Deliverable D1.1: Use cases for Data Apps and Data Pipelines

This deliverable outlines the use cases and data-analytics components that form the foundation of the 3PhaseInsight project’s approach to improving low-voltage grid awareness through three-phase smart-meter data. The project addresses a core challenge faced by Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and other stakeholders, particularly in limited visibility into per-phase loading, phase-connection accuracy, and emerging electrification patterns at the customer level. The realised benefits are also relevant to electricians and installers who work directly on phase connections and attend to customer issues. These gaps limit efficient planning, slow connection processes, and increase the risk of overloads and imbalance. Leveraging the unique three-phase smart-meter dataset made available through the project, a structured set of Data Apps has been defined to extract actionable insights that DSOs can operationalise.
The identified Data Apps cover data preparation, topology refinement, imbalance analysis, device detection, loading assessment, and harmonic-related diagnostics. Together, they form a modular analytics toolbox that can be flexibly composed into Data Pipelines supporting specific operational and planning needs. Each app is designed to serve a clearly defined purpose, such as refining meter-to-feeder connectivity, identifying heat pumps or EV chargers, or screening phase imbalance, while relying on consistent inputs from the shared data processing foundation. These components are important building blocks for downstream services, ensuring that later steps operate on corrected, reliable, and interpretable per-phase information.
Building on these capabilities, several high-value use cases have been defined for DSO operations, planning, and stakeholder engagement. These include a Phase Connection Assistant for electricians; automated detection of smart-meter connection issues; feeder-level imbalance screening; customer issue diagnosis; fuse-loading notifications; per-phase hosting-capacity assessments; and where many more can be be conceptualized further. Each use case is motivated by sound operational needs and supports better decision-making through insights derived from the Data Apps. The services illustrate how per-phase analytics can unlock new forms of low voltage awareness, thereby improving customer service and reducing conservatism in grid planning through more granular and trustworthy data.
Together, the Data Apps and associated use cases provide a blueprint for how DSOs can leverage large-scale three-phase smart-meter data within a repeatable, open, and scalable pipeline architecture (which will be described further in deliverable D2.2).
This deliverable provides the conceptual foundation for these solutions, describing what they do, whom they serve, and why they matter while deferring technical implementation details to later project stages.