John Simmins

Using high-speed demand response of building HVAC systems to smooth cloud-driven intermittency of distributed solar photovoltaic generation

The penetration level of distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is rapidly increasing as a consequence of incentives, renewable portfolio standards, decrease in the cost of devices and other factors. If the peak power rating of PV systems in a particular distribution feeder is above a certain fraction of the feeders capacity, it can be difficult to maintain power quality without resorting to support devices such as batteries, flywheels or capacitors. The high cost of these support devices increases the levelised energy cost of PV electricity. In this study, a method to absorb a substantial fraction of the power spectrum related to solar intermittency using controllable loads in HVAC systems is described. In particular, the focus is on modulating the speed of fan motors in such a way that, while temperature control in the building is maintained, the intermittent component of PV generation is absorbed, as close as possible to its source. First, the power spectrum of PV generation is characterized for a variety of cloud cover conditions. Second, a high-fidelity model of a building is used to optimize the operating parameters of the fan control strategy. Third, experimental verification of the strategys effectiveness is performed. It is shown that fan control can absorb a substantial fraction of the energy associated with PV intermittency at very low cost, thereby reducing the size of smoothing systems, such as batteries, which are nevertheless needed to absorb the high-frequency band of the intermittency spectrum.

The impact of PAP 8 on the Common Information Model (CIM)

The Common Information Model (CIM) is a standard developed by the electric power industry that has been officially adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for power transmission and distribution. The purpose is to allow application software to exchange information about the configuration and status of an electrical network.

Making Distribution Automation Work: Smart Data Is Imperative for Growth

Deregulation of the power industry and the shifting of investment into different types of generation capacity such as distributed energy resources have complicated today?s power grid and pushed it nearer to its operating limits. As a consequence, operations of the power grid have become significantly more dependent on complex computer-based, analytically intensive operating procedures. This article explains how common information model standards enable the acquisition and integration of data from a variety of sources and time frames, as required by utility analytics, to operate the grid close to capacity.

Data integration challenges for standards-compliant mobile applications

Modern mobile devices are capable of running sophisticated, network-enabled applications exploiting a variety of sensors on a single low-cost piece of hardware. The electrical industry can benefit from these new platforms to automate existing processes and provide engineers and field crew with access to large amounts of complex data in real-time, anywhere in the world. The development of a standards-based application decouples the mobile client application from a single vendor or existing enterprise system, but requires a complex data integration architecture to support the use and exploitation of large amounts of data spread across multiple existing systems. The integration with a mobile application introduces new challenges when dealing with remote devices where data network communications cannot be relied on, especially under storm conditions, and the devices themselves are at risk of being lost or stolen. Addressing these challenges offers the potential to improve data quality, enable access to accurate, up-to-date information in the field and ultimately save a utility time and money.

Data quality as it relates to asset management

The importance of data and data quality has long been a second thought for many utilities. There is often the perception that, “as long as the bills get paid our data is good enough!” As both customers and regulators owners alike are becoming more demanding in customer service and the impacts of the Smart Grid are being clarified, it has become an imperative for utilities to better manage their data. In the Smart Grid era, Asset Management at the distribution level is no longer a lofty goal but rather a necessity. Unfortunately from the perspective of technical resources, data is never good enough. Managers are faced with the challenge of balancing adequate data quality against the cost of maintaining that quality of data. This paper discusses the realities associated with data quality and a successful asset management program.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Topic 2 Final Report: End-to-End Communication and Control System to Support Clean Energy Technologies

This document is the final report of a two-year development, test, and demonstration project, “Cohesive Application of StandardsBased Connected Devices to Enable Clean Energy Technologies.” The project was part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Integrated Network Testbed for Energy Grid Research and Technology (INTEGRATE) initiative hosted at Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). Specifically, this project is a component of RFP Number RCS-4-42326, Topic 2, “End-to-End Communication and Control System to Support Clean Energy Technologies.” This project demonstrated techniques to control distribution grid events using the coordination of traditional distribution grid devices and high-penetration renewable resources and demand response. Using standard communication protocols and semantic standards, the project examined the use cases of high/low distribution voltage, requests for volt-ampere-reactive (VAR) power support, and transactive energy strategies using Volttron. Open source software, written by EPRI to control distributed energy resources (DER) and demand response (DR), was used by an advanced distribution management system (ADMS) to abstract the resources reporting to a collection of capabilities rather than needing to know specific resource types. This architecture allows for scaling both horizontally and vertically. Several new technologies were developed and tested. Messages from the ADMS based on the common information model (CIM) were developed to control the DER and DR management systems. The OpenADR standard was used to help manage grid events by turning loads off and on. Volttron technology was used to simulate a homeowner choosing the price at which to enter the demand response market. Finally, the ADMS used newly developed algorithms to coordinate these resources with a capacitor bank and voltage regulator to respond to grid events.

Geolocation of utility assets using omnidirectional ground-based photographic imagery

A process for using ground-based photographic imagery to detect and locate power distribution assets is presented. The primary feature of the system presented here is its very low cost compared to more traditional inspection methods, because the process takes place entirely in virtual space. Specifically, the system can locate assets with a precision comparable to typical GPS units used for similar purposes, and can readily identify utility assets, for example transformers, if appropriate training data are provided. Further human intervention would only be necessary in a small fraction of cases, where very high uncertainty is flagged by the system. The feasibility of the process is demonstrated here, and a path to full integration is presented.

Social media in support of outage management practices

Social media is revolutionizing the way the world communicates. Utilities are now realizing the benefits of a powerful social media presence, especially in light of the large outages experienced during recent weather events such as Hurricane Sandy. Ongoing research at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) involves integrating customer-generated data from social media into existing restoration efforts and systems, and identifying and monetizing the benefits of utility efforts in social media. Initial findings, from a series of three regional workshops are included in this paper.

Storage for simultaneous voltage smoothing and energy shifting

A dispatchable, renewable resource of combined storage and utility sized PV has been commissioned as part of Public Service of New Mexicos Smart Grid Demonstration Project. The project consists of two banks of batteries, one for voltage smoothing and the other for peak shifting and relies on unique algorithms and communication infrastructure. This paper describes the experiment, the algorithms used, and the communications infrastructure.