DNV creates Digital Twin for E.ON
Unlocking the value of grid data to improve asset performance and drive down unplanned maintenance
DNV experts from the Energy Systems and Digital Solutions business areas have worked with E.ON in a consortium with other partners such as SGB-SMIT, Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen and Westnetz to create a Digital Twin that monitors asset health and performance of 110 kV power transformers.
Three key benefits:
- Real-time insights about asset condition and performance
- Reduced operational costs and risks
- Smarter asset management through improved decision support
About the customer:
E.ON is one of the world’s largest investor-owned electric utilities and supplies reliable energy at a fair price to around 16 million power customers and seven million gas customers in eleven European countries. With its three business areas of Renewables, Grid & Infrastructure and Retail, it is well equipped for the work ahead in a modern, decarbonized, decentralized and digital energy world.
E.ON offers its existing and potential customers innovative and sustainable products and services to help them use energy more efficiently and improve their quality of life. E.ON drives the transformation from a power plant-based energy generation company into a customer-oriented solutions provider. E.ON Innovation is a modular platform for innovation that identifies and develops the latest technologies and digital business models in the energy sector and beyond and launches them for E.ON´s core business
The customer challenge:
E.ON’s portfolio of high power transformers all originate from different manufacturers and as distribution grids are all managed by different regional operators, asset condition data from the installed base of transformers was not centrally available for analysis. In order to improve insights about asset health and performance, E.ON needed a central place where asset data, consisting of asset location, characteristics and real-time data could be stored and accessed for analysis.
DNV’s solution:
The operational data from the transformers is acquired and stored by using DNV’s Veracity cloud platform. The data is then visualized on a user-friendly web-based dashboard where the location of the transformers is shown on a map. Users can select a transformer and see its asset characteristics as well as relevant timeseries-data. Assessment functions can be added to evaluate failure modes per asset type. The resulting digital twin platform can be used to determine the remaining life of the equipment fleet and to prioritize capital replacement targets. This video explains how it works.
Benefits for the customer:
This solution has allowed E.ON to make the shift from managing assets in a reactive, time-based manner, to a more preventive, predictive and risk-based manner. Digital twins like these, give grid operators a better insight into the condition and performance of critical assets and allow for more real-time decision support. This allows them to reduce operating costs and unplanned maintenance of their assets.
About the Veracity platform ecosystem:
Releasing the full potential of digital technology requires a technology platform combined with internal capabilities to create business value. DNV’s cloud platform Veracity drives down the cost of innovation and collaboration as well as the cost of deploying new services and solutions. The platform provides secure connectivity between industry players, connecting asset owners and operators with domain experts and data scientists, enabling exchange of datasets, APIs, applications and insights.
