There is a two-part answer to the question, “Why it is
necessary to develop an industry architecture?’ First, it must be understood
that the challenge facing utility executives is keeping the lights on while
also enhancing the value of services to consumer. However, by itself, the need
for increased reliability is not enough to mandate the development of an
industry architecture. The second, and more powerful argument, is that the only
way to address the
challenge utility executives face is to go back to basics,
understand why the current system doesn’t perform as needed, and then to design
interoperability into the system from the ground up.
In today’s uncertain, vulnerable socioeconomic and
geopolitical environment, utility executives are under increasing pressure from
shareholders to efficiently manage the electricity supply chain, while
maintaining a sustainable growth rate. At the same time, these executives must
strive for more efficient, cost effective, reliable, environmentally friendly, stable and secure operation of the power system. Regulators,
government, governing bodies, interest groups, and consumer advocate groups
also require utilities to comply with numerous reliability, restructuring, and
environmental mandates. Last, but far from least, consumers demand the utility to
keep the lights on.
To meet these expectations and the needs of our
power-hungry society, utility executives must rely on the machine known as the
‘electric power grid’. Over its hundred-year history, this grid has been
expanded continuously. It has become quite complex and technologically
fragmented, thus making it difficult to manage and predict its behavior. In
recent years, the electric power grid has been asked to perform far beyond its
originally designed capabilities, creating operational challenges for today’s
utilities. The threat of cyber attack and physical sabotage further complicates
the challenge of keeping the system operational. To keep the lights on, the
current system must be analyzed and deficiencies in the fundamentals of quality
power delivery addressed. Current fundamental deficiencies in the grid include:
Stability of Supply
The network’s age and complexity, along with
the increased energy demand, challenge the stability and reliability of the
grid. Moreover, the inadequacies of legacy distributed computing systems,
dispersed heterogeneous data and legacy applications, and lack of reliable
integrated energy and information infrastructure compound this problem. Reduced
maintenance budgets, increasing life cycle cost, and a shortage of trained
personnel add even more dimensions of complexity. Power systems operating near
system capacity, managed by dispersed computing processing and information
infrastructures, utilizing legacy applications without a unified view, and
shortage of expert-trained staff are destined for cascading failures and the
resulting widespread blackouts.
Quality of Service
Today’s digital society is dependent on a
reliable source of electric power. The loss of power is not only very
inconvenient, but can also be very expensive. The costs associated with loss of
power during the Aug 14,
2003 blackout have been estimated at $6 billion. Although the cost
of making the electric power grid an impenetrable fortress is prohibitive, much
can be done to significantly improve its overall reliability and availability.
Moreover, the frequency of power outage also causes the loss of customer
confidence in their electric supply, and consequently has resulted in corporate
sector spending to install temporary power.
Security
The growing danger of cyber attack and physical
sabotage pose fundamental challenges to the security and reliability of the
power supply. Untenable and inconsistent system management and security
policies resulting from a lack of an industry-wide integrated system
architecture and inadequate key business/regulatory entities,
exacerbate this problem.
Environment
Environmental concerns have made it difficult
to augment the grid and add additional transmission capacity. Environmentally
conscious consumers increasingly demand ‘green energy’ sources, including wind
and photovoltaic energy. Adding these distributed energy resources to the grid will
bring new opportunities and challenges to effective grid management.
Workforce Reduction and Talent Swap
Competition for the information technology talent
base, reduction in power system
trained engineers, voluntary force reduction, and loss of workers with legacy
system knowledge has created a talent gap which directly affects critical
day-to-day grid operations.
Satisfying All Stakeholders
Against the backdrop of deregulation, it is
becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy the myriad of stakeholders with
vested interests in the operation of the power grid.
Asset Swap/Capital Investment
Globalization, mergers, and
acquisitions—combined with restructuring and economic uncertainty—have forced
the deferral of critical asset procurement. One report shows a $112 million per year decline in
transmission system spending (Figure 4).
This trend underscores the need to develop techniques channel more power
through existing assets.
|
|
|
Figure
4: Transmission
Investment Trend
There has been
a decline in transmission investment for the past 25 years.
|
In this volatile and uncertain operating
environment, it has become an unprecedented challenge to keep the lights
on. There is an urgent need to revitalize and modernize the electric power
grid. Meeting these expectations requires the overlay of a robust
high-performance information infrastructure. Put simply, to build a solid
foundation, all the fundamental aspects of quality power must be reinforced.
