DISTRIBUTECH: Merging data streams for updated transmission planning

As utilities continue to look at how to modernise their infrastructure in the face of extreme weather events, merging data streams should be considered a top priority for transmission planning, explained the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Patricia Hoffman, principal deputy director of the Grid Deployment Office.

According to Hoffman, speaking at DISTRIBUTECH International, extreme weather events have brought to the fore an urgency for utilities to look at new ways of partnering on advanced analytics.

“A message that I want to get across to folks here at the forum is that we have an opportunity, we have a critical mandate and critical urgency,” she added, stating the need for power sector players to be responsible and plan for these events, that are no longer a ‘once-every-other-year’ occurrence.

Hoffman referenced bouts of funding made available by the US DOE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) programme.

The major funding programme, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and consisting of $10.5 billion, aims to enhance grid flexibility. Additionally, as emphasised by Hoffman, it recognises the need for a resilient power system to combat the growing threats of extreme weather and climate change.

Indeed, weather-induced outages are becoming ever more frequent; a common news headline calling for utilities to overhaul their grid planning. According to Hoffman, new collaborations will be crucial.

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“[This planning] requires a lot of collaboration. It requires building things at scale, looking at data at scale, looking at partnering so that we can do the analytics at scale.”

Referencing wildfires on the US west coast that called for public safety power shut-offs, Hoffman stated how the opportunity to mitigate the impacts of these events lies in the collection of multiple data streams.

“To better understand and predict the potential for wildfires, there’s a lot of data streams out there: LIDAR data; forest service data; fuel loadings; drought conditions; temperatures; heat zones.”

Hoffman explained how accounting for all of these data streams, pulling them together with transmission planning and mapping, will open new avenues for mitigation and prevention of their impact on the grid.

Considering key questions, she added, such as power safety shut off being coordinated in larger or narrower areas or how to pre-position or lighten the load in the system due to event conditions, would then work towards minimising the damage and effect on our power systems.

“That’s one example, to merge data streams, sensor information, and be able to capitalise on that as an industry and be able to provide feedback to the customer.

“That’s what it goes back to … this call from the customer for greater transparency, greater awareness, an expectation by the customer for us to do more to provide them more information.”