Eltel presents at Berlin Energy Seminar

Eltel participated with a number of other technology leading companies at Berlin Energy Day organized by the German-Finnish Chamber of Commerce. Germany has been under focus for its energy transition policy called Energiewende. As a result the total scene for energy industry has taken a new shape.

Altogether 120 participants attended the seminar with high level presentations from Minister Alexander Stubb from Finland and State Secretary Stefan Kapferer of Germany together with other policy makers and industry representatives. The theme for the seminar was “Smart Energy Solutions for Smart Europe”. Eltel co-presented with Elenia Oy from Finland who provided a case of implementing Smart Grids by a Distribution System Operator.

Fredrik Menander, President of Eltel Power Transmission business, started his presentation with a review of Eltel’s experience in power transmission and distribution. The company has 60 years of track record with 47,000 km of executed transmission line projects. The main drivers for increased needs for today’s investments are ageing networks, securing network availability and reliability, connection of renewable energy sources and smart grids.

The challenges are many from changing regulation to higher efficiency needs, competences, workforce resources, service levels and technology shift. Typical project sizes contracted by Transmission System Operators range from EUR 10 to 100 million. As the energy policy has become more international, so have the energy markets and also competition for investment projects. Menander finished by showing a list of 16 major smart metering projects implemented by Eltel in 2005 to 2013 totalling at 3.5 million metering points in Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

Jorma Myllymäki, Networks Director of Elenia Oy, presented a case of implementing Smart Grids at their power distribution company. Elenia serves over 400,000 electricity customers with 64,500 km of distribution network in Finland. By Myllymäki Elenia was the first operator to integrate electricity customers with low voltage networks by means of smart meters during 2005-2008. The benefits of the new system have been considerable including the following:

  • Higher operational efficiency of the networks
  • Higher security of supply through better control of network performance
  • Better customer experience through transparent and new online services
  • Higher energy efficiency through better awareness of energy consumption

E-mobility, small scale generation and weatherproof network were mentioned as next steps of Smart Grid development at Elenia.

Uwe Kaltenborn, Country Director of Eltel Power Transmission and Distribution in Germany, brought the focus back to the German aspects of infrastructure development. Altogether 8,500 km of 380 and 220 kV power lines must be built, rebuilt or refurbished. This is approx. 25% of the total length of 35,000 km of these networks today. The need for investments in power lines alone are EUR 4 billion in the next few years. 36 transmission projects have been confirmed, many of them being delayed due to the lengthy permitting processes.

The new energy regime will also mean more requirements of investments for the Distribution System Operators. The estimated volume of these investments is EUR 25 million in networks and another seven million in Smart Grids by 2030 in Germany.

Photo: Fredrik Menander presenting at Energy Seminar in Berlin.

More information:
Hannu Tynkkynen, Senior Vice President, Eltel Group Corporation
Tel. +358 40 311 4503, hannu.tynkkynen@eltelnetworks.com