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Smart Grid - a novel approach

Rakesh Dwivedi1, Shweta Parashar2, ABB Power System Consulting

Abstract: To ensure efficient and reliable supply, considered NEPLAN. NEPLAN will carry out load
smart grids employ real time system state balancing depending on real time data inflow from
estimation. The regulators on one hand have main sub-stations and synthetic curves to work out
harped-upon utilities for meeting SAIDI and SAIFI the actual system flow conditions.
figures, they are also stringent to approving CAPEX
for expenditure in making grid smart. Therefore in The goal is to optimize future network
Indian context it is very essential that we manage reinforcements without compromising network safety
the distribution grid with inbuilt intelligence for and power quality.
managing power distribution, planning & CAPEX
requirements and analysis. SOLUTION OVERVIEW

The approach paper describes smart real time T he major challenge would be continuous
collection of large chunk of data from MV and
monitoring system which will determine all line load LV network, processing it into information and
flows, transformer loads and bus voltages in the reacting to it. Proposed below is a solution overview
entire MV network at repeated intervals (possibly for Smartgrid.
every 10 minutes), thus providing an unprecedented
amount of information about the actual network
state.

It is proposed that calculations should based on a


combination of on line measurements and statiscally
based synthetic load curves for various load types
and seasons. Power system analysis tool NEPLAN®
can be used for rationalizing the input data from real One complex aspect is the use of synthetic load
time field sensors and synthetic load curves. It can curves to describe the seasonal behaviour of
also help off-line simulation for planning purpose. different LV customer categories. The whole aim of
using synthetic load curves is to minimize the
The entire MV network may be analyzed, planned number of measurements which otherwise would be
and operated on actual hour-by-hour values rather required to make a reliable network state estimation.
than peak estimates.
Thus focus would be to handle data and making it
INTRODUCTION accessible for long term network planning and off-
This paper attempts to present a novel approach line analysis to address specific problems.
towards monitoring the distribution network in real
time, online and offline analysis of network, DATA ACQUISITION FROM THE NETWORK
planning, and CAPEX optimization. The overall Primary and Secondary substations
approach is towards cost effective and speedy Primary substations are monitored with a traditional
implementation of the real time system. SCADA / DMS (Distribution Management System).
It has been envisaged that real time data from Following data can be imported to Smartgrid -
primary and secondary sub-stations will be fed to the o Bus configuration at primary substations
central system via various communication media o Bus voltages
explained in details in subsequent chapters. The o Load currents at feeder head
data from sub-feeders and consumers will be o Switching state (topology) in MV network
fetched from GIS database / ERP. For small
consumers synthetic load curves will be derived and This information can be sent to Smartgrid every
fed to a power system simulator, presently repeated interval.
suitable estimates. Hour by hour values can be
Optical current sensors can also be used for on-line transformed in 10 minute values by interpolation for
measurements of current, active and reactive power comparison with actual measurements.
on MV lines and MV/LV transformers.
Hourly energy production, embedded generation
This information can be transmitted to Smartgrid In case there are embedded generation in the
every repeated interval. Communication can happen distribution network, these data can be brought to
using GPRS or any other media. the database in line with the large consumers
explain above.
Incoming measurements can be validated by using a
rules engine which would check for implausible Annual Energy sales, small customers
measurement based on pre-programmed inputs. AS the very purpose of designing this system is to
This would safeguard the system from 'bad' reduce the number of measurements, only up to
measurements. primary and secondary substations small consumer
data can be captured in following ways-
DATA from ERP
Network data From consumer database, following information for
In order to build an exact model for continuous the consumers should be retrieved every 24 hours-
calculations, network data can be imported say o Expected annual consumption
every 24 hours from two sources - SAP PM and o Load category
GIS. o Topological connection to network
o MV lines
o HV/MV and MV/LV transformers Since neither power factor nor reactive power is
o Generators known, suitable estimate can be made by Smartgrid.
o Network structure Energy sales are then converted into synthetic load
o Line lengths curves, detailed in subsequent sections -
o Substation locations
Telemetered MV/LV stations
Load Data The last source of load data are MV/LV stations
Load data are essential for making a reliable equipped with communicable meters. Here bothe
network state estimation. Load data can be collected MV line and MV/LV transformer active and reactive
from a combination of following sources: power data is pushed to the Smartgrid database
o Hourly energy sales, remotely read every 10 min.
customers
o Hourly energy production, embedded Apart from enhancing the quality of state estimation,
generation these measurements are also used for checking and
o Annual energy sales, small customers improving synthetic load curve models used on non-
o Telemetered MV/LV stations telemetered stations.

