#DISTRIBUTECH: Weatherproofing the grid
As weather events continue to show their implications for the grid, grid operators are now more than ever required to ensure that their planning is as optimized as possible to mitigate, if not prevent, potential outages. Two case studies, discussed during DISTRIBUTECH in San Diego, provide examples of what grid resilience planning could look like.
Extreme weather events have been causing outages across different parts of the US grid; floods in California and an ice storm in Texas are just the latest examples showcasing how hard-hitting such natural acts can be on power networks.
And with these extreme weather events likely to continue into the future, it is up to operators to think of new approaches to their resilience planning. During DISTRIBUTECH in San Diego, California, Con Edison department manager Kevin Wasserman and Jeff Pauska, director of product management at Hitachi Energy, highlighted two case studies of how utilities can enhance their grid planning to be aware of and proactively manage potential faults and emergency-level events.
1. Grid resilience planning with AMI load shedding
Wasserman discussed Con Edison’s initiative to use AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) remote disconnect technology to perform surgical load shedding in response to system events from storms and extreme weather events.
A preventative measure, the idea behind the project is to prevent wide-scale blackouts and maintain grid stability through remotely activated load shedding, disrupting power supply in a tightly targeted part of the grid.
Should a number of feeders go out, this load shedding is activated by using meter-fed information to prevent what Wasserman calls cascading network failure, a worst-case outcome.
Said Wasserman: “The Achilles heel of network system design is the risk of cascading network failure, where you have a number of feeders that are out of service that leads to all of the other feeders in the network becoming overloaded, and then they may trip out. And before you know it, we’ve lost the entire network and we have 100,000 customers [without power].
“We built a system that leverages remote disconnect switches to shed load in response to events… It visually analyses a given network and can predict what’s going to happen… [It is integrated with] an AMI system, which sends the remote disconnects and remote connect commands to the meter.”
By using this data to determine where on the grid load can best be managed, targeted power disruption is thus used to prevent what operators fear – extreme outages across thousands of households.
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2. Grid resilience planning with satellite-based vegetation management
Pauska spoke on behalf of Hitachi Energy on closed-loop vegetation management resource planning, which they conducted with Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company (LG&E KU).
Their system uses satellite imagery to predict and prevent grid impacts caused by vegetation as according to Pauska, 80% of circuit interruptions are the result of trees falling into facilities.
The system uses algorithms modelled on FERC’s FAC-003-4 and Minimum Approach Distances (MAD), forecasting changed conditions across the grid to reduce storm and weather-related impacts.
Pauska emphasised the importance of risk-based data for this type of planning, to prevent as far as possible power supply interruptions that might result from unforeseen vegetation risks.
With satellite data and remote sensing data captured over half-year intervals, alongside patrol and field crew data, frequent visibility and insights can thus be accessed into the situation across the grid.
“All this data [can be used] to drive deep insights on conflict prediction: Where were things happening, where are things a problem now and where will things happen will model growth effectively to plan in an optimal way.”
