Reliable engineering
takes many forms





Grid Intelligence and Optimisation


Electrical grid operators have been struggling in recent years to deploy new lines to meet demands for more energy and higher quality of service. Regardless of their success in that endeavour, every grid operator is now asked to push the use of existing lines until the limits of safety. 

Environmental causes are one of the main influences on the performance of overhead lines. Vegetation, lightning and birds are the top of concerns, thus the rise of environmental concerns transformed the way of power systems are designed and exploited. In order to reinforce the continuity and improve the power quality Albatroz Engenharia is working to intensify preventive maintenance work on the electrical system, since acting pre-emptively avoid inconveniences due to lack of electricity on the systems.

Grid Intelligence and Optimisation (GIO) is Albatroz Engenharia’s answer to the utilities ´need to optimise the remaining lifetime of ageing grids while maintaining or improving quality of service.

GIO is settled on georeferenced databases from inspection data (from PLMI), third party data (meteorology, pedology, environment and forestry exploitation), land use, SCADA, variables, grid planning and project and asset management. Tools for mining, time-space correlations, searches of nexus of causality and links to geographic information systems and asset management systems are also available.




Data and Architecture

Environmental data, also including forest fires, fog and pollution, together with a record of historical incidents and their causes have been integrated in a PostgreSQL database related with the grid topology.

The architecture with links to geographic information systems (GIS) and asset management systems (SAP), allows developing tools for mining, time-space correlations, searches of nexus of causality, optimising inspection and maintenance plans, and so on, thanks to the integration of geo- and time-referenced relevant data of different sources, and the expertise of grid operators and of Albatroz Engenharia team.


Grid Maintenance Cycle

Defining grid maintenance as a cycle of processes that keeps the electrical grid running includes inspection, quality and condition audits and remedial actions. The proposed framework to optimise this cycle features an architecture and a tool set to aggregate data and methods from different sources into a consistent model for grid maintenance. The figure shows one model of the cycle with twelve main tasks, organised as a clock dial, where green background represents field tasks and sand background represents office tasks.
This exploitation cycle involves inspection (from 1 to 3 o’clock on the figure), followed by in depth multi-variable analysis (from 4 to 7 o’clock) that procedures maintenance guidelines to the field (from 8 to 9 o’clock).
Analysis of the circuit’s reliability and risk minimisation at grid level (from 10 to 12 o’clock) combines previous steps to plan maintenance and refurbishment for the following years.
The most innovative tools being developed focus on tasks depicted at 4 to 7 and 12 o’clock, briefly outlined below with illustrative cases.