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By Zachary Hoffman
COLUMBUS, OH (July 26, 2017) - Day two of PowerForward: Exploring Technologies put a heavy
focus on the utilization of data and the technologies that the grid
modernization effort should focus on first.
The first half of the day focused on the requirements needed
to enable the electric distribution grid of the future, as well as the
different opportunities and challenges associated with the deployment and
interaction of new technologies.
In the day’s opening presentation, Paul Alvarez
of Wired Group discussed what he saw as the greatest challenge that Ohio
would face in deploying advanced technologies.
“There is no assumption that if you put the technology in on
this side, you are going to get the benefits on that side,” stated Alvarez.
Pointing to a number of specific technologies, he pressed the
idea that the PUCO needs to define specific goals and focus on the possible
outcomes before fully implementing anything.
“What encourages me about the PowerForward initiative is
that you’re trying to figure these things out ahead of time,” stated Alvarez.
“The key to these technologies is, how do we translate them into capabilities.”
In the first panel of the day, Ed Beroset of
EPRI, Katrina
Polk of Itron and Larry
Dickerman of Landis+Gyr discussed the management and utilization of data
generated by smart grid technologies.
“Where is the data,” asked Beroset. According to his EPRI
studies, 97 percent of it is coming from polyphaser and single phase meters,
and it could be very useful in efforts to improve the grid.
Polk largely agreed with that sentiment, pointing out that a
typical smart meter can provide an incredible amount of usable data each day.
“A typical smart meter can take 32 measurements per second,”
stated Polk. “That is 2.7 million data points taken per day.”
Polk believes that smart meters can also provide many more
benefits. She stated that smart meters work as a platform that can help with
increasing reliability, theft detection, renewables and more.
In response to a question from the Commission about what he
thought the most easily attainable upgrades to the grid might be, Larry
Dickerman stated that advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), also known as
smart meters, would be a good place to start. He stated that an AMI system is
an easy first step that can pay for itself in time.
Dickerman believes that AMI data could help create a better cost-benefit
analysis of future technologies and would increase reliability across the grid.
In the second panel of the day, Joydeep
Mitra of Michigan State University, Burt Mayer of
Utilidata, Wassim Akhdar
of Varentec and Todd
Ryan of Smart Wires discussed the benefits of distribution automation
circuit reconfiguration (DACR), Volt/VAR optimization (VVO) and control (VVC),
and conservation voltage reduction (CVR).
While discussing DACR, Mitra stated that the most important
goal was to increase reliability and self-healing.
“The motivation for DACR was to provide higher reliability
and reduce downtime,” state Mitra. “The main operations involve sensing,
protection and restoration.”
Mitra went on to discuss how the installation of something
like re-closers, which can sense faults in the system and respond by closing and
opening new paths, can help to keep power on for more customers during outages.
Mayer put much of his focus on VVO, which he stated is about
optimizing the voltage for customers at all points of the line, while
minimizing waste. He believes VVO is especially beneficial to grid
modernization because it is easier to implement.
“VVO doesn’t require any sort of customer behavior change,”
stated Mayer. “In the case of VVO, no one sees that anything has changed, other
than a three to five percent reduction in their bill.”
Akhdar also focused on VVO, stating that “if CVR is rolled
out nationwide, you are looking at a three percent reduction of energy usage
nationally, which is huge.”
The second half of the day focused on the perspectives of
Ohio’s utilities and the investments they need to support a modernized grid.
Scott
Osterholt of AEP Ohio, Joe Bentley of
The AES Corporation, Lee
Mazzocchi of Duke Energy and Eileen
Mikkelsen of FirstEnergy Corp. filled out the final two panels of the day.
Osterholt noted that AEP Ohio had already been rolling out
many of the different technologies mentioned throughout the day, such as AMI, DACR
and VVO.
“We focused on what is the best technology for the
customers,” stated Osterholt. “What we found is that AMI, DACR and VVO drives
the most benefits for our customers.”
According to Osterholt, AEP has projected that AMI, DACR and
VVO could see 1.4 billion dollars worth of benefits derived by customers over
the next 15 years. He also noted that these technologies do a great job of
decreasing carbon pollution, stating that “the phase 2 project should take off
the equivalency of 27,300 cars on the road annually,” referring to AEP Ohio’s
gridSMART project.
Bentley agreed with Osterholt’s sentiments and noted that
The AES Corporation has had great success with their own rollout of AMI
technology in Indianapolis. He noted that smart meters are very beneficial for
the future of machine learning, stating that “there is a tremendous amount of
data that comes in.”
Mazzocchi and Mikkelsen held many of the same feelings, and
places much of their focus on how newer technologies could help increase
reliability for their customers.
Mazzochi discussed the merits of grid-hardening technologies
and programs, such as Duke Energy’s Targeted Undergrounding program. He stated
that the company wanted to move the poorest performing segments of their grid
underground, which would help to limit storm damage and resulting outages.
Mikkelsen touched on the many of the same topics, noting
that all of Ohio’s electric utilities appeared to share many of the same
visions. She noted that reliability and safety are the highest priorities of
FirstEnergy, and technologies like AMI, VVO and DACR could help with that.
Day three of PowerForward: Exploring Technologies will shift the focus to integrating
distributed energy resources and energy storage. Join us tomorrow, starting at
9 a.m. (EST).
The day three agenda and live webcast are available on the PUCO
website.
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