An Ignoble Experiment

2. Second Southwest Blackout settlement approved

Just one of the U.S. Department of Energy's Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) recipients, Georgia Systems Operations Center's (GSOC) -- an independent, not-for-profit system operator owned by its 38 member electric member cooperatives (EMC) -- is producing benefits in several areas. Although GSOC doesn't own or operate generation, transmission, or distribution facilities, they help manage and coordinate open and efficient bulk power system operations.

Credit: Georgia Systems Operations Corporation

The $12.9 million project -- which includes $6.4 million in funding from DOE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 -- has resulted in new control center capabilities for more reliable and efficient operations, enhanced data management tools for better operational flexibility, and new security measures.

New control center capabilities include faster and easier to operate energy control systems, redundant fiber links between the primary and backup operations control centers to boost reliability and effectiveness, and enhanced situational awareness via color coding of alarms and new alarm priorities for major, minor, and miscellaneous alarm groups.

Enhanced data management improvements include faster access to real-time data by GSOC and member cooperatives via web-enabled interfaces to assist with energy scheduling and operational planning, and enhanced reliability by eliminating manual processes for updating critical Energy Management System operational databases.

New security measures include strengthened systems for detecting and responding to any malicious cyber activities that could potentially threaten the bulk electric system and tools to reduce risks of cyberattacks and unauthorized access to servers, workstations, physical security devices, and network equipment.

With these upgrades, GSOC is positioned to scale-up and address future smart grid requirements, including advancements in software, hardware, and big data analytics. Member cooperatives are beginning to understand the benefits they can capture through more effective utilization of the new data being provided, including information on power flows across the bulk power system and more accurate energy cost estimates for power purchasing decisions.

GSOC plans to continue implementation of EMS and control room enhancements, including expanding the state estimator to model the entirety of the Georgia Integrated Transmission System, and moving ahead with further education and training programs for grid operators and engineers.

For more:
- see this case study



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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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3. Con Edison netting vast SGIG benefits

The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) must pay a $12 million civil penalty, according to a settlement agreement between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Office of Enforcement and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and IID. The agreement resolves FERC Enforcement staff's and NERC's investigation into IID's involvement in the Sept. 8, 2011 Southwest blackout. The agreement is the second settlement related to the FERC-NERC joint investigation into the outage that left more than 5 million people in Southern California, Arizona and Baja California, Mexico, without power for up to 12 hours.

The investigation found that IID violated 10 requirements of four Reliability Standards on transmission operations and transmission planning, including a failure to coordinate its operations planning with neighboring systems -- serious enough to undermine the reliable operation of the Bulk Power System.

IID stipulated (made a judicial admission) to the facts in the agreement and will pay a civil penalty of $12 million -- $3 million to be split evenly between the U.S. Treasury and NERC, and $9 million to be invested in reliability enhancement measures that go beyond mitigation of the violations, and exceed the requirements of the mandatory Reliability Standards.

The reliability enhancements include construction of utility-scale battery energy storage facilities within IID's transmission operations area. By December 31, 2016, IID must provide evidence that it has spent a minimum of $9 million to complete the systems. Any amount remaining from the $9 million will be paid in equal shares to the U.S. Treasury and NERC. IID also committed to mitigate the Reliability Standard violations and says it has completed most of the required measures.

For more:
- see the settlement agreement

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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4. Harmonizing smart grid standards, interoperability

It's been several years since the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the electricity industry jointly invested more than $7.9 billion in 99 cost-shared Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) projects. Consolidated Edison's (Con Edison) SGIG project is just one of many netting the benefits of those investments.

After installing voltage control equipment on portions of its 4 kV feeders and substations, New York's Con Edison has seen an increase of 31.1 megavolt-amperes (MVA), or 2.8 percent under peak load conditions, in its substation capabilities, resulting in a net savings of $15.7million. Further, over a one-year test period, Con Edison has experienced reductions of reactive power requirements at the aggregate level of 33 substations in Queens by 12.3 percent and 9.9 percent -- as well as reductions in annual system energy losses of 4,500 MWh. This alone resulted in an estimated $0.34 million in annual energy costs and reduced CO2 emissions of about 340 metric tons.

Ultimately, Con Edison has deferred costly capacity upgrades by making improvements in voltage controls and power factor corrections, which have reduced electricity supply needs. When operated properly, the automated capacitors can produce near-unity power factor ratings, releasing capacity that distribution system planners and operators can use to defer capacity upgrades, manage capital expenditures, improve operating flexibility, and increase reliability. Using load tap changing controls to moderate the effects of circulating reactive flows have reduced de-ratings, extended the life of the transformers, and improved reliability through lower likelihood of equipment failures.

Con Edison has demonstrated that a more comprehensive set of tools are created for grid planners and operators when solutions like demand response and end-use efficiency are integrated with automated controls for voltage and reactive power management. These efforts are part of a broader Con Edison strategy to apply smart grid technologies on both the utility and customer sides of the meter to save energy and improve the reliability, efficiency, and affordability of electricity.

Con Edison plans to apply these techniques to additional portions of its service area.

For more:
- see this case study

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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5. North America to see significant substation automation investments, research

In the shifting energy paradigm, active distribution grid operation is an inevitable requirement driven by growing amounts of data and new technologies that allow network operators to monitor and coordinate energy flows, as well as facilitate new services -- presenting new and significant challenges for technologies, systems and organizations. Without interoperability, these products and services cannot operate in a multi-vendor, multi-standard, local manufacturing and multi-operator environment, according to the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) whose recent report identifies key interoperability challenges that must be addressed in smart grid standards.

Work on smart grid interoperability and standards is ongoing globally, and mapping exercises have identified more than 500 smart grid standards. But further harmonization is needed, and there are many hurdles to overcome, according to GSGF. For example, standardization is particularly time consuming, there are interoperability issues between equipment from different manufacturers despite compliance with standards, and "upgradability," i.e. adapting standards as technologies develop, is still needed in the areas of demand response, flexibility, and curtailment of distributed renewable energy resources.

Efforts risk overlap from country to country where, in the electricity market, different players' roles and responsibilities, as well as market regulation, are often unclear and differ greatly.

Interoperability can, with well-specified interfaces and functionalities, contribute to fundamental security, the report contends, as cyber and system security threats become more and more prevalent. Keeping infrastructures secure requires a "security by design" approach in which systems are designed using secure and resilient architectures.

For more:
- see this report

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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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