On performance benchmarking voltage control in a power transmission network

The Rank Xerox Company initiated the benchmarking of business processes in 1979. In this paper, this new methodology is described and applied to the hierarchical voltage control of a transmission network. This assessment arises from a European THERMIE project to install secondary voltage regulation in particular regions of the Spanish and Italian transmission networks. The industrial benchmarking procedure uses a set of global and local performance metrics that measure how the transmission system performs with respect to the objectives of quality, economy and security. There are four phases: 1) analysis; 2) recommendations for data collection; 3) performance metric calculation; and 4) performance assessment. In the THERMIE project, power system simulations were first used to demonstrate the value of the approach. The project contains a monitoring stage. It is proposed to use the new approach with field data. The monitoring stage is currently active and the first results from the field may be available