1. Deregulation in energy sector

STATUS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

SYSTEM AND O&M PRACTICES IN ELECTRIC

POWER INDUSTRY OF SERBIA (EPS)

Danilo Lalović,Senior Engineer for Telecommunications

1. Deregulation in energy sector

Reorganization process of integral Serbian electric power industry was completed in the past establishing two independent technical business systems:• JP Electric Power Industry of Serbia

• JP Serbian Transmission System (EMS)-in charge of Electric Power Transmission and Transmission System operator

2. Company Information

Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) is public enterprise which is vertically organized and composed of 11 Economic Associations. Main activities are :• Electric power generation• Electric power distribution and distribution system

management• Coal production, processing and transport • Electric power trade

3. New Telecommunications System of EPS

Project of building new Telecommunications system is mostly finalized.Main requirements have been achieved to fulfill the communications needs for technical and business management systems of the company.Telecommunications links to the neighboring electric power industries are established.Spare capacity in the backbone network can be utilized in the future for entering into the market providing commercial services.

4. Project Implementation Status EPS Backbone network is based on OPGW cables and currently there are around 6000 km of the cables deployed on high voltage (400 kV, 220 kV and 110 kV) and middle voltage (35 kV) transmission lines. Generally cables are composed of 48 fibers in mixed structure, half of them are according the ITU-T G.652 and the other half according the ITU-T G.655B Recommnedation. There are currently 80 telecommunications nodes installed in the network providing the services for utility needs. Building of the new Telephone exchange network based on IP technology is finalized. The core IP network is based on MPLS routers and communications between them is through SDH network.

The telecommunications network is based on SDH technology and has mesh structure covering all the important substations and power plants in EPS. The current capacity on most of the links is STM-16. The number of deployed nodes (80) will increase over time as we approach distribution companies and start solving regional communications needs. Network management is centrally organized from one location. However there exists also disaster recovery servers system on back up location which can take over the management of the network at any time.

