A project for building distribution automation system (DAS) for a vision towards a smart distribution grid in Da Nang, developed by a group of talented engineers from the Da Nang Power One Member Company Limited won the top prize in the ‘Initiatives for the Community 2020’ 2020’ national-level programme held in December 2020.

Talented engineers from the Da Nang Power One Member Company Limited are seen discussing the development of the distribution automation system

This highly prestigious biennial event was jointly organised by the Communist magazine, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, along with the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour and the Viet Nam Electricity.

The DAS has successfully been applied at the Da Nang Power One Member Company, making the company the first of its kind in Viet Nam to put this smart system into operation in fully automatic mode.

Le Van Phu, Deputy Head of Technical Department at the company, one of the researchers, affirmed the main goal of the project is to improve the efficiency of the distribution grid operation.

For the sake of self-healing grid and reliability improvement of medium voltage (MV) distribution networks, fault location, isolation and service restoration (FLISR) is one of the most beneficial and desirable applications of DAS.

Thanks to DAS, in case of a problem detected on the grid, customers in the affected area will only experience a power cut during the time the automated system operates, about 11-22 seconds, as compared to any power failure lasting 30 - 45 minutes as normal.

If an incident occurs on the Da Nang grid, the automation system will be activated and operate automatically without operators’ intervention.

The system automatically calculates, analyses and identifies the faulty grid area, emit signals to control the switches on the grid with the aim of isolating this area.

After successful implementation of these aforementioned steps, the system will continue to automatically calculate the optimal power restoration plan, ensure the safe operation of electrical equipment, and minimise power loss.

Till date, the system has been put into operation effectively on a trial basis, especially for power feeders along routes connecting Da Nang and Hoi An, and around such places as the Hospital of Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital, the headquarters of the Ngu Hanh Son District People's Committee, FPT Complex and large coastal resorts.

Success in the actual test run marks an important step in the application of the DAS technology in developing the smart grid in Da Nang, enabling the company to expand and basically complete the project of automating the smart distribution network across the entire city.

The company will perfect DAS with the ability to provide safe, reliable and secure electric power of high quality to the customers.

The system will provide assured quality and reliability of power supply, thus increasing in energy sales and revenue, improve quality of service management and customer satisfaction, ensure real time control over the costly energy sold, and enable online energy audit (AMR Systems).

By PHONG LAN- Translated by A.T