Record-high volumes of electricity supplied by ENEA Operator with historically the strongest reliability performance

2018 was a record-breaking year for ENEA Operator for two reasons. The Company not only supplied its customers with the highest volume of electricity since its inception, i.e. 19.9 TWh, but also the duration of unplanned interruptions in ENEA Operator’s network dropped to the shortest value on record – just over 152 minutes. In just 5 years, ENEA Operator has improved its system average interruption duration index by nearly 32% as compared to 2014, i.e. the first year for which the reliability indices – measuring system average interruption duration and frequency – were published. During this period, the company has also slashed the time of planned interruptions by more than 52 minutes.

ENEA Operator’s reliability indices have improved thanks to the continuous efforts undertaken to streamline the Company’s distribution process, as well as the new structure of traffic management and the ongoing investment in grid modernisation.  Throughout the years, the Company has implemented, and it continues to implement, a number of innovative solutions and projects aimed at improving the continuity of power supply and the quality of services provided.

One of the key factors which contributed to the improvement of ENEA Operator’s reliability indices is the reorganisation of traffic management services in the Company, with the modern Power Dispatch Centre at its heart, along with the reinforcement of local dispatch stations.

– Creation of the Power Dispatch Centre helped us concentrate in one place all the competences in both running and programming the operation of the high-voltage grid, as well as in balancing, managing and disposing of the capacity of generation units connected to it. Thanks to this, not only are we now better able to plan shutdowns for maintenance and modernisation works on the 110kV grid but our dispatchers can also constantly monitor the condition of the Company’s network and thus manage it more efficiently – said Andrzej Kojro, President of the Management Board at ENEA Operator.

– We have also modified our local dispatch stations and harmonised their operation. We have optimised their structure, number and location, as well as the scope of tasks, headcount, equipment and responsibilities. And this proved successful. With its well-equipped and properly organised teams, our Energy Emergency Service now works more effectively and reacts more promptly. This in turn has led to operational efficiency gains across the entire organization, improving the continuity of power supply to our customers and shortening the time of any interruptions – added ENEA Operator’s President Andrzej Kojro.

Shorter interruptions in power supply were also made possible by the continuous development of Live Line Working (LLW) technology. For several years now, ENEA Operator has been steadily expanding the catalogue of works performed in this technology, so that more and more modernisation and maintenance works are now performed while the lines remain energized, thus continuously supplying energy to the Company’s customers.

However, by far the greatest impact on shortening the time of power supply interruptions have had rational, well-planned and timely-implemented investments in grid infrastructure.

– Billions of zloty in CAPEX invested by the Company over the recent years are already bringing measurable results. Power supply reliability has improved and more new customers and RES generators can now be connected to our network. We are consistently implementing our plan of building a smart and fully-automated power grid. This has allowed us to manage the operation of our installations more efficiently while limiting the time of any interruptions in power supply to our customers, and thus the inconvenience to them, to the absolute minimum – concluded Marek Szymankiewicz, Vice-President of ENEA Operator for Grid Infrastructure.