Growing pressure for customer-centric and highly reliable
power systems mandates new integrated approaches to enhance power system
robustness at the grid apparatus level. In addition, there must be new
approaches to develop the underlying communication and information
infrastructures. Only through this paradigm shift can utilities find an
operational balance to increase reliability without sacrificing profitability.
They must find a way to deliver measurable benefits to their customers and
shareholders including:
Operation stability
Reduce outage frequency and duration by identifying
problem conditions and preventing difficulties (harmful conditions in
transmission and distribution, power quality variations, interruptions, equipment
failures) before they occur.
Asset management
Defer capital expenditure by increasing asset
life and system throughput through continuous automated monitoring, thereby resulting
in reduced operating and maintenance cost.
Responsiveness
Retain customers by providing consolidated and competitive
service and innovative product offerings.
To achieve the new level of reliability and profitability
mandated by customers and the new market dynamics, the fundamentals of quality
power must be revitalized, redefined, and rebuilt with a new mindset. This
mindset must employ a new set of disciplines and guidelines in accordance with
the current geopolitical and geo-social reality.
In this new paradigm, the system is simple but
intelligent; its behavior adaptive and proactive, not static and reactive. It
is secure.
To achieve these objectives, the new paradigm must provide
a clear set of useful, reality-based tools, procedures, and guidelines to
facilitate:
§
Integration of operational and business decisions
§
Expandability, scalability, flexibility of applications and computing
systems
§
Information (distilled from data) to support the right decision
§
Tools to communicate with customers
§
Increased throughput and decreased congestion
§
Adherence to stringent environmental requirements
§
Competitiveness in response to profit pressure
§
Disaster prevention and recovery
§
Post disturbance monitoring and analysis
§
Mergers and desegregation of assets
§
Security
Adapting the fundamentals of quality power into this new
paradigm will provide a solid foundation for a power system made up of automated transmission and distribution systems
all operating in a coordinated, efficient and reliable
manner. Such a system will handle emergencies, will be ‘self-healing’, and will
be responsive to energy-market and utility business- enterprise needs. This
system will involve millions of customers and have an intelligent information
infrastructure enabling the timely, secure and
adaptable information flow needed to provide reliable and economic power to the
evolving digital economy.
Adoption of these
principles will make the grid smart
enough to monitor itself, predict problems, take corrective actions…………all
while keeping the lights on.
If the power industry continues with the ‘baseline
architecture’ and the industry status quo, advanced energy automation and
consumer communication systems will be significantly fragmented when viewed
from an industry architecture level. Moreover, without concerted efforts to
improve standards and technology integration, the status quo is likely to
continue to be fragmented in several key areas. In some cases, there is
duplication of standards development, while some needed standards are not being
developed. It should be recognized that there are pockets of good standards
work taking place, but the situation can be improved through improved
coordination and harmonization between standards.
Further, the problem is not merely organizational: the
technology gaps make the energy automation and applications integration tasks
extremely difficult. Patchwork solutions applied to fix these gaps make the
overall system unmanageable and difficult to maintain. Discovering how to
develop standards, and their resulting technologies, comes strategically from
efforts to develop an industry-level architecture.
The vision of a highly integrated, interactive, and
self-healing system will not come about on its own. The integration and systems
management needs suggested by this long-term vision demand the application of
architectural principles in the design and development of advanced automation
and consumer communication systems for the future. The system must be viewed
from an architecture level, and strategies must be developed to bring about the
necessary change and integration.
Problems that surfaced in the August 2003 blackout
touched on several architecture level concepts. Issues such as the need for
sharing data over larger areas and the ability to view the system from high
operational levels are architecture related issues that emerged. An
architecture is required to survey the issues of integration from a high level.
Ad hoc development work that focuses only on system components will not further
the needs of the overall vision. An integrated power systems and communication
architecture will enable the utilities to:
§
increase the grid reliability–keep the lights on
§
increase interoperability–keep costs down
§
enable the next level of services for customers–generate value for
shareholders
Hirst, Eric; “Transmission Planning for a New Era”; 1/2004;
http://www.ehirst.com/PDF/TXPlanning102.PDF
