At LF Energy Summit 2024 in Brussels, Maarten Mulder from Alliander showcased Grid eXchange Fabric (GXF), a versatile communication platform that bridges the gap between physical energy devices and digital systems. GXF serves as a building block in the LF Energy ecosystem, designed to help grid operators manage the complexity of the energy transition by integrating data from various sources, facilitating control over devices, and ensuring seamless operation between field devices and central applications. A summary of the session follows, and the full video is available at the bottom of the page.
Overview of GXF
GXF is a scalable, open source communication platform that supports a wide array of protocols. Its flexibility allows grid operators to collect monitoring data from various devices (e.g., light sensors, congestion sensors, fault detection systems) and send control signals for tasks like turning street lights on or off, uploading firmware updates, or managing energy schedules. By leveraging this platform, grid operators can efficiently handle vast networks of devices without vendor lock-in or reliance on proprietary systems.
Key Use Cases
- Public Lighting Control: The GXF platform was first applied in managing public lighting across one-third of the Netherlands, allowing municipalities to control lighting schedules and monitor 20,000 devices. Technicians use dedicated apps on top of GXF to install and manage these devices.
- Smart Metering: With more than 6 million electricity and gas meters connected to the platform, GXF processes over 10 million events per day. This includes meter reads, power quality data, and remote firmware updates. As other grid operators in the Netherlands adopt GXF, its reach will expand further, solidifying its position as a scalable solution for smart grid management.
- Congestion Management: The platform is also applied to monitor low-voltage measurements, allowing grid operators to detect congestion issues in real time. This data provides valuable insights for grid planning and helps detect energy fraud.
- Battery-Powered and Edge Computing Devices: GXF has been extended to integrate new hardware like battery-powered RTUs and Edge Computing gateways. These devices enhance the platform’s ability to manage infrastructure like cable oil pressure monitoring and corrosion protection.
Evolution of GXF and Transition to 2.0
Initially launched in 2012 as the Open Smart Grid Platform (OSGP), the project became part of LF Energy in 2020, rebranded as GXF. Since then, it has evolved with the latest development being the GXF 2.0 initiative. This next-generation architecture focuses on transitioning from a layered, monolithic system to a more service-based architecture, enabling faster development, easier scalability, and reduced interdependencies between services. GXF 2.0 utilizes modern technologies like Kafka for event-driven communication, replacing older protocols like SOAP with more efficient REST APIs.
This shift allows GXF to support a variety of data-streaming use cases, providing operators with real-time data for actionable insights. By modularizing the platform, it reduces complexity, enabling easier contributions from the open-source community.
Next Steps and Future Collaboration
GXF continues to grow, with Alliander looking to collaborate with other energy operators, developers, and the open source community to refine the platform further. The roadmap extends through 2026, with a focus on expanding the adoption of GXF 2.0, improving the community engagement, and adding more use cases for smart grid applications.
