DSO Technical Platform
Service-based Open-source Grid automation platform for Network Operation of the future (SOGNO)
The Platone DSO Technical Platform is an open-source platform for the deployment of distribution grid services. The platform and its services follow a micro service-based platform architecture allowing the deployment of different services such as state estimation, load prediction, microgrid management, etc. Furthermore, it can be easily interfaced with the existing proprietary and cloud-based DSO platforms.
DSOs in need of a software stack to deploy advanced services such as state estimation, fault location isolation and service restoration, microgrid operation, etc.
Actual system proven in operational environment
License type
Open-Source (permissive license; Apache type license)
Customization / Functions/ Special Terms
Open and modular system; adoptation of state estimation tool that already exists is possible but not mandatory. Legacy systems can be used; current IEC Standards are supported
Services provided
Full integration into legacy system; Community support
Access
DSOTP at GitLab:
Platone DSO Technical Platform
SOGNO website:
sogno.energy
SOGNO at Linux Foundation Energy:
lfenergy.org/projects/sogno
SOGNO at GitHub:
github.com/sogno-platform
Documentation
SOGNO documentation portal:
sogno.energy/docs
GitHub Container:
github.com/sogno-platform
LF Energy SOGNO Wiki
https://wiki.lfenergy.org/display/SOG
Platone Educational Video Series:
platone-h2020.eu
A Service Oriented Architecture for the Digitalization and Automation of Distribution Grids (M. Pau, M. Mirz, J. Dinkelbach, P. Mckeever, F. Ponci and A. Monti)
IEEE Access, vol. 10, 2022
Contact
RWTH Achen University - Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems
Contact Florian Oppermann
FEIN Aachen e.V.
info@fein-aachen.org
SOGNO community:
sogno.energy/community
Further Developments
SOGNO community - Learn and connect, develope and contribute:
sogno.energy/community
Flow - Flexible energy systems Leveraging the Optimal integration of EVs deployment Wave (Horizon Europe project):
h2020-flow.eu
BeFlexible (Horizon Europe project):
beflexible.eu
Further information
SOGNO Project Wins Prestigious German innovation prize for Focus on Modular Grid Automation:
linux.com/news
Interview with:
Florian Oppermann
Math.-techn. SW-Devoloper at the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems
RWTH Aachen University
Florian Oppermann: We have just the right solution for this challenge! Our open-source and license free grid management tool might just be what you’re looking for. In addition to the whole project being open-source, we follow a micro-service approach so that you can pick and choose what services you need and how to coordinate them specifically. That also gives you the opportunity to integrate the platform step-by-step or develop replacements for specific services. If any of the services don’t fit your needs completely you can easily fork our solution via GIT and customize the code to your needs. For hardware provisioning we are targeting Kubernetes which can be deployed on-premise or by a cloud provider without the need to adjust everything to the new environment. Kubernetes also allows horizontal scaling if needed.
Interviewer: Let us have a look at some detailed questions: Which license is used for this open source platform?
Florian Oppermann: All Sogno services use one of 3 licenses: Apache2, MIT, BSD-2. These are very similar to each other and all amount to: Use freely without obligations and without warranty.
Interviewer: What other services do exist within the platform?
Florian Oppermann: There is a multitude of services, next to some core components like the file service there are:
- Dpsim: Dynamic Phasor simulation.
- PyVolt: State-Estimation
- Pintura: CIM/CGMES visualization and editing
- ProLoaF: Probabilistic time-series Forecasting.
- Covee: Voltage Control
- PyMFM: Flexibility management
- EvRich: Electric vehicle routing
- CIMgen & CIMpy: Automatic generation of classes and parsing from CIM/CGMES specifications.
Interviewer: If the DSO already has an existing cloud-based DSO Supervisory and SCADA System, could the DSO keep on using the services of the DSOTP? If yes, what communication interfaces are supported?
Florian Oppermann: Our services provide a REST-API documented in OpenAPI v3. As long as you can format data and send an http request, you can integrate any Sogno service into your existing system. There are plans to extend Sogno to allow interfacing directly via the message bus.
Interviewer: What about previous experiences of using this platform? Can the DSO make use of the service?
