It’s an exciting and challenging time for energy providers. In the past, utilities were often hesitant to adopt new technologies, but today we see the term ‘innovation’ used widely in discussions about electric utilities. The smart grid – and utilities that preside over the grid – faces much heavier demands from customers than they did even five years ago, which is forcing utilities to change and adapt. Mobile device charging, computers and tablets, wide-screen TVs, and now an ever-growing number of electric vehicles are all using more power than ever – and that’s just on the residential side. Advances in industrial process are also increasing the demand on the grid. Customers are not just looking for more power, but for more reliable, cleaner, higher-quality power.
Utilities are responding to this demand by layering new technology into their infrastructure investments in order to improve the efficiency of their electric distribution systems and gain valuable energy insight. According to the Edison Foundation, which monitors innovation in the utility market, this includes a trend toward new distribution automation systems and advanced metering infrastructures capable of improving asset management and operational efficiencies at the grid level.
As utilities work to modernize the grid, the most noticeable upgrade has been the incremental installation of residential smart meters. Today in the U.S., there are over 40 million smart meters in use. While many of these have basic functionality like recording electricity use at pre-defined intervals and sending this data to the utility, others are more advanced with two-way communications that allow customers to monitor home energy use in near real-time. Whatever their capabilities, smart meters function as sensors at the grid’s point of contact with customers, providing utilities with data they need to address problems on the grid as they happen.
These advanced utility meters are much more than the smart meters installed at residential sites. The meters are revenue-accurate, intelligent devices designed for use at key distribution points where they can monitor everything from generators and substations to industrial service entrances, 24 hours a day. Some meters, like the ION8650, have multi-port, multi-protocol communications capabilities and can perform sophisticated power quality analyses. The ION meters are also designed to work with Power Monitoring Expert software, creating a layer of intelligence over top of a utility’s energy assets and integrating with diverse distribution automation systems.
Smart metering technology brings tremendous value to energy providers by maximizing metering accuracy at all intertie points, verifying compliance with power quality standards, and quickly analyzing and isolating the source of any power quality problems. For example, the ION8650 meters are able to analyze disturbance information to determine the direction of the disturbance relative to the meter and provide detailed results, complete with timestamp – using disturbance direction detection (DDD™).
DDD functionality can be particularly effective for utilities servicing more rural areas, who deal with unique circumstances not often faced by their urban counterparts. For example, most urban utility customers are less than five miles from the electrical supply. Any disturbance or damage is quickly located and repaired. In the open country, linemen looking to repair disturbances or outages regularly encounter terrain with no roads; they may even need to get out and walk the lines if conditions make driving impossible. This type of grid exposure (longer span lengths from the source of power and thus a greater disturbance or outage risk from weather events) is the major reason why it can take a longer time to address power disturbances in these areas. DDD metering technology greatly reduces the time spent locating these faults and resolving power issues.
One rural electric utility is using smart meters to provide stronger, more reliable power to their customers. The utility provides electric service across many counties and maintains nearly 10,000 miles of energized line – the utility has one of the largest service territories in the United States, which presents some interesting challenges.
Providing reliable and high quality power can mean a seven hour commute for maintenance crews each way – and that’s just to check and service remote substations. When the utility’s Technical Services department upgraded their electrical metering equipment as part of their infrastructure improvements, they chose ION revenue meters along with Power Monitoring Expert (PME) software installed in a PC workstation within its main headquarters. The revenue meters act as gateways, collecting and passing data from all feeder meters over an Ethernet link to a satellite radio.
The meters can also share data with existing SCADA systems via multiple communications channels and protocols, thus creating an enterprise energy management system with real-time power monitoring and control capability on the entire distribution network. The system offers 24-hour access to real-time and logged system information for each substation. Because it uses Ethernet between meters and the satellite connection and between the satellite and the master software station at the head office, the speed of the system enables a true real-time monitoring of energy and power quality conditions. This type of communication, combined with the meters’ intelligent capabilities like DDD, make it ideal for the wide, barren terrain of the service area. The utility has multiple meters monitoring a line at key points to tell them quickly where a fault occurs. They can quickly dispatch a truck to the fault without having to maneuver along a power line in search of the fault location.
The utility is pushing the boundaries of the intended use of the smart meters and using the technology in new, innovative ways. Not only are they using the DDD functionality of their ION meters to monitor their lines for fault direction, they can also use it at the customer service entrance. Many industrial customers use variable frequency drives (VFD’s) with motors and pumps, these VFD’s generate harmonics on their system as well as their neighbor and even back to the grid. By metering the service entrance, the utility can quickly tell if the disturbance is occurring along the incoming line or if it’s being internally generated by the customer. Thus, when a customer contacts the utility to complain about issues, the utility can use DDD to quickly determine the location and direction of the fault. Often, utilities will discover that the disturbance is being generated by other customers along the line, sometimes just next door. When multiple companies call the utility to protest, the utility can discover the offender quickly by examining fault direction.
Meters with DDD capability can replace fault detectors for utilities, but greater value may be in determining where the harmonics are coming from in order to correct the problem. Harmonics have a negative effect on the power quality of any nearby homes or businesses. With multiple meters at key points along distribution and feeder lines, disturbance direction detection helps identify the problem and the location very quickly, maximizing the time and efficiency of workers in the field.
Ultimately, advanced smart metering for utilities can delivers benefits that conventional metering systems cannot: an energy intelligence that merges electricity, communications, and information systems – elements that were once separate, but operate more efficiently together. The technology helps energy providers track their performance, stay informed of critical conditions and make empowered, strategic decisions. An advanced smart metering infrastructure could link to asset management and operational efficiency metrics to maximize the use of resources and improve service. Today’s forward-thinking energy providers continue to push innovation and partner with other innovators to design and transform the grid that will keep us supplied with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for tomorrow. There will be smart grid innovations to come that will transform our energy in ways we can’t yet imagine.
About the Author
Steve Kuperman is a Director of Business Development for Utilities in Schneider Electric’s Ecobuildings business. Previously Mr. Kuperman has held positions with Schneider Electric’s Relay Business, Wind and Regional Manager for MV Products in the South Central US. He currently resides in Houston, TX with his wife and children.
