Fault analysis application

Daniel Dunderfelt worked with Fingrid to implement an application for analysing the status of the Finnish national grid. Daniel implemented the application with React for the UI layer and Node.js on the server. Both realms are written in Typescript. Since the application handles a large amount of data, keeping the UI performant was of great importance.

The application ingests data from Kafka, and Daniel also implemented a Kafka stream processor in Kotlin, a language he was not familiar with from before. The application is deployed in Fingrid's Azure cloud using Kubernetes.

The application is a part of the core systems keeping the Finnish national grid operational.

"We worked with Daniel for about a year. The collaboration was enjoyable. Daniel is a results-oriented, solution-focused, and self-directed developer", said Mikko Poranen, Head of Development at Fingrid.

System management application

Working in a secure environment is always tricky. At Fingrid, there was a process which had to be started manually in a secure Windows environment, where application permissions are severely limited. Daniel implemented a system where this process could be started from an external web-based control panel, simplifying operations considerably.

The control panel is also implemented using React, Node.js and Typescript. The communication between the control panel and the secure environment goes through Kafka, and the skills developed for the fault analysis project came in handy again.

A control panel and a Kafka connection is not enough, there also needs to be an application in the secure environment which reads commands from the Kafka queue and starts the process. This was implemented using Node.js and Typescript, and packaged into an exe. The exe needed to be signed before it was allowed to be executed in the secure environment. To aid in development and future maintenance, the application in the secure environment also includes an update function.

"Working on a project with Daniel, he communicated clearly about technical solutions and challenges. I also received good development suggestions from him that had not occurred to me before. We met the project’s goals and I would gladly work on future projects with Daniel", said Marcin Pohjanpalo, the operational grid specialist who Daniel worked closely with on the project.

Conclusion

"Working for Fingrid is one of the most rewarding experiences in my professional career. The skills and technologies I learned there will be useful for many more projects to come", said Daniel.

The projects for Fingrid are exactly the sort of impactful and challenging projects we want to be involved in and it's where we thrive.