Case Study: Elektrilevi achieves optimized network investments and 20% fewer unplanned outages with Trimble NIS

Elektrilevi Optimizes Network Investments

Elektrilevi, Estonia’s largest distribution network operator serving nearly 650,000 customers with over 60,000 km of lines and 22,000 substations, faced a major asset‑renewal challenge: much of the grid was built in the 1970s–80s and more than 15,000 km of medium and low voltage lines still needed renewing. Despite investing €300M from 2012–2014 across about 20 programs, the company needed better tools to prioritize investments, improve reliability, and make transparent, data‑driven decisions.

Elektrilevi centralized its planning in Trimble NIS and added Reliability‑based Network Analysis (RNA), Spatial Analysis and the Network Investment Management (NIM) module to link network, financial and strategic data. RNA and Spatial Analysis let planners model outages, compare scenarios and identify optimal sections for weatherproofing (choosing ~1,000 km of overhead lines to replace, adding >100,000 customers to the weatherproof network), while NIM consolidated scattered investment data for portfolio management. The result: clearer, faster investment decisions, improved voltage for ~2,000 households and a 20% reduction in unplanned outages.

Elektrilevi

Marti Laidre

Head of the Network Planning Team