Digital house connection and commissioning:

How SWTE Netz intensively involves installers

Since January 1, the click section of the commissioning portal has been available online. As one of the first steps, the partner companies involved are provided with the orders digitally. Overall, the commissioning process at SWTE Netz comprises the processes of commissioning power, commissioning gas and commissioning an EEG plant. Different processes, such as meter installation, are also possible.

Commissioning the house connection is a much more complex process today than it was a few years ago. Thus, for certain locations, measurement concepts for generation and consumption plants must be established and observed. This is sometimes a challenging process for installers. According to Andre Freude, support can be offered here, for example by providing additional documentation.

For Freude, transparency is a very important factor when using the portal: “Installers should be able to see the status of commissioning at any time,” he explains. SWTE Netz guarantees them a response to a request within three working days. “That’s definitely ambitious, and it won’t work without digitization,” Freude knows. The Head of Network Sales and Contract Management points out that it was a particular challenge to bring marketers along on the digital journey. After all, around 60 installers are involved in both the power and gas trades. “Installers like to fall back on old familiar processes,” says Freude, describing the initial situation. In order to meet everyone’s needs, various companies were already involved in the pilot phase and various processes were simulated and tested with them. In addition, the stakeholders involved were again comprehensively informed and asked for feedback at a meeting held at the end of last year. According to Freude, the appointed installer supervisor also plays a very decisive role: “He knows the topics in depth and picks up the installers accordingly.”

From January to September, over 2600 commissioning requests have already been made via the portal. The next steps are already firmly planned with the installer portal and the installer directory. The latter has so far been mapped via a SharePoint solution, but will also migrate to the cloud environment by the end of 2021. The aim is to make it even easier to monitor installer concessions via the digital directory – this applies both to concession holders from the SWTE network area and to external companies with a corresponding guest concession. Following on from the commissioning process, the registration of generation plants was also introduced using a digital registration form and workflow management via the epilot platform.