Heilongjiang Power Company

Landis+Gyr has secured its largest industrial, commercial and grid (ICG) meter contract in China. The reputation of the company’s products and services is synonymous with quality – so much so, that a request from the far northeastern corners of the People’s Republic of China was received for a high precision meter that can perform perfectly in extreme sub-zero temperatures.

Landis+Gyr has been working with local utility Heilongjiang Power Company for over twelve years. The utility operates, manages, and constructs power grids in Heilongjiang province. The province is about the same size as the state of California in the US and two-thirds the size of France. The geographical size of the province, combined with the extreme weather conditions reaching down to -50 degrees Celsius in the winter time, set high demands for the grid meters: they need to have a long life and be extremely reliable in order to ensure minimum maintenance costs.

Delivering value
The utility chose Landis+Gyr’s leading-edge grid meters from the E850 grid meter portfolio due to their high quality, stability, and durability as well as short measurement integration time. Heilongjiang Power Company expects the grid meters to build an accurate and reliable metering environment.

With a strong monitoring function, the need for maintenance work is kept to a minimum, which is crucial when considering the size of the province. Reducing maintenance needs ultimately creates additional cost saving opportunities and lowers operating costs.

The meters’ accuracy and stability will reduce technical energy losses and improve energy efficiency, thereby offering peace of mind to the utility. The meters’ long life cycle further minimises costs and improves the utility’s return on its investment.

Both the quality and availability of energy data will be improved and the risk of losing data will be reduced. Subsequently, billing losses will be eliminated.

Service makes the difference
The Landis+Gyr policy of “be global, act local” had an important role in the utility’s decision making process. Landis+Gyr took a proactive step in 2008 by employing a local sales representative to Harbin, the capital of the province, to focus purely on sales. This meant local needs were understood and also met.

“Our focus on local issues builds trust and confidence with our customers,” says Joe Imfeld, Deputy General Manager Product Marketing of Landis+Gyr China. Although we are a large global company, it is extremely important to have a local sales and service representative, especially in the PRC.”

The technical solution
The total solution consists of 569 high precision combi meters from the E850 and E650 meter families, a third party system as well as concentrators. Our meters have a flexible third party software configuration and exchangeable communication modules, making them easily interoperable with the products of other manufacturers. The meters communicate using an RS485 wired communication channel. The project is complete and the new grid meters have been installed into substations located in over ten regions of the Heilongjiang province.

About Heilongjiang Power Company

• Based in Harbin, China
• More than 13 000 kms of minimum 220 kV transmission lines
• Over 207 power plants with the capacity up to 19 million KW.
• 137 thermal power plants with 16.6million KW capacity
• 57 hydropower plants with 0.94million KW capacity
• 13 wind power plants with 0.67million KW capacity