Utility Horizons - Second Quarter 2013 - (Page 57)
Purviews...
also underscores the time it takes after an event to
develop consensus for action and the development
of sound strategies to address the issue. Shoring up
the grid, like its cousin, modernizing the grid, doesn’t
happen overnight.
The project I describe here may be thought of as a
pilot design, in that it addresses just two communities
and a limited amount of utility infrastructure on a
Northeastern utility grid. But both elected officials
and utility executives want to assess what’s currently
possible and at what
cost, before implementing
our design or scaling it
across a service territory.
As we’ll see, determining
value and recovering
costs present their own
challenges.
One Concept –
Selective
Applications
utility crews and first-response, emergency crews
clearing trees is being explored. A microgrid controller
with situational awareness to orchestrate the interplay
of supply and load is included in our design.
The Anatomy of Resiliency
Managing resiliency has many facets. The effort
described here is designed to address the front end
of a disruptive event. What can be done from a new
design point of view to
minimize the impact and
its aftermath?
The first step is selective
undergrounding of
the medium voltage
distribution feeders
most important to the
legacy system on the
ground, to counter the
threat of falling trees
and other wind-blown
debris related damage.
The second step is to
selectively sectionalize
overhead lines to limit
the extent of faults that
do occur and to enable
operators to reroute
power around damaged
lines and maintain power
to undamaged areas
– particularly those parts
of the grid serving loads
critical to civil order and
safety.
The primary concept
driving our work in this
case is to maintain
essential services (i.e.,
police, fire, gas stations,
shelters, etc.) for a
specific locale and thereby
preserve civil order and
promote the health and
safety of the citizenry in
Sensors and
the event of a devastating
communication networks
cyber or natural event.
will help operators
determine the location
We’re pursuing that
goal by designing a
and cause of an outage
hardened microgrid in
Underground excavation is temporarily disruptive for more accurate
two communities out of an but returns big benefits.
dispatching of field
entire service territory with
crews as well as alert
each involving two substations and two feeders.
them when damaged areas are brought back online.
The components of this microgrid include selective
The microgrid controller will provide the situational
undergrounding of medium voltage cables, selective
awareness to understand what load is connected
sectionalizing in small increments along pertinent
both for the safety of linemen as well as notification
feeders and laterals, the installation of distributed
of customers. Placing two diesel generators on
energy resources and automated processes, aided
circuits in the area that can be bridged or operated
by sensors and communication networks. (The DERs
independently to carry the load would provide power
include two diesel generators, one of which could
in case upstream transmission is the issue. If one
carry the circuit’s entire load for a limited time.) The
generator goes out, the system has redundancy.
use of dispatch software for connectivity between
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Utility Horizons - Second Quarter 2013
Utility Horizons - Second Quarter 2013
Publisher’s Message
Contents
The Queue
Automation Rising!
Inside Tracks
Focal Point
Automation and Innovation at Epcor Water Services
BLeading Edge: Advanced Technology Perspectives
Consumer Engagement: The Future Goes Mobile
Demand Response: Why the Future Is in the Cloud
Building Paths to Smarter Water Management
Bullet-Proofing Your Scada System Against the Evil-Doers
Education Matters
Standard Bearings
Regulation De Rigueur
On the Horizon
Purviews
Intersections
Eventualities
Thinking It Through With Sparky Flamedrop
Loose Ends
Utility Horizons - Second Quarter 2013
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