ABB has agreed to help Sweden integrate wind power by building a smart grid on the island of Gotland. ABB will work with Vattenfall, the Swedish Energy Agency and other companies on the Smart Grid Gotland project.
The project will serve as a model for upgrading other rural grids to minimize environmental impact by integrating a high proportion of intermittent wind power in the distribution network. Within the implementation phase, ABB is building a 10 kilovolt (kV) smart substation in the village of Källunge, which uses switchgear technology based on ABB's Unigear Digital concept. To process data from this substation and the rural grid, ABB is customising and delivering a distribution management system (ADMS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. ABB is also installing switches equipped with safety and feedback functionality and equipping disconnectors with new remote surveillance and control capabilities. The ADMS will also locate and isolate fault zones from the rest of the grid and reroute electricity to minimise impact on consumers. A further aim of the project is to give consumers the tools to actively participate on the energy market. To this end, an end-user software solution is already in place, supplying participating consumers with applications that enable them to adjust their energy consumption in response to wind forecasts and price fluctuations.
