Gridspertise is constantly designing, developing, and testing smart meters and other smart grid solutions. These tests are conducted at our Smart grid and Smart meters laboratories in Milan, which were the protagonists of a project about the “Stories from the present” that shape the future by giving voice and face to those working to accompany the energy transition in our country.
Our labs are designed to develop, integrate, and test grid solutions at all voltage levels: Medium Voltage in Milan and Low Voltage at the Smart Grid Lab in Bari. They are founded on "grid-in-a-building" platforms, an ecosystem of real-time simulator systems and physical devices that allow all kinds of present and future grid scenarios to be recreated within them and validate new use cases for an increasingly efficient and resilient grid.
Recently, Paolo Bassani, Head of Smart Meters and Accessories, was interviewed for the initiative #EnergiaEnelTerritorio to talk about the activities carried out inside these premises by Gridspertise.
How does Gridspertise fit into the landscape of smart metering?
Gridspertise was established in mid-2021 through a collaboration of teams worldwide, with a focus on developing technological solutions for Enel Group's grid operators. Enel was a pioneer in introducing smart meters and remote control and automation on medium-voltage network. In fact the first roll-outs of these technologies on a national scale were launched in Italy the early 2000s when the concept of smart grids was still a dream.
Years of know-how and field experience have culminated in Gridspertise, where we are building the future of energy distribution. We offer advanced, sustainable, and reliable solutions to both Enel Group’s network operators and external players, empowering them to thrive in this rapidly evolving market. In December 2022, Gridspertise became an independent company, jointly controlled by the Enel Group and CVC Capital Partners, and is rapidly expanding its business and portfolio of solutions.
This expertise was crucial in the important milestone reached in July 2023: 100 million smart meters with Gridspertise technology. This achievement is a inheritance of our 20 years of experience working closely with energy distribution within the Enel Group and the innovative spirit of its design and manufacturing teams, an integral part of our DNA.
With the latest deliveries and the acquisition of Aidon, a leader in smart meters in the Nordic countries in November 2023, Gridspertise has reached more than 108 million smart meters and more than 200 customers globally, making our company a major player in massive installations across Europe.
Gridspertise’s smart metering offering, moreover, goes beyond simply providing technology: we provide software solutions and services that support DSOs with turnkey smart metering “as a service” projects that include design, planning, installation, integration, operation, and end-to-end maintenance of the entire infrastructure. The acquisition of Aidon, a leader in this area, confirms the company is moving in this direction.
Could you provide an insight into the activities and innovations taking place within the Smart Grid Labs?
Since its inception, Gridspertise has experienced significant growth. From its initial 100 employees to about 410 today. The Technology team, to which I belong, now consists of about 180 people, including 40 women, something of which we and I are very proud. Almost half work on smart metering projects.
These are electronic, electrical, mechanical, computer, telecommunications, and project managers, all the profiles needed to manage an end-to-end project: from requirements gathering to the conceptualization, solution design, development, testing, and validation phases of the solution all the way through to its certification and release to market or delivery to the end customer.
Our headquarter, opened in September 2023, is designed to create a sustainable, technological, and convivial space, where all the employees can collaborate and express their full potential. At its heart there are the laboratories, where we develop, test, validate, and integrate the company’s Smart Metering and Smart Grids solutions.
The company has invested in these facilities, equipping them with state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation. This has allowed us to insource activities that used to be outsourced, and to carry out testing and validation activities with appreciable benefits on the quality of our products. Having the labs in the same building also helps us maximize the interaction between the development and testing teams and, consequently, to reduce the time to market our solutions.
Additionally in the Smart Metering lab, equipment is tested across the board: hardware, firmware, along with communication between meter and data concentrator and between concentrator and central system. The lab is equipped with climatic chamber to simulate various temperature and humidity scenarios, calibration benches in which to verify the metrological part and the accuracy of the measurement, a shielded chamber in which to perform the electromagnetic compatibility tests required by current regulations, and all the instrumentation to test and possibly modify the electronics of the physical devices.
On the ground floor, there is a mechanical lab equipped with a lasing machine, 3D printers and all the necessary instrumentation to validate design choices and make any prototypes.
How do smart meters contribute to the future of grids?
Smart meters are fundamental for modern grids. The latest generation ones, that we develop and test in this lab, enable a very wide range of use cases, not only for distributors, but also directly for end customers, energy market operators and new players such as energy communities. For instance, the Open Meter, the latest generation meter for the Italian market, enables the acquisition of increasingly granular data regarding the consumption of the various utilities, supporting increasingly articulated tariff schemes and has also a dedicated communication channel, called Chain2, through which this data directly available to the end customer, fostering greater consumption awareness, greater energy efficiency and enabling demand response services, and access to flexibility services.
At the same time, smart meters act as sensors for gathering grid and energy flow data, especially from distributed renewable sources. This helps in monitoring and operating the grid and in planning maintenance and growth. For example, Open Meters have the last-gasp functionality: using dual power line and radio-frequency communication channel, they can send spontaneous messages to the Central System in the event of a power outage, allowing for early detection and mapping of outages on the low-voltage network.
What is the relationship between smart meters and sustainability?
Smart meters and sustainability have always gone hand in hand. If we look back at the roll-out of first-generation meters, this immediately brought great benefits for utilities and the national economic system: being able to perform remote operations on the meters means major savings in operating costs, but also a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. Similarly, exploiting the meters as network sensors has made it possible to optimize its setup by minimizing technical losses, and to integrate and manage the exponential growth of distributed generation.
When we started designing the new generation of smart meters in 2016 or so, we raised the bar again. On the one hand, we worked to lower the self-consumption of the meters as much as possible, and out of 35-36 million meters installed, this has provided the country system with an important benefit. On the other hand, we have made it possible for the latest generation of smart meters to recommend behaviors to the end customer based on the data produced in real-time by their generation system, fostering greater sustainability and increased energy efficiency. In fact, these devices are able to collect information on the consumption of household appliances that can then be used, for example, to modulate power at an electric vehicle charging station based on available capacity and other energy demands in the home.
Product evolution also requires a focus on sustainability, increasingly recovering from decommissioning and maximizing the efficiency of circularity. Indeed, the latest generation of Italian smart meters has been designed with a focus on the environment and the circular economy. These new devices can, in fact, be manufactured from recycled plastic materials.
Why are the Smart Metering and Smart Grid Lab in Milan considered "a story from the future"?
Grids play and will increasingly play a key role in the energy transition. They enable the integration of distributed generation from renewable sources by contributing to decarbonization, they support global megatrends such as urbanization and end-use electrification, including the spread of electric mobility.
Gridspertise was founded with precisely this mission: to help electricity utilities effectively meet these challenges by providing cutting-edge technologies and solutions for grid digitization. The latter are essential for renewing existing electricity grids without massive investments, transforming them into highly sophisticated, smart and efficient platforms and maximizing performance and resilience.
All of the people that work at Gridspertise really feel the importance of designing and developing the best and most advanced solutions for the digitalization of distribution networks, we are proud to do so because we perceive its key role in the energy transition and we are aware that it must be done now, well and quickly precisely to build the electricity system of the future and deliver it to the generations to come.