Florian Oppermann: With respect to previous experiences and as part of the Horizon 2020 project, the SOGNO architecture has been deployed to distribution system sites belonging to ESB in Ireland (Kerry and Waterford, sogno-energy.eu). Other demos of the SOGNO architecture have been performed also in Romania as part again of the same EU project. The SOGNO architecture has also been used by the three trial sites of the Platone project (platone-h2020.eu) in Germany (near Bremen), Greece (near Athens) and Italy (Rome). A running version is also active on the campus of RWTH Aachen University supporting the monitoring of the distribution grid within the university. During the course of Platone, the SOGNO implementation of the DSOTP has been deployed in parts depending on the use-case. A large scale deployment is yet to be done.
Interviewer: What about support? Are you or somebody at your organization available to grant help if needed? How can an interested party get in touch with you?
Florian Oppermann: Everyone feel free to join the LFEnergy Sogno slack channel, contact the team at RWTH Aachen University Florian Oppermann, Gümrükcü Erdem, Juan Galeano Martinez by Mail or join the Technical steering committee if the interested party has some input for the direction SOGNO should take.
Interviewer: Can the DSO, e.g. have also support for the SW development? Like debugging, calibration, etc.? Is the SW a stable version?
Florian Oppermann: We are very open to questions and suggestions, especially if they lead to an improvement of the platform, note however that intensive support might be somewhat difficult due to our limited resources outside of research projects.
Interviewer: Let´s assume the ICT department of an interested DSO is very reluctant about using open source SW, as they take the security precautions very seriously. I assume the SE and other services of DSOTP use dependencies that might be prone to vulnerabilities. Has the dependency scanning been done for the DSOTP services?
Florian Oppermann: We are using both DependaBot and code scanning for vulnerability detection.
Interviewer: Is there a specific publication that can explain the philosophy behind this platform?
Florian Oppermann: The initial development of Sogno was paired with the realease of an article describing the research done in the Sogno project. You can find it under
M. Pau, M. Mirz, J. Dinkelbach, P. Mckeever, F. Ponci and A. Monti, "A Service Oriented Architecture for the Digitalization and Automation of Distribution Grids," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 37050-37063, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3164393 (Access)
Interviewer: Thanks a lot for the interview to Florian Oppermann!
Detailed description of the project result
The Platone DSO Technical Platform
The Platone DSO Technical Platform is an open-source platform for the deployment of distribution grid services. The platform and its services are designed as a micro service-based platform architecture that allows the deployment of services such as state estimation or load prediction. Furthermore, the platform aims at an enlarged grid observability by providing a visualization of measured and predicted data. The initial platform architecture as well as the underlying cloud-native software stack were taken up from the previous H2020 project "SOGNO - Service Oriented Grid for the Network of the Future”. Within Platone, the DSO Technical Platform is further developed by the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems at RWTH Aachen University. Besides the integration of the existing platform architecture into the Platone Open Framework of Platforms (including Platone Market Platform and BAL), the underlying infrastructure software stack of the platform is extended and updated in order to allow flexible deployment scenarios from cloud to on-premises deployments. In addition, more scalable alternatives to different components have been evaluated and introduced. Furthermore, new services such as state estimation, load prediction, and energy-community balancing, that are developed by the consortium partners RWTH and National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), are integrated into the platform. The platform and its services are tested in the demos of consortium partners HEDNO (WP4) and Avacon (WP5) in order to ensure a TRL of 7.
Target Groups
The DSO Technical Platform targets DSOs in need of a software stack to deploy advanced services such as state estimation, fault location isolation and service restoration, microgrid operation, etc. In particular, there is a growing interest in the exploitation of such advanced grid services to improve the observability and operation of the grid. The DSO Technical Platform serves as an open-source environment in which a DSO can install these services without overcoming the burden of defining this operational software stack on its own. The DSO Technical platform also provides different deployment approaches (including private-cloud and on-premises deployments) to provide the system operator with the needed flexibility in fulfilling regulatory requirements. Finally, the open-source nature of the DSO Technical Platform allows custom technical adjustments and fosters the development of additional services by both: industry and academics.
Exloitation
The platform can also be of interest for other business actors that
could provide the platform as a service to a DSO. One example in this
direction is given by large component manufacturers and providers of
software for automation that could use the Platone solution as open
integration platform. Thanks to the structure of the 5G network, another
example of business actor are telecom companies that could offer
automation as a service to a grid operator as already envisioned as
business case in the project SOGNO.