EnerNex Awarded USTDA-Funded Smart Grid Study to Improve the Côte d’Ivoire Grid

Jun 18, 2019 | Press Releases

EnerNex Awarded USTDA-Funded Smart Grid Study to
Improve the Côte d’Ivoire Grid

Released via BusinessWire.com

Knoxville, Tenn., USA, June 18, 2019EnerNex, a CESI company, today announced it has been awarded a U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA)-funded Smart Grid Study project to support Côte d’Ivoire Énergies (CI-ENERGIES) in improvements to the Côte d’Ivoire grid.

The Smart Grid Study will benchmark global best practices for reducing electricity losses globally, analyze the losses in the Ivorian electricity system, and develop a full “Loss Reduction Strategy” and implementation plan, while considering the objectives of energy growth and integration of renewable energies into the Cote d’Ivoire’s energy mix. CI-ENERGIES have engaged EnerNex’s technical assistance on the best solutions to reduce losses in the power system of Côte d’Ivoire in support of the technical and commercial performance of the Ivoirian electricity sector.

Côte d’Ivoire is the leader of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) zone. Its ambition is to become an emerging country by 2020, thanks to a strong economic growth and the development of all sectors of the economy. The goal is to improve, ultimately, the standard of living by adopting measures and reforms to accelerate people’s access to basic goods and services.

“We commend CI-ENERGIES for their solid operational and technical advancements among the different segments of the Ivorian electricity system which will enable overall efficiency to be higher than 87 percent by 2020,” said Aaron Snyder, EnerNex Director of Grid Technology Consulting. “We thank USTDA and CI-ENERGIES for giving us the opportunity to build upon and learn from the Ivorian experts and we look forward to strengthening the grid to achieve the goal of this study.”

This award follows the USTDA announcement in July 2018 of its re-opening in Côte d’Ivoire to support Ivoirian economy and infrastructure development, including the grant to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Ministry of Energy through Côte d’Ivoire Energies to:
“create a ‘Loss Reduction Strategy,’ which will reduce transmission and distribution losses and integrate smart technologies into the Ivoirian electricity system. Doing so will increase the reliability and efficiency of Côte d’Ivoire’s energy network and provide opportunities for U.S. companies to participate in the sector.”

“USTDA is committed to infrastructure investments that will drive the growth of the Ivoirian economy,” said Thomas R. Hardy, USTDA’s Acting Director. “Our Agency’s study will help modernize the country’s grid by utilizing American engineering expertise and create new opportunities for U.S. smart grid firms to enter this dynamic market.”

“CI-ENERGIES thanks the US Government through USTDA for its commitment to support the electricity sector and to make the Ivorian power system more efficient by reducing losses,” said Mr. Amidou Traoré, Director General of CI-ENERGIES. “This study conducted by EnerNex is part of the strategy of the electricity sector which aims to modernize its network by integrating smart grid functionalities.”

About EnerNex

EnerNex, a CESI company, is a leader in providing engineering, consulting, and research services to the electric power industry worldwide. Founded in 2003, the company is focused on helping our clients understand, adopt and leverage new and emerging electric power technologies to advance a cleaner, smarter energy system of the future.

To learn more about CESI, a world-leading innovation, technical consulting and engineering company for the electric power sector, visit: www.cesi.it.

For more information on EnerNex:

# # # #

Media Contact

Carrie Owens, Director of Marketing and Communications

+1 865-770-4854

cowens@enernex.com

 

Smart Metering (SM) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

Smart Metering and AMI is a transformational process addressing multiple business and technical needs of the utility enterprise. This is more than just smart meters and communications networks; it includes all of the back end applications that can leverage the meter assets, such as outage notification, demand response, call center optimization, disputed billing process handling, pre-payment opportunities, and service connection management methods and procedures, to name a few.

Implementing SM and AMI faces the same business, engineering, and operational challenges as any other across-the-utility information technology endeavors – most notably risk associated with embracing proprietary technology, missing functionality and early obsolescence. Effective SM and AMI development, implementation, and operation relies on a marriage of electric power engineering with information technology expertise: a key component of EnerNex’s expertise and experience.

EnerNex provides an array of engineering and consulting services geared towards intelligent and effective implementation of SM and AMI. This covers all phases of project development, starting with capturing system requirements where our experts leverage a “Use Case” centric view of activities needed to be accomplished and their interaction with systems and other users. Subsequent project steps typically examine other critical areas, such as: modeling of business cases, building inter-department consensus, assembling and assessing system functional requirements and non-functional requirements, developing a system design, hardware and software specifications and standards, complete procurement services including RFI and RFQ process support, supplier rating system, response evaluation methodology, deployment management, and training of office and field personnel.

