Group Subnetworks

If your Utility Network (UN) has hundreds - or even thousands - of low voltage (LV) subnetworks, Schneider Electric recommends enabling the Group Subnetworks option. This is particularly true in radial or mesh network designs.

• The end result of Group Subnetworks is that the LV subnetworks are grouped together in the same Geodatabase Region (GRR) export instead of being exported into separate GRRs. This makes uploading the GRR to your integrated application, such as ADMS, much easier.

• Feeder Services uses the upstream medium voltage (MV) subnetwork to determine the LV groups. In other words, all LV subnetworks that share the same MV subnetwork as their source are grouped together in the GRR export.

  IMPORTANT: For this reason, Schneider Electric recommends that you create the GRRs for the MV subnetworks before configuring GRR Groups. With the MV GRRs created first, they are ready to act as the grouping parent for LV subnetworks.

How to Group Subnetworks

To enable grouping, follow these steps:

1. In Solution Center > Feeder Services > Mapping > Maps, click the Edit button next to Group Subnetworks.

2. In the Edit Tiers Selection dialog, check which LV networks should be grouped, then click Apply.

   

   IMPORTANT:

   • As seen in the image above, your high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) tiers are also visible (they are likely named differently than in the image). The application is returning the names of the tiers as found in your UN, and thus, it does not know which is LV by name alone. You need to know your tier names and which comprise LV subnetworks.

   • The Group Subnetworks functionality is specifically designed to support LV subnetworks that have an MV source subnetwork. Even though the MV and HV tiers are visible in the selection dialog, Schneider Electric recommends to not check them. If you check MV or HV tiers that include subnetworks lacking the source subnetwork, the exports fail.

3. Click Save.

What Did That Accomplish?

So far you have informed the application that the LV subnetworks should be grouped together by their MV subnetwork source in the GRR exports.

Groups are visible and managed in Geodatabase Regions > Geodatabase Region Groups.

If this is your first time enabling groups, you won’t have any groups just yet since they are created upon the next update of your GRRs (refer to Schedule Updates for Geodatabase Regions for more information). In other words, the application generates the groups organically the next time it runs an update.

• You can “Update All” GRRs if you do not want to wait for the next scheduled update. However, be aware of the processing time that it might entail.

• You can also “Update” an individual LV subnetwork. This causes the application to create the group that would contain that LV subnetwork and any others that share the same MV subnetwork source.

• If network changes are made within your UN, the LV subnetworks are re-grouped (if necessary) the next time the scheduled update runs. In other words, if the energizing MV subnetwork changes for a certain number of LV subnetworks, the LV subnetworks are re-organized into their appropriate groups upon the next scheduled update.

View LV Subnetwork Information

As stated above, groups are visible and managed in Geodatabase Regions > Geodatabase Region Groups.

You can see a list of all existing groups, in addition to which LV subnetworks participate in each group.

When viewing groups and GRRs, keep these items in mind:

• The group Name is created by the application. It takes the Name of the energizing subnetwork and appends it to “NetworkGroup.” Using the image above as an example, “0201” is the name of a MV subnetwork that energizes the LV subnetworks.

• Use the Navigate button to quickly jump between subnetwork members of the group and the energizing subnetwork itself. This is a great way to track down information about groups of members of groups.

• When viewing LV subnetworks in Geodatabase Regions, they have a Group button that indicates they are a part of an existing group.

• Once an LV subnetwork belongs to a group, you cannot delete the LV subnetwork GRR individually. That is why the Delete button is disabled for LV subnetwork GRRs that belong to a group (again, look for the Group button to see at a glance whether or not the LV subnetwork is in a group). You must delete the entire GRR Group, which removes not only the group but also all the individual members of the group from the Storage Service.