As part of a collaborative R&D project with utilities, EPRI and Eaton are testing Eaton’s new circuit breaker, which is designed to improve utility service reliability through monitoring and control of consumer loads – and to provide customers information on their electricity use patterns. EPRI is testing and evaluating the impact of Eaton’s energy management circuit breaker (EMCB) in the field and will provide testing data to the 12 participating utilities. Research results are expected to be useful in helping participants better understand how to manage power demand. The device offers the potential to integrate new energy sources such as solar and battery energy storage with the grid while enabling residential customers to manage their energy use.
With its ease of use and accurate circuit load monitoring, the EMCB can be instrumental in measuring and verifying activities, including any substitution of electrified loads such as energy efficiency and customer-owned generation. Studies are needed to verify its effective performance, especially with respect to its role in any efficient electrification strategy.
Two versions of EMCB are operating: 1) a standard version, suitable for conventional loads, and 2) an electric vehicle (EV)-compatible version, suitable for monitoring and controlling the charging of plug-in EVs. It’s expected that EMCBs will support the effective integration of EVs as an electrification technology option.
“The EMCB technology puts some of the benefits of a smart, integrated grid in the hands of homeowners, and could transform the way consumers interact with electricity,” said Arshad Mansoor, EPRI senior vice president for research and development. “This field test also provides a real-time, in-home assessment of how the EMCB can improve utility service and optimize the grid by supporting demand response, distributed energy resources, solar installation monitoring, energy storage, and energy management.”
The EMCB combines circuit breaker protection in the customer’s load center, with Internet connectivity and on-board intelligence. It can make residential and commercial circuits “smart” and provide energy use information for on-site energy management. Existing electrical panels can be retrofitted with ECMBs, requiring no additional hardware.
In EPRI’s EMCB field test 12 utilities installed them in approximately 500 residences and businesses across the country. As of early August 2017, 373 EMCBs had been shipped, and 216 were active in the field. Participating utilities are American Electric Power, CenterPoint Energy, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Duke Energy, Exelon subsidiaries ComEd, PECO, and Pepco, Nebraska Public Power District, Seattle City Light, Southern Company, and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc.
With the first phase scheduled to end in late summer of 2018, EPRI is looking to expand the project in a second phase in which current participants can continue their field activities and additional utilities can join the project. Phase I has identified new applications that can be expanded into full-scale projects in their own right, and potential pilot programs can be identified. Feld deployments of EMCBs can use an experimental design that provides data sufficient to expand into pilot programs.
For more information, contact EPRI’s Tom Reddoch (treddoch@epri.com) or John Halliwell (jhalliwell@epri.com).
About the Authors
Dr. Thomas (Tom) Reddoch is a senior technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the Power Delivery and Utilization sector. His areas of responsibility include EPRI‘s consumerbased activities known as utility customerfacing programs. Over the past four years, he has a led an initiative on education and training for developing the next generation of electric power engineers by working with universities and utilities through a Department of Energy grant. Before joining EPRI in 2007, Dr. Reddoch had a 30-year career specializing in the development and deployment of new methodology and technology. He served as an executive officer at several early-stage and developmental technology companies. Prior to that, he was co-founder and executive vice president of Electrotek Concepts, Inc. Dr. Reddoch received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s of engineering science degree from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
John Halliwell is a technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the Electric Transportation Group of the Power Delivery and Utilization Sector. Halliwell’s primary focus is smart charging development for plug-in electric vehicles. His other research activities focus on improving the efficiency of power supply systems, solid-state lighting, and seeking new ways to deliver power to products and systems that optimize energy use. Halliwell has broad experience in design and application of electronic circuits and electronic systems in instrumentation, controls, embedded systems, and power supplies. Before joining EPRI, he worked at AGT, where he was responsible for the design of high-voltage power supplies for atmospheric plasma systems, instrumentation of experimental systems, and project oversight. His previous employers include Vacuum Technology, Incorporated, working in residual gas analysis and industrial leak testing; the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), working in electronics design and systems integration; and EG&G Energy Measurements, working in test instrumentation development.
