A Significant Contribution to the Installation of a Smart Grid Network in the French Over-Seas Departments.
Brussels, Belgium [WorldofRenewables.com]
Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today that it has successfully installed a new system designed to monitor and manage renewable energy at the EDF SEI centre on the island of Guadeloupe. This solution allows EDF SEI to integrate renewable energy sources into the grid while ensuring the security of the electricity network and responding to problems associated with the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources.
New legislation across the world is encouraging the development of renewable energy increasing the need to monitor and manage effectively the integration of these energy sources into the electricity grid. In the French overseas departments, and generally on islands, renewable energy (photovoltaic and/or wind) represents a large proportion of total energy generation. Constant monitoring of renewable energy contribution ratio is critical in order to maintain this unpredictable source of energy below a certain limit, thus ensuring the grid security and reliability. In this context, EDF SEI selected Itron to implement this new grid management solution.
Itron designed, manufactured and implemented a turn key solution that includes field commissioning and training services. Itron’s expertise on the entire metering value chain ensured that EDF SEI had a reliable solution adapted to their needs.
This new management solution from Itron allows EDF SEI to obtain accurate information relating to the generation of energy and to analyse at all times the quantity of renewable energy injected into the grid. This information combined with the integration of several alert levels ensures EDF SEI can detect any potential incident on the grid enabling them to intervene when necessary.
Thanks to the success of this project, which called for Itron and EDF SEI to work in close collaboration, EDF SEI has decided to deploy this system to all the other EDF SEI centres over the next few months.
“We are pleased with the support and expertise that Itron has brought to us throughout this project. Itron listened and understood the problems we face and offered a solution completely adapted to our needs. We are convinced that the installation of this new system will guarantee the reliability and security of our electricity systems” said Mr. Alain Nicodeme, Project Manager EDF SEI.
“The success of this project is above all due to remarkable team work between the EDF SEI and Itron teams. We are delighted to have partnered with EDF SEI on this important project and to demonstrate our ability to respond to new market needs linked to renewable energy and to successfully commence the installation of a Smart Grid network in this region of the world” said Mr. Jean-François Brun, Electricity Managing Director.
About Itron :
Itron Inc. is a leading technology provider to the global energy and water industries. Our company is the world’s leading provider of intelligent metering, data collection and utility software solutions, with nearly 8,000 utilities worldwide relying on our technology to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Our products include electricity, gas, water and heat meters, data collection and communication systems, including automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); meter data management and related software applications; as well as project management, installation, and consulting services. To know more, start here: www.itron.com.
About EDF SEI
EDF SEI is responsible for the public service of electricity in Corsica, French overseas departments, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, St. Pierre and Miquelon.
In this role, EDF SEI is responsible for:
· Producing electricity in partnership with other energy producers
· Purchasing all electricity produced on its territory
· Managing the balance between supply and demand of electricity
· Ensuring the distribution of electricity from the producers to all its customers
In order to do this, EDF SEI exploits 2000MW of production installations, 2200km of HTB network, 12200 km of HTA network and 17300 km of BT network.