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(SCADA APPLICATION) REAL TIME DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES TECHNICAL PAPER

(SCADA APPLICATION) REAL TIME DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES TECHNICAL PAPER
Authored by: Jim See, Wayne Carr, P.E., Member, IEEE, and Steven E. Collier, Member, IEEE

ABSTRACT— Electric utilities are finding it increasingly necessary to better monitor, analyze and control their distribution systems. Planning and operation of the grid is increasing in complexity on one hand but subject to ever more binding constraints on the other. Real-time analysis is being seen as necessary to achieve acceptable operational efficiencies and quality of service. Real-time analysis is the combination of computerized circuit analysis with measured real-time inputs (voltage and current into the grid) and outputs (customer consumption) to determine the actual and likely near-term voltages and power flows throughout the transmission and distribution grid. With appropriate analytical tools, display options, and control systems, real-time analysis will allow utilities to actively manage the grid to achieve better operating efficiencies and to anticipate and avoid service interruptions and other operating problems. Most of the tools required for real-time analysis are already available. Computer load flow analysis has been used by transmission and distribution utilities for decades to simulate and analyze voltage, current, and real and reactive power flow for system planning and operations. SCADA has reached almost universal usage by transmission and distribution utilities of all sizes and makes it possible to monitor and control generators, transmission lines, substations, distribution lines, and in-line equipment and devices. Smart meters have, in the last decade, become an important and widely used tool not only for reading residential and commercial meters, but also for collecting data about the distribution system.

INTRODUCTION - An electric utility system today looks pretty much like it did more than a hundred years ago. And, for the most part, the same technologies are still being used for generation, transmission, distribution, and metering. Generation still involves using a fuel burning prime mover to turn a generator like it did when the first one went online in the late 1800’s. Power from large, central station generation facilities is delivered to remote load centers via a bulk transmission grid. The power is delivered to customers through a local distribution grid. The only things that have changed significantly in transmission and distribution are the kinds of materials and styles of construction that are being used for poles, lines, insulators, and transformers. Two thirds of all electric meters are the same electromechanical registers that have been in use for a century. Utilities still rely primarily on their customers to let them know when their service is interrupted or service quality is substandard. Electric utilities continue their traditional approach to reliability and quality of service by planning and constructing the grid with enough redundancy and extra capacity to accommodate anticipated changes in customer demand and recover from outages and other system disturbances. The only real option that utilities have to significantly reduce the likelihood and duration of service interruptions is to add new generation, transmission, and distribution capacity and redundancy. Once the system is constructed, there are few options to adjust operations to achieve system efficiencies or other goals.

SUMMARY - This is not your father’s electric utility business any more. Business as usual won’t work. Real-time distribution analysis will be an essential tool for electric utilities in the near future. While real-time distribution analysis is not possible today, it is not hard to see how it can be done. While there are significant challenges, there are no insurmountable ones. Significant software development and testing will be required. SCADA and AMR will have to be more widely deployed and utilized. Utilities will have to become experienced in using real-time analysis for active grid management. Electric distribution grids and equipment will begin to be designed and operated differently. New technologies will emerge and be deployed. No other technology advance has so much potential for changing in positive and beneficial ways how we engineer and operate the electric distribution system. Real-time analysis will allow us to dynamically engineer and operate our dynamic systems.
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  1. Electrical Service IndianaJanuary 7, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    Since the EES technologies considered for this analysis are yet to be fully commercialized, tests are being performed, additional sensitivity analysis are added to determine the effect of round-trip efficiency on the net revenue potential for energy arbitrage in the four super-zones.

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