Case Study: Redes Energéticas Nacionais improves electric grid visibility and network resilience with Ciena Blue Planet Route Optimization and Analysis

REN Assures Portugal’s Electric Grid with Blue Planet® Route Optimization and Analysis

Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), Portugal’s national electricity and natural gas network operator, needed better visibility and control over its critical MPLS network to support uninterrupted energy delivery. The team wanted faster troubleshooting, improved latency and resiliency, and a way to reduce service risk during maintenance and network changes. REN evaluated Ciena’s Blue Planet Route Optimization and Analysis (ROA), including Route Explorer, its VPN module, and Performance Explorer.

Ciena’s Blue Planet ROA gave REN real-time routing visibility, event replay for forensic analysis, guided root-cause workflows, and change modeling before implementation. During evaluation, REN uncovered several issues, including a rerouted service path that added hops and latency, incorrect local preference settings, flapping prefixes, asymmetric paths, routers and links with less than 100% availability, and unknown Layer 2 VPNs. REN adopted the solution in production and reported faster troubleshooting, stronger change control, and optimized traffic paths with lower latency and better resiliency.

Redes Energéticas Nacionais

Jose Campos

Technical Architect and Project Manager