Due to the substantial changes taking place in the electricity sector, essentially derived from commitments made to the European Union to decarbonise the economy, the process for carrying out studies on the electricity transmission grid is increasingly complex and requires new tools. For this reason, available commercial solutions do not often develop at the same speed as the transmission grid, which leads to the costly practice of modifying existing software to adapt to current needs.

Therefore, Elewit is working with Red Eléctrica on the Casandra project, an initiative that seeks to transform electrical planning by providing a solution designed from scratch with the functionality and data processing capacity required to conduct electrical studies to help tackle the current and future challenges to develop and strengthen the transmission grid.

What is Casandra and what is its goal?

The Casandra project came about in order to unite these and other initiatives and provide a common response to the needs of the Electrical Planning process, offering an ambitious response and comprehensive solution to address three essential areas in the electrical planning process.

Since 2019, with an understanding of current and future needs in the Electrical Planning process, new technologies and tools have been developed, reducing the burden of modifying commercial solutions that are not adapted to our current and future needs, as a result, promoting a perfectly functional and flexible application ecosystem. These tools include, among others:

• Newton: Software for calculating power flows in electricity grids developed in-house at Red Eléctrica. Includes an up-to-date algorithm for state-of-the-art power flows, linear calculation and other essential functions.
• REEview: Graphical viewer and editor for electrical grids and single-line diagrams which allow integration with third parties while enabling development and personalisation of the data that represent the grid.

Taking advantage of these developments and considering the current and future needs of developing the electrical planning process, new tools have been implemented that are more agile and efficient:

• Web portal for interacting with external parties: serves as an entry point for receiving proposals and submissions related to planning, as well as for publishing current planning information. This portal facilitates collaboration and communication with external interested parties.
• Web portal for planning: provides tools for viewing current planning, editing future plans, managing versions between users, generating reports and performing calculations related to the costs of grid assets. It is the operational core of electrical planning.
• Web portal for editing, viewing and simulating models: acts as a repository for editing and viewing electricity grid models. It allows users to work on creating, simulating, and comparing different future scenarios, which is essential for making informed decisions.

What stage of the project are you at now?

The Casandra project is currently underway with several modules at various stages, combining internal and external developments. These latest developments were achieved jointly with the consultant Apogea, with significant advancements in the different lines of work:

Firstly, the development of online libraries that will help gather data for planning and comparing different future scenarios. This module is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

And, in addition, a specialised database that will allow multiple versions of the electricity grid to be managed, with change monitoring. We expect it to be ready in the first six months of 2024.