Hourly energy sales, remotely read customers Development of Synthetic load curves for small
This data can be imported via sms or dial-up lines consumers
and stored in database. The measurements should Dimensioning MV feeders where the only
be checked for validity through rules engine and information available is energy sales at peak load at
sent to the database after 72 hours. feeder heads is a well known challenge. The
approach would be -
The data will mainly contain hourly sales i.e. 1. Divide customers into different unique
kwh/hour. This may be used as an estimate for categories, it is proposed to have as
mean load in that specific hour. Power factor if not many categories as possible
measured, can be taken into consideration by
2. Convert the annual energy sales Q per
category to peak load Pmax, using
Velander’s formula:
Pmax [kW] = A * Q [MWh] + B * √Q
Where the parameters A and B are
determined statiscally for each
category or from up to date load
measurements
3. Convert Pmax to apparent peak power
Smax, assuming a mean cos(phi) for the
load
4. Calculate ∑Smax of apparent peak
power for all categories and
substations on feeder
5. Since individual peak loads do not
occur simultaneously, ∑Smax will Figure 2: Synthetic load profiles for ‘Bank &
exceed peak load measured at feeder Insurance’
head, Smeasured head.
6. Consequently, substation loads are Finally, hour-by-hour values will be then transformed
downscaled by a factor k = Smeasured /
into 10 minute values by interpolation for
∑Smax
comparison with measurements.
The peak loads so calculated per category,
should be transferred to synthetic load curves. Network Model Development & Calculations
The synthetic load curves are then fed into Continuous network state estimation
Smartgrid database to give substation line and From the information imported to Smartgrid data
feeder loads. base, full model including loads and generators is
built.
From peak load Pmax to Synthetic laod curves
The calculation engine proposed here is NEPLAN®.
Load curves should be developed for each of the
NEPLAN® calculates load flow using load
categories as below. balancing, which means that diversity factors of
the synthetic load curves are adjusted to meet
Representation can be made based on power or current measurements.
different seasons. Some of the seasons may
be several weeks long or just a few days for Calculated flows and voltages are returned to
example festivals to give best possible Smartgrid where the ‘virtual’ measurements
representation. This gives an hourly load of are stored alongside real measurements with a
P(t)=Pmax·Profileday(t)·Profileseason(t)·Profileyear(t) tag identifying them as virtual.

A large number of actual load curves should be Should calculations on single feeders or
analysed by category and season. Synthetic primary substations fail for some reason; the
curve has been defined for workdays, system will notify the operator but continue
saturdays, Sundays and holidays. See calculations on remaining part of the network.
example below:
Off-line analysis
The ‘high’ curves represent workdays; the ‘low’ Smartgrid database can transfer all the
curves are Saturdays and Sundays. The network information to NEPLAN in a project file
profiles show a clear variation over hours, containing the entire network details including
week days and seasons. loads and generators - for any point back in
time.

This is a very powerful feature for medium and


long term network planning, since specific
operating conditions of the network can be
identified and analyzed in detail.
Blue and red curve is estimated and actual current;
The Smartgrid database should have a feature
green curve shows an abnormal switching state on a
to permit direct SQL querry. This would be very
useful for special studies of e.g. voltage profile, day.
asymmetric loading of lines, etc.
In general, the estimate proved quite fair with a
NEPLAN capabilities for online and offline MAPE value (Mean Absolute Percentage error) at
analysis is as listed below - approx 9%. The absolute deviations over the period
1. Load flow with load profiles are -
2. Optimal distribution network
3. Optimal separation point
4. Investment analysis (Net present
value)
5. 3-ph and 1-ph load flow
(unsymmetrical network, loads)
6. Convergence check, starts from
predefined point
7. Area and zone control
8. Contingency analysis
a. With single mode / common mode
outage
b. Ranking of severity of violation
9. Results in table and online diagram
(customizable) To summarize the smartgrid solution proposed here
10. Results summary, overloads, voltage shall have following benefits -
violations, comparison of variants. Reduced need for measurements
The use of synthetic load curves permits a reliable
CONCLUSIONS network state estimation even with a low number of
The approach described above is inspired from MV network measurements. This is only possible
already similar running system in Denmark. DONG with a smartgrid solution to handle the large amount
Energy of Denmark has implemented a Intelligent of data and calculations.
Utility Network solution called 'SmartPIT' involving a
distribution area of more than 9,00,000 small Challenges in data management
consumers and other big consumers and embedded The tight data integration between Smartgrid and
generations using NEPLAN®. With this solution, ERP system / consumer database is a huge
DONG Energy could achieve reduction in planned advantage but puts hard requirements on data
network reinforcement in the range of 80% and has actuality and topicality.
a much better overview of network utilization and
power quality. Business Perspectives
With the information provided by the Smartgrid
NEPLAN® integrated SmartPIT has calculated the solution, real peak load data for individual
feeder head currents and the comparison of components have become available. Capital
calculated v/s measured for a period of 37 days as expenditures can now be optimized and directed to
below - the real bottlenecks of the network.

Network capacity enhancement with this approach


can be minimized substantially, since load data also
considers time variation which means that assets
should not be dimensioned to carry peak load
always.
REFERENCES
[1] "DONG ENERGY - TOWARDS THE
INTELLIGENT UTILITY NETWORK" by Peter
Vinter, DONG Energy A/S - Denmark.
1
Rakesh Dwivedi (rakesh.dwivedi@in.abb.com)
2
Shweta Parashar
(shweta.m.parashar@in.abb.com)

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