DIgSILENT – Germany – Industry

CodeMeter secures the software that secures the grid

The Challenge

DIgSILENT’s PowerFactory is the leading power system analysis software for utilities and consulting companies around the world. Each customer has its own requirements and needs, including different numbers of end users and a choice of functionalities and types of licenses. In such a heterogeneous environment, the challenge was to provide a robust protection and licensing solution that is highly flexible and easy to use, without any compromise on security.

The Solution

In 2016, DIgSILENT adopted Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter Protection Suite to secure its PowerFactory grid analysis software used by more than 2500 customers around the globe. The necessary licenses are available in many configurations to suit each customer’s specific needs, with a choice of more than 40 modules. The licenses are delivered in hardware CmDongle or software CmActLicense containers, and DIgSILENT is actively trialing CmCloud for added flexibility.

The Result

For more than five years, Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter has allowed DIgSILENT to provide its customers with exactly what they need. With the capabilities of CodeMeter License Central Internet Edition, the licensing solution offers the flexibility to manage the entire license lifecycle online, paired with the great software security guaranteed by CodeMeter’s unbeaten AxProtector encryption technology on C++, .NET, and Java.

Dr. Jochen Alber
Managing Director, DIgSILENT GmbH

“Our clients have a wide range of individual requirements. With Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter, we are able to fulfill all those requirements and secure our software at the same time. Wibu-Systems has proved itself a great partner in finding solutions and, at the same time, providing a licensing system that is easy to maintain. For us, the performance and flexibility of CodeMeter were a key component. They have served us well, and we look forward to continued collaboration.”

The Company

DIgSILENT GmbH is an independent software and consulting company providing highly specialized services in the field of electrical systems for power generation, transmission, and distribution, including industrial facilities and renewable energy infrastructures. DIgSILENT‘s innovative product portfolio comprises PowerFactory, StationWare, and Monitoring Systems.

PowerFactory is a leading power system analysis software, which covers the full range of functionality from standard features to highly sophisticated and advanced grid analysis applications.

Wibu-Systems and DIgSILENT for a secure energy approach

How the modern world generates and supplies its power has changed beyond recognition over the last few decades. And the pace of change has only quickened in recent years: Nuclear power is being phased out in some major economies like Germany. Coal and gas are giving way to wind and solar. Aging power plants are being decommissioned and replaced with a more distributed scattering of renewable energy generators. All of these changes are pushing the grid to the brink.

Designing and managing power grids is a highly sophisticated business at the best of times, but the rapid pace of change in the infrastructure itself and the demand profiles calls for a technical solution to step in where human ingenuity is reaching its limits. PowerFactory, a reliable and flexible analysis software package that meets the needs of all stakeholders, uses load and generation forecasts and comprehensive network analysis to predict grid security and keep contingency and emergency plans. Highly sophisticated algorithms and data models are required to facilitate essential analysis of power flows, short-circuit levels, dynamic stability, and harmonics. For fault situations, protection devices must be properly adjusted in order to save lives and further optimized to minimize unsupplied energy.

PowerFactory is the world’s leading power systems analysis software that does all of these jobs. Protecting the IP and technological expertise invested in such a sophisticated package and securing it against illicit use and manipulation are of utmost importance for the system’s maker, DIgSILENT. The challenges start with the heterogeneous nature of its user base.

The users of PowerFactory range from small independent consultants to major utilities with multiple hundreds of concurrent users, each with a characteristic IT architecture and operational requirements. A flexible user management framework with different software editions is indispensable. And this flexibility also extends to the protection and licensing system’s performance: As power systems are getting increasingly complex, PowerFactory users are conducting more and more automated calculations and analytics at the same time. Hundreds of licensed users need to be able to access the system concurrently, without any material impact on performance.

CodeMeter by Wibu-Systems was chosen by DIgSILENT because of its ability to fulfil these tough requirements. This award-winning protection technology keeps the PowerFactory software safe from IP theft and illicit use, while CodeMeter License Central Internet Edition takes care of license management with the required flexibility, reliability, and ease of use. DIgSILENT chose to use both hardware CmDongles and software CmActLicenses with and without regular license validations to serve the different needs of its many users.

For DIgSILENT, the choice of software protection and licensing solution was all about flexibility paired with reliability, and Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter answered that call with its combination of a tried-and-true licensing system and new cloud opportunities to keep PowerFactory ready for the future in its changing market.