Brock : Some call it the smart grid. Some call it grid modernization. Whatever it is called, please describe what Toronto Hydro has done in recent years to bring its distribution grid into the future.

Wong : Beyond the AMI aspects of a smart grid, Toronto Hydro has deployed new technologies and equipment on its distribution grid. Monitors have been installed on many distribution transformers to track loading patterns and reconcile loads of individual customers against that of the transformer to identify any discrepancies. State-of-the-art line sensors (power line monitors) have been installed on distribution feeders to collect power quality and performance data, and provide new insights to improve grid operations planning and efficiency. Toronto Hydro has also embarked on distribution automation initiatives to move towards more decentralized control of logical segments of the grid and ‘self-healing’ technologies to restore power faster and more efficiently and safely. In keeping with the culture of energy conservation in the province, Toronto Hydro has led the way with the implementation of demand management technology to allow the utility to control customers’ air conditioning units and pool pumps during high demand situations. Furthermore, with the growing number of electric vehicles (EV) on the roads, the company has installed separate smart meters for a number of EV customers on a pilot program to individually monitor the potentially disruptive impact of EV charging on the distribution grid. The findings so far have been very compelling and will inform the utility on future planning strategies.

A couple of other areas where Toronto Hydro is moving forward on are the construction of a new sub-station and the installation of electricity storage technologies.

What’s unique about the new Copeland TS is that it is located in downtown Toronto (next to the CN Tower) and will be totally underground – the second of its kind in Canada. It is being built to relieve loading on the existing nearby sub-stations and to create new capacity to meet the increasing electricity demand created by the recent explosion of high-rise residential developments in the downtown core. There is more than double the number of high-rise developments in Toronto than in any other city in North America. Obviously, the new sub-station will be constructed with the latest smart grid technologies as well as the technical requirements for a large electrical installation in a subterranean environment. The Copeland TS is scheduled to be operational at the end of 2014. Earlier this year, Toronto Hydro installed the first urban Community Energy Storage (CES) unit at a local community centre/arena. This storage unit will help alleviate stress on the grid during peak times and also provide power to connected homes in the area in the event of a power interruption. It has built-in intelligence that can independently monitor grid conditions and respond appropriately by taking in electricity during off-peak times and releasing power if needed. Some of the other potential benefits of CES are the elimination of the need for diesel back-up generators, the smoothing of voltage levels for commercial and industrial customers who may have sensitive equipment, and the integration of renewable technologies such as solar panels and electric vehicles.

Probably the most important aspect of building and operating a smart grid is the data that is generated and collected by the smart grid components. In this regard, Toronto Hydro has developed and implemented some analytical tools and applications that make use of the data and transform it into useful information to assist the grid operators to better manage the grid (Outage Management System), the Engineers to develop better asset replacement and maintenance plans (Feeder Investment Model Analytics, Health Index Calculator), and the customers to better manage their electricity usage and costs (PowerLensTM Energy Calculator online application, PowerLensTM Time-of- Use mobile app).

Another thing that Toronto Hydro has started to work on recently is the upgrade of its telecommunications network. What makes a smart grid ‘smart’ is the ability to communicate vast amounts of information from the field back to the office in real-time or near-real-time basis. To enable this, a modern telecommunications network that can deliver the business and technical requirements (failover tolerance, availability, latency, and bandwidth) for each individual component of the smart grid is critical. To deliver a modern but cost-effective network, the company is deploying commercially available technologies and services such as fibre-optic network using Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing, Ethernet/IP, and commercial cellular. The upgrade of this telecommunications plant will be done in coordination with the upgrade of the distribution grid to ensure proper alignment and with the objective to select the most cost-effective and viable options for each component of the system.

Brock : When implementing a smart/modernized grid, old school silos need to be broken down. Please speak on the IT/OT integration that must take place and how Toronto Hydro has addressed the IT/OT issue.

Wong : With the introduction of ‘smart’ devices and equipment in the traditional distribution grid, the convergence and associated conflicts of IT/OT are inevitable. IT now plays a much bigger role in the area of grid operations. Electrical equipment and devices that were once electro-mechanical in nature are now largely IP-enabled. IT is now expected to manage the data, information, analytical tools, and even the telecommunication systems required by the smart grid as part of its service offerings. However, the environment in which these smart assets reside (distribution grid, sub-stations, transformer vaults, poles, etc.) is very different than those of traditional IT assets (data centres, telephone closets, etc.). This leads to the dilemma of having to decide and delineate who should be responsible for what aspect of the maintenance and support of the smart grid – IT staff or operations staff? This also imposes the need to expand the skill sets of each type of resource. To that end, as part of Toronto Hydro’s certified in-house electrical apprenticeship line school program, it has enhanced its Sub-station Technician program to include additional technology training to meet this new skills requirement created by the advent of the smart grid. As well, we have seen that IT has now taken on more responsibilities related to the smart grid, such as support and management of the utility telecommunication systems, AMI systems, DMS/OMS, SCADA and SONET. The traditional lines of separation between IT and OT are becoming blurred and have forced IT and OT to work much more closely together and come to agreement on new roles and responsibilities.

