The Human Element In System Operations

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

SUMMARY

In an axiomatic sense, our country’s electric power infrastructure that has served us for so long –known as "the grid" is finally running up against its limitations. Having electricity supply in our homes for most of the time does not mean that the grids capabilities be taken for granted. The establishment of the present electric power system dates back to over a 100 years when the main purpose of the power system was to evacuate power from generating stations employing the use of coal to residential consumers that needed the electricity mostly for lighting purposes. Power generation was localized and built around communities. With the advancement of technology and industry the needs of the civilization grew and ultimately the generation sites also grew to facilatate the needed power. But with the increasing size of the electrical grid, optimisation and complete control couldn’t be satisfied by mere increasing the number of generation sites.Today the electrical power system delivers power to industry, commercial and residential consumers, trying miserably to cope up with the ever growing demand. Systematically the risks associated with relying on an often overtaxed grid grow in size, scale and complexity every day. The present limited one way interaction makes it difficult for the grid to respond to the ever changing and rising energy demands of the 21st century .To do justice to the Ministry of Power’s "Vision 2027" involving transformation of the Indian Power Sector into a secure, adaptive, sustainable and digitally enabled ecosystem by 2027 that provides reliable and quality energy for all with active participation of stakeholders, the power infrastructure needs to be upgraded<< SOURCE http://smartgrid.ieee.org/july-2011/96-what-the-smart-grid-means-and-doesnt-mean-for-india, Electircity india vision 2027>>>>

A smarter grid makes this transformation possible by bringing the philosophies, concepts and technologies that enabled the internet to the utility and the electric grid. More importantly, it enables the industry’s best ideas for grid modernization to achieve their full potential.

A cloud definition of the smart grid consists of introducing a two way dialogue by which electricity and information can be exchanged by a utility and its customers. It’s a developing network of communications, controls, computers, automation and new technologies and tools working harmoniously to make the grid more efficient, more reliable, more secure and greener. The Smart grid enables newer technologies to be integrated such as wind and solar energy production. The smart grid will soon replace the aging electrical infrastructure and can ensure optimised and green electricity to be used productively. The power system needs in India are not necessarily the same as those in advanced industrialized countries. The same goes for the most important power system constraints. Generally, not all smart grid technologies are equally relevant worldwide. In India, the really useful technologies will be those that help constrain peak demand and peak load growth at reasonable cost while cutting losses. There is as yet no internationally unified definition of a smart grid

<<SOURCE: position paper on smart grids: an ereg public consultation paper. Rep eo9-eqs-30-04, dec, 10 ,2009>>>>>

KEY DRIVERS OF THE SMART GRID IN INDIA:

India is relatively in a preleminary stage of its Smart Grid deployments with many technologies such as advanced metering, still at a very crucial juncture and being reviewed and tested at certain pilots identified in the country. Such technologies are undergoing various trials and advanced testing before being deployed all over the country. The coherence of many factors will drive India’s adoption of smart grids such as reducing all technical and commercial losses, resolving the ceaseless supply demand gap, and have a heading to upgrade its infrastructure to a more advanced electricity supply solution to flatter its sustainable, low carbon high growth economic development goals.

Certain factors will drive the adoption of the Smart Grid in India:

Supply shortfalls and Unrelenting Increase in the electricity demand:

Demand especially peak demand of electricity is continuously outpacing the India’s Power supply. With an unmatched growth in the economy and a prosperous industrial arena more and more households are able to afford appliances leading to a fair increase in the demand of electricity. Industries also require a consistently increasing power supplying to match the peaking curves of the industrial growth. Officially India is falling short by around 12% for energy demand while as 16% for peak energy demand. Addressing the needs of the growing economy and satisfying the needs of a developing society are the primary drivers of the adoption of smart grid technologies in India. In India’s high growth economy the demand for electricity is forecasted to grow by about 10 % per year as long as the already present gap isn’t closed.

Loss reduction:

A Smart Grid can make a substantial contribution of reducing losses by allowing integration of DER’s that can allow localised generation hence reducing the transmission and equipment losses. A Smart Grid allows system operators to integrate many renewable energy sources locally which can not only supply energy needs to the local community but also supply power to the grid hence giving a soft spot to the use of natural local resources for the benefits of power supply and cost reduction. Several recent developments have encouraged the entry of power generation and energy storage at the distribution level.

