Landis+Gyr - “State-of-the-art” Grid technology for EGAT

EGAT Public Company Limited, Thailand
“State-of-the-art” Grid technology for EGAT

Permanent access to the current metering data for network control, supply planning and billing - this is essential for a power supplier. The Thai power supplier EGAT Public Company Limited (EGAT) uses around 600 ZMQ high-precision meters, data transmission by TCP/IP plus a Converge system, all from Landis+Gyr, to ensure this access.

Increasing energy demand

The demand for energy of the 63.4 million inhabitants of the kingdom is increasing continuously. It was recognised that EGAT would not be able to manage to keep up with the local energy demand – in spite of ambitious investment plans. The Thai government decided therefore to encourage private investment in the further expansion of energy supply. To this end, they opened up the state-owned energy supplier EGAT to private investment. Smaller energy suppliers obtained access to the public network. Finally, a programme has been initiated with the goal of motivating private investors to build and maintain power stations.

EGAT purchases the power produced by the private companies and in turn supplies it to the two public suppliers and directly to some large electricity users.

Preparing for the future

Faced with possible privatisation and in order to prepare for future businesses in advance by using modern technology, EGAT decided to procure a new grid-metering system.

EGAT started with the system evaluation in 2004. Landis+Gyr had to prove itself against strong international competition before we were able to win the order for nearly 600 Class 0.2 high precision meters and a dual, cold-standby Converge system. A fundamental plus point for EGAT was that Landis+Gyr was able to offer TCP/IP technology to utilise the EGAT Intranet to communicate and exchange data between the system control centre and the measuring points. The data are transmitted using the DLMS protocol. The data exchange with both distribution companies uses GPRS/GSM and PSTN technologies.

At the same time, installation of a state-of-the-art Converge master station to replace the old Landis+Gyr system was underway. The latter is now EGAT’s backup solution. The new system has a cold-standby configuration at its disposal. In this way, the standby system could take over data collection very quickly in the event of a system failure. The capability to process different meter protocols and use a variety of communication technologies for data transfer to measuring points and system partners provides EGAT with even more flexibility and security for the future.