5. EPS Telecommunications Network

Optical Structure of EPS Backbone

TE-TO N.SadRDCNovi Sad

TS Sr.Mitrovica 2

TS Šabac 3

CROATIA

REPUBLIC OFSRPSKA

TS Pan evo 2čDC

EDBRDCBgd

RP Mladost

TSBgd5

TENT BTENT A

TSBgd 8

TS Valjevo3RDC Valjevo

TSSmed.3

TE Kolubara A TSBgd 3

DCEPS

TS Obrenovac A

TS Srbobran

TS Zrenjanin 2TS N.Sad 3

TS Sombor 3

TS Kikinda1

TS Subotica 3

HUNGARY

HE Potpe ć

REPUBLIC OFSRPSKA

MONTENEGRO

TS Bor 2R C BorD

HE Ðerdap 1

ROMANIARP Drmno

HE Ðerdap 2

TS Zaje ar 2č

TE Kostolac A

HE PirotTS Niš 2

TS Leskovac 2

HE Vrla 3

BULGARIA

TS Vranje

TS Pirot 2

HE Bajina Bašta+

RHE Bajina Bašta

TS B.Bašta TS Požega

TS Kragujevac 2

TS Kraljevo 3

TS a ak 3Č č

HE KokinBrod

TS Nova Varoš

TS Kruševac 1R C KruševacD

TE Morava

TS Jagodina 4

TS NoviPazar 1

HE UvacHE Bistr ica

TS SjenicaTS Raška

TS Pozarevac

TS Petrovac

TS NoviPazar 2

TS ValačHE Gazivode

TS Dimitrovgrad 3

TS DebeljačaTS Vrsac 1

TS Užice

TS Sombor 1

TS Subotica 2

TS Bogatić

TS Tamnava

TS S. PalankaTS V. Plana

TS LapovoTS Topola

TS Arandjelovac TS Mladenovac

TS Aleksandrovac

TS Kuršumlija

TS Prokuplje

TS Ristovac

TS Bujanovac

TS Preševo

HE Vrla 2

HE Vrla 1

PAP Lisina

TS Svrljig

TS Knjaževac

TS Zaje ar č 1

TS V. Gradište

TS Zrenjanin 3

TE-TO Zrenjanin

TS Zrenjanin 4

TS Majdanpek 2

TS Niš 3

TS Leskovac 6

TS B. Polje

TS Jagodina 2

TS Kragujevac 5

TS G. Milanovac

TS Valjevo1TS Valjevo2

TS Šabac 2

TS Beograd 7

TS Pan evo 3č

TS Kanjiža

TS SentaTS Ba ka Topolač

TS Vlasotince

TS Bosilegrad

TSSmed.2

TS Vršac 2

TS Ćuprija 1

TS Sr.Mitrovica 1

TS Leskovac 1

TS Kruševac 4

TS Kralj. 2

TS Pan evo 1č

TS Vrbas 1

TS žaciOd

TS Majdanpek 3TS Majd. 1

TS Kačarevo

TS Kikinda2

TS N. Crnja

TS Begejci

HE Vrla 4

TS Niš 13

TS Niš10

TS Niš 5

T JS abu čje

TSBgd9

TSBgd 2

TS MItrovica M.

TS Subotica3TS Sombor3

TS Kikinda1

TS Zrenjanin2

TS Novi Sad 3

TS Srbobran

TS Sr. Mitrovica2

TS Bgd5

TS Bgd3

TS Bgd8

DC EPS

RDC Bgd

TS Pancevo 2

RP Mladost

TS Obrenovac A

TS Šabac3

TS Valjevo3

TE Kolubara A

TS Kragujevac2 TS Jagodina4

TS Niš 2

TS B. Bašta

TS Požega

TS Cacak 3 TS Kraljevo 3

TS Kruševac 1

RP Drmno

HE Ðerdap 1

HE Podpec

HE Kokin Brod

HE Uvac

TS Sjenica

TS Novi Pazar

TS Raška

TS Leskovac 2

HE Vrla3

TS Vranje

TS Pirot 2

HE Pirot

TS Bor 2

TS Zajecar 2

ED Kraljevo

HE Bistrica

TS Smederevo3

TE Kostolac

TE Morava

TENT B

DC EDB

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

CRNA GORA

HRVATSKA

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

BUGARSKA

RUMUNIJA

MAÐARSKA

STM-4STM-1

Legenda:

SDH Node

RHE Bajina Bašta

TENT A

STM-16

TE-TO Novi Sad

RDC Novi Sad

TE-TO Zrenjanin

TS N.Varoš

HQ Bajina Bašta

HE Bajina Bašta

TS Bgd2

TS Bgd17

HE Ðerdap 2

ED Zrenjanin

HQ Nova Varoš

ED Priboj

TE Drmno

HE Gazivode

TS Velika Plana

TS Dimitrovgrad

ED Kikinda

ED Sombor

HE Vrla 4HQ Surdulica

TS Sastavci

PK Drmno

ED Cuprija

HQ Djerdap

Bgd

HQ EPS Balkanska

HQ Lazarevac

HE Vrla 2 HE Vrla 1 PAP Lisina

TE Kolubara B

SDH Network Architecture

6. Telecom Policy and Organization

The main policy is to build dedicated telecom network with the highest possible availability and reliability for utility services. Telecom entity organization is established within EPS as centralized in-house unit but with the idea to transform it into EPS daughter company in the future. The telecom organization is not currently integrated with IT unit. The organization is currently engaging 5 professionals with the tendency to grow over time as the system develops. The model of outsourcing is used for running the telecom organization. In house unit is taking full responsibility for realization of telecom services as well as their monitoring and eventual rectification of the occurred problems. There is also an idea to become Telecom Operator for State Institutions as well as to enter Telecom Market and provide commercial services.

7. Operation and Maintenance Practice

The model of outsourcing comprises of the following categories of activites:

• Help Desk Services

• Corrective Maintenance

• Preventive Maintenance

• Operational Services

Operation and Maintenance Practice

Help Desk 5x8Contractor is obligated to provide practical guidance for EPS personal during normal working hours. Service is realized as help desk and communication is done by e-mail or by phone.Contractor is responsible to provide support with less than ten minutes response time for the 1.st line supported personal and less than 30 minutes for specialist personnel support

Operation and Maintenance Practice

Corrective maintenance

Severeity level 1• Defect or fault situation defined as critical

alarm in the NMS or problem that affects critical services like SCADA services.