Distributed resources (DR) is a term that encompasses both distributed generation (DG) and distributed energy storage (DS). A distributed utility will use both distributed resources and load management to achieve its goal. In addition, several compact distributed generation technologies are fast becoming economically viable. Integration of DG into an existing utility can result in several benefits. These benefits include line loss reduction, reduced environmental impacts, peak shaving, increased overall energy efficiency, relieved transmission and distribution congestion, voltage support, and deferred investments to upgrade existing generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Benefits are not limited to utility. Customers also benefit from DG in term of better quality of supply at lower cost. Among the many benefits of distributed generation is a reduced line loss.<<<<SOURCE: benefit of distributed generation, a lone loss reduction analysis IEEE xplore>>>> Smart Grid provides the platform needed to integrate DG into its mainframe hence being superior to the traditional grid which has no scope of integration.

Managing the human element in system operations:

Many system reliability predictive methods are based solely on equipment failures neglecting the human component of man-machine systems. These methods do not consider the identification of the root causes of human errors. The reliability and safety of industrial and commercial power systems and processes are dependent upon human characteristics and many dependent and dynamic interactive factors. The consequences of human errors are very diverse and can range from damaging equipment, property, causing injury to personnel or be fatal, to disrupting scheduled system operation, a significant cost to society.<<<< SOURCE: HUMAN ELEMENT FACTORS AFFECTING RELIABILITY AND SAFETY IEEE>>>> Indian contracts for outsourcing are relatively inexpensive and thus labour saving is not a prime driver for Smart Grids in India. AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) would definitely prove pivotal in reducing recording and other errors such as "shade tree" readings or even deliberate errors that are significant reasons for losses. AMI can also bring about a better UI ( User Interface) where the user can participate in a far better way and the involvement can lead to a better monitoring of the energy usage which can as well reduce the bill and better monitor the peak time usage.

Peak Load Management:

Smart Grid, which is driven by need has a different priority for each country, In the west, It is driven by labour cost, renewable energy, and EV to reduce carbon footprint. For India, managing peak load will be key driver as energy cannot be stored for longer duration in large scale it has to be increased or demand needs to be reduced. At present, in the west, it is managed by increasing supply through peaker plants, which are managed at high cost and it is priced in the present cost to consumer, which is going to change with the implementation of Smart Grid. If India follows the west model, the price of electricity will rise to 35%, a very expensive proposition for developing country like India. <<<<RAHUL TONGIA BUSINESS STANDARD>>>> India’s supply demand gap is wide enough to persist for many years. A Smart Grid can allow more "intelligent" load control, directly or indirectly. A Smart Grid can control the appliances switching off the less important ones so as to reduce the usage to prevent peak time shortfall and hence preventing outages and load shedding. This can be done by either communicating to the consumer about the economic pricing incentives in a dynamic manner or by having a real time protocol to allow utilities have a direct control on the devices and setting less important tasks for a time when electricity is cheap and hence acting as a buffer for fluctuations in the peak energy supply. By incentivizing the operation of appliances the consumer can better control the amount of load they are using. Such measure can to an important extent mitigate the supply demand gap. Simply by connecting to consumers – by means of the right price signals and smart appliances, for example – a smarter grid can reduce the need for some of that infrastructure while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. As noted, during episodes of peak demand, stress on the grid threatens its reliability and raises the probability of widespread blackouts.

Renewable Energy:

The Indian renewable growth story has been performing a constant steep increase in the past couple of decades. Even though a significant contribution to the power generated has been obtained from the hydro power with almost 20 % still being obtained from this sector. It hasn’t progressed much on utilizing the other renewable sources of energy. Recently it has starting foraging into the renewable energy sector with wind power being the most prominent face of renewable energy for the past decade. Since 2010 significant activities in a few other renewable energy sectors such as solar have also been observed. With the inception of the industrious National Solar Mission in 2010 and the consequent successful operation of the initial stages the Indian government has shown its eagerness in harnessing the significant potential that solar presents for India. India can also utilise other renewable energy sources such as small hydro and biomass and there is a huge potential for it. Some segments that show little activity currently - like wave, tidal and geothermal, for instance – have the potential for significant growth in future. As many of the renewable energy sectors are nascent, there is significant need and eagerness from Indian corporate – for technology transfer from companies who are at the cutting edge of clean technology. If developing countries are more successful in adding distributed clean power than developed countries, utilities will need a smart grid to manage problems caused by intermittency (the sun and wind only happen during certain times of the day) and distributed power. Spurred by environmental concerns and the desire to tap into all the available sources of power, this move can also be a smart grid driver. <<< Indian renewable energy guide. Highlights of Indian renewable energy industry for foreign investors >>>>>

