Paris was first called The City of Light because it was an active center of knowledge and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700s. When the Champs-Élysées was literally “lit-up” in 1928, the moniker took on new dimensions.
France is the sixth largest country in the world by Gross Domestic Product, with a population of more than 64 million people. Its annual power consumption of more than 440 Terawatt hours (TWh) is supported by Europe’s largest transmission network with 50 cross-border connections. ABB technology helps maintain the vibrancy of the city and surrounding countryside, in every way. Currently, ABB has an active project, with an interoperable wireless mesh network that links 200,000 street lights and traffic signals.
By networking the street lights and traffic signals, control room operators, who are remotely monitoring the system, are given useful information to keep the system running safely and reliably. This modernization of street lighting “brightens” the quality of life for Parisians, and it is also important because the new wireless network operates more efficiently supporting Paris on its overall trajectory to reach its 2020 goal of reducing public lighting energy consumption by 30%.
The nearly 105,000 kilometers of lines transport electricity over long distances, and the ABB Ability Network Manager SCADA/EMS system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/Energy Management System) will help monitor and control the network of thousands of substations across Paris and all of France. The Network Manager control system will enable the management and optimization of transmission networks and helps maximize the reliable and efficient delivery of clean power to millions of consumers.
Today’s utility operators require advanced technology to deal with the challenges posed by the increasing number of grid connected devices and the volume of data being generated in the field due to more distributed energy resources, like photovoltaic panels on roof tops and wind mills.
Applications such as smart metering (AMI) and the automation of the distribution power grid also require extremely reliable communication networks that can easily transport data from the increasing amount of devices in the field to the control room operators. When having more actionable data at hand, the control room operators will instantaneously be able to address and prevent power outages in the neighborhood.
In Paris, home to iconic structures, like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral, and across the globe, ABB Ability technology is making it possible to energize cities, enlighten visitors and enable a stronger, smarter and greener grid.