Set your synchrophasors on stun
Yesterday we discussed synchrophasors from the top down, as transmission operators begin to sign up for transmission system data sharing that should contribute to grid reliability.
Today let's go ground up and glance at a couple participants in the Western Interconnection Synchrophasor Program run by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. The WISP of the WECC, as it were.
I've heard smart grid naysayers and supporters alike bemoan the federal stimulus spending on grid initiatives, how the smarter grid will take a decade or two to materialize and in a long-ago cartoon character's whiny tone, "it'll never work."
Enter a few counter examples: The Salt River Project (SRP) in Phoenix, Ariz. and Idaho Power in Boise, Idaho. For details of these utilities' involvement in the WECC WISP, I suggest you look forward to the May/June issue of Intelligent Utility magazine.
But I have a few observations to make today about their forward-looking involvement in smart grid technologies and processes.
Suffice to say here that, due to these two utilities' long-term planning for smart grid-related technology and processes, they are involved in the WECC WISP, which will allow utilities in the Western Interconnection to see transmission system data in real-time from their peers - a boon to reliability.
As with many utilities, the Salt River Project has been "doing the right thing for decades" by adding intelligence to its transmission system, according to Joseph Nowaczyk, the SRP's manager of electronic systems. Since the 1990s, the utility has linked nearly all its substations to its control center via fiber optic cable.
Several years ago, understanding that a fundamental policy, technology and process path would be needed for future grid upgrades - including intelligence - the SRP developed a smart grid roadmap. And it formed an inter-departmental team of people drawing on control, communications, software, operations and transmission planning expertise.
"We were doing smart grid before it was popular and we've installed smart grid infrastructure to support future technologies," Nowaczyk told me this week. "Most utilities have similar roadmaps but may be at different points along it. When the WISP came along, we leveraged our internal resources as a routine matter of business."
In Boise, Idaho Power also has an inter-disciplinary team to address smart grid issues such as its involvement in the WECC WISP. Having installed phasor measurement units (PMUs) and a phasor data concentrator (PDC) six years ago, it had already budgeted monies for additional PMU work when the WECC WISP materialized.
As I mentioned earlier, there will be lots of fascinating details about these two utilities' involvement in gaining real-time situational awareness of interconnected grids in the West in the May/June issue of Intelligent Utility magazine. Please subscribe, if you don't already, to the print version or read it and all of our back pages here. Meanwhile, the current, March/April issue is packed with great articles such as "Smart Grid Gurus" and a section on "Consumer Connections."
The point here is that many utilities have developed smart grid roadmaps, dedicated cross-disciplinary teams to fleshing out those roadmaps and invested considerable time and money in laying the groundwork for future technologies, now becoming available. Many of these utilities have applied for and been awarded federal stimulus monies to augment their own investments.
Though delayed til now by both governmental due diligence and goofy reasons such as the question of whether stimulus fund recipients would have to declare the federal grants as taxable income, projects are moving ahead. (I can only imagine the criticism that would have erupted had the government sent out taxpayer monies willy-nilly.) And remember that part of the driver for federal stimulus grants was an effort to put people back to work while investing in American infrastructure. That's still needed, we're still in the toilet, economically speaking, and projects are beginning to move forward.
At this stage, let's focus on implementation and results. The Salt River Project and Idaho Power are two examples of forward-looking utilities poised to take full advantage of solid projects we as a nation are funding for own benefit. Say what you want about the lop-sided stimulus emphasis on smart meters - we've heard plenty and the contention is hardly over. But grid reliability investments make good sense for all parties. And many of our utilities have prepared for this moment.
Meet you back here tomorrow.
Phil Carson
Editor-in-chief
Intelligent Utility Daily
pcarson@energycentral.com
303-228-4757
Comments
Stun
Perhaps the best part of synchrophasor deployment is being able to either get rid of state estimation entirely or at least become far less dependent on it. When thegrid is operating at the edge of its envelope, much better to know what's going on than to have to guess, no matter how educated that guess might be.