Demand Response (DR)

Demand response can be as simple as load interruption directed by the energy supplier in response to severe demand requirements, to complex customer defined load management in response to price signals. DR is one of the components of a “Non-Wires Alternative” that many utilities are effectively using to avoid expensive distribution fortification or upgrade.

 

Often the success and/or failure of demand response programs can be linked to program implementation challenges such as rate/tariff design rate structures communication (e.g. price signals) or ineffective incentives used by utilities to encourage customers to accept operational change. The issues of program design, rate structure and customer impact have a tremendous influence on the success or failure of load management initiatives. Demand response has traditionally been used as a tool of the energy industry to ensure system stability. However, the introduction of microelectronics, communications, home automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to the development of cost effective solutions that have the capability to allow the consumer to take control of managing their energy load and ultimately, the price they pay for energy.

EnerNex has the experience and skills to turn your DR program into a successful operational asset and customer engagement process that can deliver value to all parties.

Energy Assurance Planning

Natural and man-made disasters cause an estimated $57B in average annual costs for all parties; large single events have resulted in losses of $100B or more. Events, such as the World Trade Center disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and most recently Hurricane Helene, have demonstrated an acute need to revisit, revise and implement an effective energy assurance plan. Energy assurance plans assess the functionality and interdependencies of buildings and infrastructure systems and the role they play in sustaining service and rapidly restoring critical services to a community following a hazard event.

 

EnerNex assists our clients in developing comprehensive energy assurance plans that mitigate and minimize the impact of energy disruptions. Our experts assess critical infrastructure risks and evaluate appropriate mitigation strategies and can help in developing an effective business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan for utilities and your customers.

Microgrid Development

As the electric grid becomes more distributed and interactive, microgrids are playing an increasingly important role in our energy future. Decision makers at military bases, corporate and institutional campuses, residential communities and critical facilities across the world are exploring and implementing microgrids to meet economic, resiliency and environmental goals. Utility-grade microgrids are being deployed to meet transmission constraints, reliability requirements and safe-havens in the event of a significant storm event.

Microgrid_development Graphic steps to support grid modernization

Bringing together a portfolio of distributed energy resources into a controllable, islandable microgrid comes with its own set of challenges. The key to solving these challenges is in architecting a system to support information exchanges between components across well-defined points of interoperability (interfaces) in a technology independent manner. This interoperability ensures that the system is resilient to technology change. Modern systems engineering techniques must be employed to ensure that individual sub‐systems are clearly identified, their functions enumerated, their data requirements known, and the points of interoperability clearly specified, along with the commensurate monitoring, command and control that is needed to ensure grid stability. With such architecture, we can apply best of breed technology available today to support those information exchanges at interface boundaries but be free to upgrade / change the implementation technology later without causing a ripple effect throughout the system.

Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture focuses on aligning an organization’s business strategies with its anticipated, desired and planned technology enhancements. Enterprise Architecture provides a framework to cost-effectively transition from a current “as-is” technology to future enterprise-wide technological solutions. An effective Enterprise Architecture program aligns business investments with long-term business strategies while minimizing risk and providing superior technological solutions. EnerNex’s key asset is its highly skilled and experienced staff who are closely connected to both the smart grid and EA standards and practices. We provide clients with the insight necessary to operate a fully functioning smart grid, which is flexible, scalable, and vendor independent.

Grid Modernization Roadmap

Utility companies across the globe are continually modernizing their grid. Each company often has different rationales, objectives and priorities. Frequently, smart grid plans are developed for individual, incremental initiatives, rather than as a part of a whole, intelligent and interoperable infrastructure. Planning may be developed around technology choices rather than business and technical requirements. The result of incremental and flawed planning leads to increased cost and risk, lost opportunities, disconnected expectations and dead ends.

 

EnerNex’s approach to grid modernization roadmap development follows a proven, industry-standard approach to grid modernization planning by collaboratively working with the utility to develop a set of prioritized and time-phased grid modernization initiatives unique to its business strategy and objectives. The roadmap developed is holistic, requirements-based, business value driven and actionable. It often builds on and leverages existing applications and infrastructure, and incorporates industry standards to ensure interoperability, flexibility and reduced cost and risk.

Utility Communications

Utility communication and control systems are increasingly interconnected to each other and to public networks and as a result, they are becoming increasingly more susceptible to disruptions and cyber attacks. EnerNex has experience with the various issues relating to development, implementation and optimization including feasibility analysis, design, software development and customization, project management and acceptance. Our expertise extends from being involved in the development of the fundamental standards that support utility communication and automation, through deployment and securing of those resources. EnerNex personnel were heavily involved in development of such standards and protocols as IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5 and DNp3. Our staff played a key role in the EPRI Utility Communication Architecture (UCA) project and the IntelliGrid Architecture effort.

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