Renovating T&D Systems – A First Step Towards Implementing a Modern Grid
By Kay Stefferud
Distribution and Transmissions systems are evolving to accommodate increasing amounts of renewable distributed generation (DG) while also dealing with more intense storms, cyber security threats, evolving markets and aging infrastructure. Adapting to these changes requires necessary adjustments to protection schemes, fault detection, outage management, market interfaces, grid topologies, and a host of other considerations.
At the same time, advances in communications as well as intelligent grid monitoring and control devices have created tremendous amounts of data reporting details of current grid conditions. Available data can provide operational insight and enable control systems to manage the complexities of two-way power flows, the intermittent nature of wind and solar generation while also better managing storms and proactively identifying equipment which needs to be replaced. Proper management and analysis of available data can provide situational awareness enabling utilities to respond to increasingly dynamic load profiles as well as reverse power flows.