Nokia transforming Finland’s nationwide smart grid to support renewable energy

Nokia has been selected by Fingrid, Finland’s national transmission system operator, to build an IP/MPLS network to support the digital transformation of its national electrical grid.

Fingrid will use the network to operate 120 high-voltage substations and control 14,600km of power transmission across the country. The new smart grid is needed to manage the growing adoption of variable distributed energy resources, such as wind, solar and micro-generation using bioenergy.

As one of Europe’s leading users of renewable energy, Finland’s power transmission network is constantly being upgraded in order to meet the changing character of energy generation. Solar and wind generation, for example, require a much more agile and automated grid to manage the variable, two-way power flows by automatically ramping and balancing inputs and outputs.

This calls for new distributed energy resource management systems, which need a highly reliable, secure communications system to monitor, control, coordinate, and manage distributed energy assets.

Nokia’s mission-critical IP/MPLS network solution has been deployed by transmission system operators worldwide — supporting these new grid applications along with other critical ones, such as supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA), teleprotection and current differential systems, which demand stringent control of latency and jitter. This project is in partnership with NetNordic, a longstanding Nokia channel partner.

Kari Suominen, head of ICT for Fingrid, said: “We are committed to realizing the potential of renewable energy generation and are embarking on an ambitious transformation of our national grid to make it smarter and more flexible. Nokia’s IP/MPLS solution plays an important role in the digital transformation of our distributed energy resource management by providing us with a reliable, secure and agile communications system that has the potential to support all of our power management needs.”

Kamal Ballout, Global Vice President of Energy Practice for Nokia, said: “Fingrid joins our long list of transmission system operator customers who are modernizing their networks and transforming their businesses by embracing more distributed and renewable energy sources. Through continued investment in our IP portfolio, we are able to meet the specific requirements of today’s energy market, helping them evolve their infrastructure for a more sustainable future.”