IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2017 - 25

increasingly important to coordinate the operation of DER
devices to avoid causing system overloads and obtain benefits from this coordinated operation. Coordinated operations may reduce the need for system capacity upgrades
as well as ease interconnection of new DERs. This subproject, while highly aligned with the DVVC subproject,
focuses on the overall use of storage and active control of
solar PVs as an enabler for higher renewable energy penetration. Control systems are being implemented that monitor power flow data (real and reactive power) from sensors
on distribution circuits and DER devices. Using this data,
the controls can determine if changes in DER output are
required to maintain all circuit components within safe
operation limits. Signals are then sent to the DER devices
to regulate their output. These control commands might
tell a PV inverter to limit power output during light loading conditions or instruct a battery system to stop charging
during peak circuit loading conditions.

SP4: Virtual Microgrid
Microgrids are becoming more common as costs of DER devices decrease and the need for enhanced reliability increases.
In their most basic form, microgrids are a group of interconnected generation, storage, and controllable loads that interface with the larger grid to limit demand and reduce costs
(virtual microgrid). In their most advanced form, microgrids
can use these DERs to seamlessly separate from the grid and
run isolated when the larger grid is in trouble, thereby improving reliability. When the microgrid is isolated, it is responsible for its own generation/load balance, voltage regulation,
and frequency control. This subproject leverages the control
systems put in place for SP3 to control power flow at a particular point on a distribution circuit to form a virtual microgrid
while maintaining a connection to the larger grid. SP4 will
identify a point on the system that has load and resources behind it that can be used as a reference. The power flow is then
monitored at this point and signals sent to DER behind the
monitoring point to control how this circuit segment presents
its load to the grid. Figure 4 shows how this virtual microgrid
will be configured. This flow could be set to zero, where the
load and resources are acting as a virtual microgrid, or could
be set to a fixed amount appearing as a controllable load.
This type of control would assist in managing sections
of the grid independently and help alleviate temporary overloads on portions of the grid without operator intervention.
Today, these overload situations are managed by grid operators by switching load between circuits. Being able to control the load over a period of time by managing this virtual
microgrid would serve the same purpose as temporarily
switching load through a manual process.

SP5: Incentive Mechanisms
Increasingly, utilities and customer are trying to find ways
to correctly value DERs when used as grid resources. Today
this is done through the implementation of specific tariffs
march/april 2017

Substation
Monitoring
Point

Microgrid
Generation
Storage

Load

figure 4. A virtual microgrid.

and incentives. What incentive mechanisms can be implemented to properly value and control these resources? This
subproject focuses on determining the incentive mechanisms, communication protocols, and control requirements
to leverage customer-owned and -controlled DERs for grid
services. While this is a very important topic in several California regulatory proceedings, the Distribution Resource
Plan, the Integrated Distributed Energy Resources, and the
California ISO's Distribution Energy Resource Provider
program, SP5 will explore early concepts on the types of
transactions that may support DER energy services for reliability on the distribution grid.

SP6: Field Area Network
There is a growing requirement for faster and more standardsbased communications to devices located on the distribution
system. This field area network (FAN) will retrieve information from fault indicators, monitoring points, and DER
devices and send control commands to switches, fault interrupters, and batteries. The system SCE has been using for the
last 25 years is no longer able to support all of these requirements in a secure manner. This subproject examines and tests
a number of new FAN systems to replace the existing technology. This new FAN must communicate with low latency, have
increased throughput, have edge computing ability, and operate securely. The IGP will field-demonstrate two technologies
in its project area and determine which one is the best technology to replace the existing communications system.

SP7: Cybersecurity
The threat of a cyberattack on the electrical power system
is increasing daily. While utilities have been implementing
measures over the last several years to counter these threats,
more could still be done. Implementing more automation,
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2017