• Problem resolving starts 30 minutes after notification

• Within 8 h on-site

Operation and Maintenance PracticeCorrective Maintenance

Severeity level 2• Problems defined as major alarms in the network.

• NBD (Next Business day) on site .

Severity level 3• Minor alarms, warnings, within one week on-site

Remote support • Off site problem solving

(1)

No (1)

yes (1)

NOC Personal detect defect situation, define severity of the problem

EPS sends Request for Service by fax or by mail

Contractor confirms request, add new record to maintenance database and open new ticket no.

Contrctor starts with off-site activities within defined severity level for given request

On-site?

Contractor requires access to site (sites)

EPS grants access to site (sites)

On-site problem solving

Problem is solved. Contractor sends Service Report

EPS receives report and sends close confirmation

Operation and Maintenance Practice

Spare Parts are maintained in EPS store and its availability is EPS responsibility.Preventive Maintenance • At each individual site this includes

• General observation and reporting of equipments hardware conditions

• General observation and reporting of equipment room’s conditions with regard to temperature, clean air and status of anti rodent protection

• Cleaning of ef equipment fans • 48 V Power System ControlThe interval between periodic preventive actions at each site is

six months.

Operation and Maintenance Practice

• Software upgrades includes upgrade of system software components with new software releases and service packs.

• Backup services include periodic backup actions like backup of node configuration files. It is performed periodically. If some configuration changes are done, then backup will be performed simultaneously, if not, then backup interval will be one week.

Operation and Maintenance Practice

Operation and administration services cover daily activities in the network necessary for services setup and network monitoring like: • Provisioning which includes

• Creation of new network services (connections) by means of software commands executed at the SDH and/or FMUX NMS .

• Modifying or removing of network services (connections) by means of software commands executed at the SDH and/or FMUX NMS

Operation and Maintenance Practice

Operation Services• Network reconfiguration which includes:

• Hardware reconfiguration services - moving cards or nodes between sites, installation and testing of new cards

• Software reconfiguration services - reconfiguration of initial network parameters like addresses, routing plans, management parameters, synchronization

• On site set up services which include activities on site, like patch-cabling and customer equipment cabling (connection to the network).

Operation and Maintenance Practice

Operational Services• Network monitoring

• Network monitoring includes continuous monitoring of network by NMS with objective to quickly detect faults and defect situation and initiate corrective actions.

• Administration of NMS system (maps, users, security…).

(1)

no

(1)

EPS creates request for service setup or network reconfiguration

EPS sends Request for Service by fax or by mail

Contractor confirms request, add new record to maintenance database

Contractor starts with off-site activities, service provisioning or network reconfiguration

On-site?

Contractor requires access to site (sites)

EPS grants access to site (sites)

On-site service setup or network reconfiguration

Service Setup is finished. Contractor sends Service Report

EPS receives report and sends close confirmation

Main Risks

The most frequent problem in the network appears to be rodent attack and we have to improve anti rodent protection in telecom facilities.Optical fiber breakage or damage is seldom. However the repair is dependent on switching off the power line and might be time consuming to get the permit for the works. There is also an idea to implement Optical Fiber Monitoring System which could bring better control and improve reliability of optical network through preventive actions.Problems with power supply systems sometimes cause difficulties for Telecom System. Remote monitoring of 48 V power supply system and its inclusion into NMS could bring benefits through preventive actions.

Future Development

EPS currently mainly outsources Operation and Maintenance and telecom unit is under staffed for this activity.We forsee certain growth of telecom organisation, in charge of network with extensive coverage, in order to balance outsourcing activites to the extent of running the network and perform basic O&M activites,This is necessary in order to secure sufficient knowledge and expertise within in house unit which can provide future development and upgrade of the network as well as to avoid situation of complete dependence on outsource expertise.Vendors expertise and support has to be a part of O&M model.