Proactive Fault Prevention with Smart Grid Monitoring

Background

Rovakaira is a well-established utility company operating in Northern Finland for approximately 75 years. With around 80 employees, the company serves 30,000 end customers across a 7,000 km distribution network.

Given the vast geographic coverage and harsh environmental conditions typical of Northern Finland, maintaining grid reliability poses a significant challenge. Overhead and underground infrastructure, especially components such as insulators, are subject to wear from extreme weather, contamination, and aging.

To maintain a high level of service reliability and minimize outages, Rovakaira sought to move beyond traditional reactive maintenance toward a predictive, data-driven approach.

Challenge

Rovakaira faced several key challenges:

• Limited grid visibility for early-stage faults

• Unexpected equipment failures, particularly insulators

• High outage risks due to harsh climate conditions

• Difficulty reducing SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index)

• Costs associated with reactive repairs and emergency outages

Insulator failures were of particular concern, as they can lead to earth faults, fires, or widespread interruptions if not detected early. Traditional maintenance methods often failed to identify degradation before failure occurred.

Solution

Safegrid implemented its 24/7 online monitoring system combined with the Smart Fault Prediction tool, enabling Rovakaira to detect early warning signs of equipment failure through partial discharge signal monitoring.

Key capabilities included:

• Continuous real-time data collection from the grid

• Early detection of partial discharge activity indicating insulation degradation

• Precise fault location identification

• Actionable insights for maintenance teams

Benefits

The Safegrid solution delivered substantial operational and strategic advantages:

• Proactive fault prevention before outages occurred

• Improved grid visibility and transparency

• Reduced risk of unplanned interruptions

• Lower maintenance costs through targeted repairs

• Enhanced safety for infrastructure and surrounding areas

• Optimized resource allocation for maintenance teams

Results

Using the system, Rovakaira successfully identified a faulty insulator, located it, and replaced it, all within the same working week.

The implementation produced clear, measurable outcomes:

• Fault successfully prevented before causing an outage

• €10,000 in immediate cost savings

• Faster fault detection and resolution (within one week)

• Reduced outage risk and improved SAIFI performance

• Strengthened reliability of the distribution network

In addition to the quantified savings, the solution demonstrated the long-term value of predictive maintenance, where early detection of issues like insulator degradation can prevent costly failures, minimize downtime, and protect both infrastructure and communities.

“Safegrid has helped us to prevent faults by finding broken components in the grid. This has helped us to prevent outages by fixing the issues preventively.”
— Yrjö Kallio, Maintenance Engineer

Conclusion

By adopting the Smart Fault Prediction technology, Rovakaira successfully transitioned from reactive to proactive grid management. The ability to detect and address faults early, particularly insulator failures, has improved network reliability while delivering significant cost savings.

This case highlights how predictive analytics and real-time monitoring can transform utility operations, especially in challenging environments, ultimately ensuring better service continuity for customers.