfolio, Energinet.dk possesses a dedicated professional unit with extensive experience in the fields of citizen involvement and official approval procedures.