California-based Networked Energy Services has partnered Cover Energy Plus to drive smart energy transformation in Ukraine.

Together, NES and CEP are providing smart grid technology and services for maintaining momentum in the region.

The partnership will combine NES’s secure advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with local firm CEP’s practical rollout experience in traditional and renewable energy projects.

NES, with its implementation of the OSGP open smart grid protocol, has established itself in the secure smart grid market. With its recent introduction of Grid Watch threat detection and response, NES can address the cyber-security requirements of Ukraine’s digitisation programmes.

Through its OSGP implementation, NES AMI provides communications with deployments typically exceeding 99% reliability. Resilience to noise is a key consideration in any AMI rollout. NES’s performance, again, is a qualification for Ukraine, and an enabler for digitisation of distribution system operators (DSOs).

“We are very excited about this new partnership with CEP,” said David Thomson, CEO of NES. “The technology NES provides, coupled with the excellent track record and experience of Cover Energy Plus, will be pivotal to the overall smart energy transition in Ukraine.”

CEP has completed more than 100 major projects in transmission and distribution grids and renewable energy generation. Through its deployment services, CEP will be responsible for the installation and maintenance of NES’s technology, including smart meters, data concentrators, head end system, and operations, maintenance, analytics, optimisation and cyber-security applications. This will leverage CEP’s competence and experience in the introduction of technology in the energy sector.

“Ukraine has some very specific challenges for its smart grid rollout,” said Yuri Domansky, CEP managing director. “Together, we have a solution that can help Ukraine face the threat of cyber attack and accelerate the reliable digitisation of Ukrainian DSOs.”

NES was formed from the spinoff of Echelon’s grid modernisation division in 2014. It is headquartered in the USA with R&D centres in Silicon Valley and Poland, and sales offices throughout the world. Its smart grid technology is used in nearly 40 million smart meters and other smart end devices around the world.

CEP is a quickly growing Ukrainian company that offers services in design and construction of traditional and renewable energy projects. Since 2017, it has introduced technologies into the market to develop a better energy system in Ukraine. The company employs more than 100 people and is technically and legally equipped for large-scale construction projects.