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Enhancing Grid Visibility and Fault Detection with Safegrid

Company	Tornionlaakson Sähköverkko
Location	Northern Finland
Timeline	2025
Project Overview	Tornionlaakson Sähköverkko implemented Safegrid’s Intelligent Grid System® to strengthen grid visibility and enable proactive fault detection across its medium-voltage network. By leveraging advanced monitoring and Smart Fault Prediction™, the utility identified early-stage faults (particularly insulator-related issues) before they escalated into outages, improving reliability and operational confidence.
Products	Safegrid Intelligent Grid System®

This is a Safegrid Case Study.

Background

Tornionlaakson Sähköverkko is a regional utility responsible for delivering reliable electricity across a vast and often remote area in Northern Finland. Operating in such challenging conditions requires robust infrastructure monitoring and a strong focus on preventive maintenance.

To improve efficiency and minimize outage risks, the utility adopted Safegrid’s intelligent monitoring solution, aiming to gain deeper insights into grid conditions and detect hidden issues not visible through traditional inspection methods.

Challenge

The utility faced several key challenges:

Limited visibility into early-stage faults, especially in remote areas
Difficulty identifying hidden insulation issues before failure
Dependence on manual inspections, which could miss developing problems
Risk of undetected faults leading to outages
Need for more reliable and data-driven maintenance decisions

Many faults, particularly those related to insulator structures, showed no immediate symptoms and were not detected by conventional protection systems.

Solution

Safegrid’s Intelligent Grid System® with Smart Fault Prediction™ was deployed to continuously monitor the network and detect partial discharge (PD) signals.

Key actions:

Identification of multiple PD hotspots in the network
Targeted field inspections at detected locations
Validation using manual inspection and field observations

Findings:

A detached binding wire contacting a metallic insulator pin (confirmed fault)
Potential insulator damage at multiple locations
A loose binding wire identified as an early-stage structural risk

All anomalies were associated with insulator structures, and the detected PD signals closely matched real-world conditions observed during inspections.

“Safegrid’s solution has certainly been helpful—our first impressions of the system are good. We reviewed the PD signals in the Smart Fault Prediction™ view, and they appear to be genuine partial discharges. Both locations matched our manual inspection results, which gives us confidence in the system’s accuracy.”
— Henri Vihriälä, Operations Manager, Tornionlaakson Sähköverkko

Benefits

The implementation delivered several important advantages:

Early detection of hidden faults before they escalate
Improved grid visibility across remote network areas
Reduced reliance on manual inspections and guesswork
Targeted maintenance, saving time and resources
Increased confidence in monitoring accuracy
Enhanced proactive maintenance capabilities

Results

The deployment of Safegrid’s solution resulted in:

Early warning of multiple insulator-related issues
Strong alignment between PD signal locations and field findings
Identification of faults that had not yet triggered protection systems
Improved confidence in data-driven grid monitoring
Reduced risk of future outages through proactive intervention

Conclusion

This case highlights the critical role of intelligent monitoring in modern grid management. By detecting partial discharge signals and identifying hidden faults early, Safegrid enabled Tornionlaakson Sähköverkko to act proactively, preventing potential failures and enhancing overall grid reliability.

The collaboration demonstrates how utilities can move beyond reactive maintenance and leverage data-driven insights to ensure safer, more efficient, and resilient electricity distribution networks.