Real time distribution analysis for electric utilities

Electric utilities are finding it increasingly necessary to better monitor, analyze and control their distribution systems. Planning and operation of the grid is increasing in complexity on one hand but subject to ever more binding constraints on the other. Real-time analysis is being seen as necessary to achieve acceptable operational efficiencies and quality of service. Real-time analysis is the combination of computerized circuit analysis with measured real-time inputs (voltage and current into the grid) and outputs (customer consumption) to determine the actual and likely near-term voltages and power flows throughout the transmission and distribution grid. With appropriate analytical tools, display options, and control systems, real-time analysis will allow utilities to actively manage the grid to achieve better operating efficiencies and to anticipate and avoid service interruptions and other operating problems. Most of the tools required for real-time analysis are already available. Computer load flow analysis has been used by transmission and distribution utilities for decades to simulate and analyze voltage, current, and real and reactive power flow for system planning and operations. SCADA has reached almost universal usage by transmission and distribution utilities of all sizes and makes it possible to monitor and control generators, transmission lines, substations, distribution lines, and in-line equipment and devices. Smart meters have, in the last decade, become an important and widely used tool not only for reading residential and commercial meters, but also for collecting data about the distribution system. Challenges to real time analysis and active grid management include achieving full deployment of SCADA and smart meters, obtaining the necessary bandwidth and speed of data communications, integrating data from disparate brands and vintage of hardware and software, refining the computational methods, learning to utilize the results for grid plannin- g and operation, and transforming the design of the distribution grid over time to maximize controllability. In this paper we will: (1) Discuss why real-time analysis is needed and useful; (2) Define what real-time analysis is; (3) Describe how real time analysis might be made to work for rural transmission and distribution utilities; and (4) Outline a pilot project being planned at Owen Electric Cooperative in Kentucky.