The convergence of IT/OT has also forced the company to look at the relationships among the various OT systems from a more holistic point of view. Because of the much tighter integration now required of the individual systems as a result of the business process dependencies associated with them, operational and planning decisions can no longer be made in isolation. There is now a critical need to ensure that the technical standards and functionality of each component of the overall smart grid are established in the context of the larger ecosystem and to acknowledge the requirements of the other individual components to ensure compatibility and overall effectiveness. Planning, design and implementation of the smart grid must start at the macro level, involving cross-functional teams of business and technical experts from the areas of grid planning, grid operations, customer care, IT and telecom. An example of this more collaborative approach is the Smart Metering Task Force that was established to perform planning activities to establish a roadmap for the future upgrades and enhancements to Toronto Hydro’s smart grid infrastructure which includes not only AMI, but also the OT aspects of grid operations both in the field (SCADA RTU’s) and in the work centre.

Brock : How important are customers in a smart/ modernized grid world?

Wong : In a smart grid world, the management and servicing of customers become much more demanding than in the past. Customers today are more sophisticated as a result of the proliferation of technology in business, and the modern world in general. Huge amounts of data are created and collected everyday and businesses are offering new and innovative services to customers exploiting the vast amounts of data that are now available. Customers, in return, are now expecting and even demanding more and more services and greater access to data and information. The electrical utility industry is not immune to any of this, especially when the industry has been undergoing a bit of a renaissance in the last decade with the introduction of the smart grid and other developments such as rising electricity prices, time-of use rates, energy conservation, demand response and management, renewable energy, electric vehicles, mobility, and smart homes and appliances.

Brock : Looking to the future, how will an optimal smart grid look in year 2030?

Wong : In 2030, an optimal smart grid will be one that is comprehensive, efficient, reliable and secure. There will be end-to-end system integration right from the customer’s smart home appliances to the smart meter on the house to the AMI system to the Customer Information System (CIS) to the electronic bill and to the customer self-serve web portal applications. There will also be full integration from the intelligent devices on the distribution grid to the ‘intelligent’ command and control systems that will automatically operate the grid to restore power and isolate a fault in fractions of a second to the Outage Management System (OMS) that pinpoints the outage and provides information for expedient dispatching of work crews to perform repairs to the grid and precise outage information that will be proactively pushed out to customers to notify them of the problem and provide an reliable estimated time of restoration so they can make appropriate plans. As well, there will be end-to-end integration from the various smart grid devices to the Distribution Management System (DMS) to assist the grid operator to configure and optimize the grid for greatest operating efficiency and provide performance data to Engineering analytical tools to gain greater insights into the health of the grid and point out areas for enhancements through targeted asset investment or maintenance programs. This optimal smart grid will drive future business processes across all areas of the entire utility and change the way a utility will operate.

An optimal smart grid in 2030 will be one that is heavily computerized and largely operates on its own through sophisticated software applications. Utility workers will play a much lesser role in the day-to-day operations of the smart grid but instead will devote most of their time maintaining the back-office systems that run the smart grid and analyzing the data produced by the smart grid and making business decisions based on it, including refinements to the algorithms and Engineering models to continually enhance the performance of the smart grid. The optimal smart grid will have an impact on the electrical utility industry (unmanned sub-stations, remote monitoring and operations) much like the way computerized trading has affected the trading of stocks in the financial markets industry or how robotics and computerized control systems have changed the automotive manufacturing industry.

Brock : What has to change to enable an optimal smart grid in year 2030?

Wong : A number of changes have to happen in order to enable an optimal smart grid in 2030. First, there must be convergence of technical standards, especially as they relate to communications protocols, to improve interoperability of smart grid components and enable full end-to-end integration of systems. Utilities, working in collaboration, will have to drive this convergence of standards. Having common standards will stimulate development of smart grid equipment by manufacturers and lead to their commoditization. This, in turn, will accelerate the implementation and maturation of the smart grid by electric utilities.

Utilities will also need to greatly improve the completeness and accuracy of all the data relevant to the smart grid. In order for an optimal smart grid to work effectively and efficiently, it must have complete and accurate data. Furthermore, the computing systems that run the smart grid must also be reliable, bug-free and secure. The electricity power system is a critical infrastructure and if it is to be ‘computerized’ as defined by an optimal smart grid, the underlying computing systems must be of a quality level much higher than other business computing systems. They must meet Engineering standards of quality, performance and security.

Because a defining feature of an optimal smart grid is the real-time capabilities of the various components to communicate data and control the grid, the enabling telecommunications systems must be robust, fast and highly available. Utilities must ensure that their utility telecommunications systems keep up with the technical requirements of the smart grid components as defined by the business requirements related to the operation of a smart grid utility in 2030. Investments must be made in the utility telecommunications systems to achieve this level of required performance.

Lastly, as with the introduction of any new technology or business process, it requires the user to adapt and make changes in how they conduct work. Successful change management of utility worker perceptions around acceptance of smart grid capabilities will be critical to the adoption and expansion of the smart grid. Utilities will have to allay employees’ fears that their jobs will be rendered obsolete by computerization and automation of the smart grid and, instead, accept that in the future they will have to work even more closely with these computerized systems. An overall culture shift in how utility work will be done in the future must happen.

Brock : On behalf of myself and Electric Energy T&D Robert, I thank you for taking time out of your schedule to speak to our readers. Explaining in both practical and temporal terms how smart grid will win the future is extremely useful.