MECOMS STREAMLINES GRID OPERATIONS IN BELGIUM
Fluvius needed a complete solution to collect, process and distribute metering data from 7 million supply points. MECOMS was implemented to run the hand-held terminals of meter readers, automatic meter readings, various web-based services and the underlying system to process and forward all the data to other market parties. Due to its flexible architecture, MECOMS has fluently grown with the evolving market and the changing role of Fluvius.
AT A GLANCE
Fluvius the independent Belgian grid company
Administers consumption and relational data of 7,6 million supply points
Benefits of MECOMS
- A flexible system that has adapted to changing needs
- Increased follow-up and quality of meter readings
- Comprehensive support for historic meter portfolio
- A fast and reliable system to process millions of meter readings
The company
Fluvius is the grid operator that originated on July 1, 2018 from the merger of Eandis and Infrax. Fluvius is responsible for the construction, management and maintenance of distribution networks for electricity, natural gas, sewerage, cable distribution and heat, and manages the municipal public lighting park. In total, the company manages 230,000 kilometers of utility lines and 7 million connections. Fluvius is active in all 300 Flemish cities and municipalities.
Partnership
“The people behind MECOMS have extensive experience with the utility business, having completed several projects in the liberalized energy market. They understood the main challenges and were capable to handle the big data flows in an efficient and performant way. A dedicated team was formed to create a solution capable of automatic processing of all ensuing data. The resulting system is built upon Ferranti’s MECOMS product and it has grown with Fluvius ever since.”
Processing and distributing data
MECOMS smoothly processes millions of meter readings and converts them into consumptions. The data is validated using flexible rules, as they are subject to frequent (regulatory) change. Next, MECOMS uses meter certificates to convert meter readings into consumptions. This ensures that readings of a diverse, historically grown metering park are processed consistently. Complex metering configurations, often with local production, are seamlessly taken into account.
Automatic Meter Readings
Automatic Meter Readings (AMR) of large industrial customers are read every 15 minutes and sent to Fluvius on a daily basis. MECOMS takes care of all relevant factors such as copper/iron losses, estimation of missing values and control meters.
Furthermore, Fluvius was assigned the task to provide consumption data of the 500 largest gas customers. Since Belgium does not have sufficient gas storage to handle a temporary imbalance or shortage of natural gas, this data enables timely prediction of imbalances. This process is completely handled as a core process in MECOMS. The system collects and calculates the most recent consumption values on an hourly basis, and forwards it to the market parties that need it.
Infeed and allocation
MECOMS calculates all energy injected by the TSO and exchanged between the various regions. This is set off against all the consumption that has been measured and allocated over all the suppliers that invoice the energy.
Gridfee calculation
The charges for the use of the grid are calculated by MECOMS and sent out to the suppliers for invoicing to the end users. Both the individual calculations as summary invoices per supplier are provided.