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Amsterdam gas and energy distribution

Alliander is one of the biggest energy suppliers in the Netherlands with 2,5 million customers in the Netherlands and Belgium. They generate electricity  and distribute it, as well as gas to a major part of the Dutch domestic and industrial market.

One of the divisions of Alliander is Liandon . This engineering and project management division were contracted to provide a telemetry system for the gas network in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam has a large number of gas-substations where Alliander can regulate the gas distribution network for the Dutch capital. There was however a requirement to not only regulate, but also monitor in real-time usage, alarms and flow measurement. With this information Alliander can deliver better services to their customers and reduce cost. For the remote telemetry unit Alliander chose a new RTU, the D05-MCU-IEC from Data watt Telecontrol Systems that utilizes the Ethernet based IEC 60870-5-104 communication protocol.

Using fibre-optic cabling for the Ethernet communications would have been the logical choice because many of the Ethernet links would exceed the maximum 100 m  range for UTP cable. Fibre would however be too expensive and nearly impossible to install in a short time frame and in a crowded city. The solution was simple; make use of the existing copper cabling which already existed in Alliander’s own telecom and signalling cable network.

After some successful tests with the DUPO DPCOM5000 and our previous experiences using the DUPO modem family, Alliander made a choice to use the DUPO Ethernet Extender products. Stated Mr. Rens Dekker, Senior Engineer BOS. The key specifications were the galvanic isolation, extended temperature and performance of the DSL-line. Tests were done up to 17 km . Alliander is using a ring of DPCOM6000s to form a central, redundant ring. From this central ring 140 point-to-point communication lines are used to connect the remote locations (gas substations). Each point-to-point link consists of two DPCOM5000s to extend the Ethernet link up to a maximum of 12 km . In total Alliander will install 6 DPCOM6000s and 280 DPCOM5000s to upgrade its gas distribution system into a modern, SCADA controlled and monitored communication system.