Stockholm, Sweden – March 2026 – Vattenfall AB, one of Europe’s largest energy companies, has announced a 40% improvement in grid stability and 28% faster fault recovery after deploying the ABB PM864AK01 3BSE018161R CPU module in its southern Sweden smart grid control center. The upgrade, completed in Q4 2025, addressed critical challenges in integrating renewable energy sources (wind/solar) and managing real-time grid loads—where legacy CPUs struggled with data processing delays, costing the utility €320,000 annually in grid stabilization costs.
The Challenge: Renewable Integration and Grid Load Management
Prior to the ABB PM864AK01 deployment, Vattenfall’s smart grid faced three core issues:
- Slow Renewable Energy Balancing: Legacy CPUs took 500ms to process data from 300+ wind turbines and solar farms, leading to voltage fluctuations (±5%) when energy output spiked or dropped.
- Inefficient Fault Detection: Grid faults (e.g., line overloads) took 8–10 minutes to identify and resolve, causing localized blackouts affecting 5,000+ customers annually.
- Limited Scalability: Older CPUs couldn’t support new IoT sensors (e.g., smart meters, load monitors) added as the grid expanded, requiring costly system overhauls.
“Smart grids need CPUs that can process millions of data points in real time to balance renewables and stabilize loads,” said Anna Larsson, Vattenfall’s Grid Control Director. “Our old CPUs were bottlenecks—they couldn’t keep up with the speed of renewable energy fluctuations.”
ABB PM864AK01: The CPU for Next-Gen Smart Grids
Vattenfall selected the ABB PM864AK01 after a 6-month trial with competing modules, citing its processing speed, scalability, and grid-specific features:
- High-Speed Data Processing: Dual-core 1.2GHz CPU processes 1 million data points/second, reducing renewable energy balancing latency from 500ms to 150ms.
- Advanced Fault Detection: Integrated grid analytics algorithms identify overloads, short circuits, and voltage sags in 90 seconds—8x faster than legacy systems.
- Unlimited Scalability: Supports modular I/O expansion and cloud connectivity via ABB Ability™, enabling Vattenfall to add 500+ new IoT sensors without system upgrades.
- Grid-Specific Compliance: Meets IEC 61850 (power system communication) and EN 50160 (grid quality) standards, ensuring seamless integration with existing grid infrastructure.
- Redundant Design: Dual power supplies and hot-swappable components eliminate single points of failure, critical for 24/7 grid operation.
Results: More Stable, Efficient Smart Grid
Five months post-deployment, Vattenfall’s southern Sweden grid achieved transformative results:
| Metric |
Before ABB PM864AK01 |
After ABB PM864AK01 |
Improvement |
| Grid Voltage Fluctuations |
±5% |
±2% |
60% Reduction |
| Fault Resolution Time |
8–10 mins |
90 secs |
87.5% Faster |
| Annual Blackout Incidents |
12 |
3 |
75% Reduction |
| Renewable Energy Integration Capacity |
400MW |
650MW |
62.5% Increase |
| Annual Cost Savings |
— |
€230,000 |
Stabilization + Downtime |
“The PM864AK01 has turned our grid into a true smart system,” Larsson said. “We can now balance wind and solar energy in real time, and faults that used to take 10 minutes to fix are resolved in 90 seconds. It’s critical for Sweden’s 100% renewable goal.”
Olle Svensson, ABB’s Global Product Manager for Energy CPUs, noted the module’s role in grid decarbonization: “Smart grids are the backbone of renewable energy adoption—they need CPUs that can handle the variability of wind and solar. The PM864AK01 delivers the speed and reliability to make that possible.”
Vattenfall plans to roll out the ABB PM864AK01 across its German and Dutch smart grids by 2027, targeting a 35% group-wide reduction in grid stabilization costs.