Technological Leapfrogging:

A chance to leapfrog into a new future of electricity is perhaps the most intriguing driver for India to address regulations and policies for making the grid "smart". The "smart" in a Smart Grid is an ICT-an area of unique capability in India. For India deployment of a Smart Grid involves not only addressing domestic energy challenges but also executing its policy to become a superpower as it involves technology standardization. India has dedicated research centres and a Smart Grid Task Force (SGTF) working on the deployment of Smart Grids in some pilot cities and then nationwide. Technological standardization is also seen as a critical step toward moving up the value chain and playing a stronger role in global technology markets.

Smart Grid Philosophy:

We are at the crossroads of a great transformation in the way electricity was perceived traditionally. A revolutionary makeover from a centralized, producer controlled network to one that is less centralized and more consumer interactive is on cards. The up gradation to a smarter grid promises to widely affect the industry’s entire business model that consisted of vertically integrated entities and its relationship with all stakeholders in the chain involving and affecting utilities, regulators, Energy Service Providers (ESP), technology and control dealers and all consumers of the electric power.

A Smart Grid makes this up gradation possible by bringing the philosophies, concepts and technologies in a common spectrum enabling internet to the utility and the electric grid. Simply put, a Smart Grid is the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) into the electric transmission and distribution (T&D) networks delivering electricity to consumers using a two way digital technology to enable more efficient management of consumers end uses of electricity as well as the more efficient use of the grid to identify and correct supply demand imbalances instantaneously and detect faults in a "self- healing" process that improves service quality, enhances reliability, and reduces costs.<<<<SOURCE :: SMART GRID CISION FOR INDIA’S POWERSECTOR>>>>>>

The Technology of Smart Grids:

The Smart in a Smart Grid is an ICT that brings together a variety of computing and telecommunications technologies to enable the Smart Grids envisioned benefits become a reality. These technologies encompass a wide range of operations such as detecting and identifying faults and a quick response to power outages, providing consumers with near real-time information on the amount and cost of the power they use, improving the security of the system, and linking all elements of the grid to enable better decision making on the resource use. With continual up-gradation and modifications these technologies will produce more and better quality data which will give the utilities more flexibility and new opportunities to improve their analysis of for example customer load patterns and tariffs and thus offer better services to their customers.

Several of the initiatives that have already seen the light of day include Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Distribution Management System (DMS), Distribution Automation System (DA), Energy management System (EMS), Automated Meter Reading (AMR), Outage Management System (OMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Installing latest technology and systems in the power system promises a decrease in loss levels and a subsequent increase in the reliability of the network.

Successful Implementation of the Smart Grid requires a host of systems such as the ones named above and others such as Automated Meter Infrastructure through Smart Metering, Home Area Networking (HAN) and setup of various Renewable Energy Sources.

Smart Grid Deployment is a journey rather than a one time event. Taking cue from this universally accepted paradigm, India has to observe grass root revolutionary changes in its power infrastructure concerning with its requirement. What a Smart Grid can deliver is driven by need. The US and Europe for instance, care more about labour costs, renewable and electric vehicles. In India, there is evidence that load management, especially the peak, is a major and a primary driver and hence more investments are to be observed related to a superior load management.

Network Operations:

The main difference between the traditional power infra-structure and the Smart Grid will be in the distribution area at the customer/network interfaces. However, in the areas of generation and transmission the role the system operators play will become quite complicated and critical as it will have to ensure an efficient, reliable and integration of other sources of energy. The Smart Grid wil be critically system operators configured. An ancillary support system will be required from sophisticated and technologically advanced energy management systems to oversee and manage all available energy resources and transmission parameters in every part of the system under a broad variety of operating conditions and possible future scenarios.

Evolutionary Changes in Network Operations:

USAID PAGE NO 18 draw chart. ///////////////////////

Automated Metering Infra-Structure through Smart Meters:

Smart metering will be a very important focus area for distibution utilties. The main demand driver for this upgradation is the energy accounting backbone created under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms programme (RAPDRP). Bringing into picture the vision of introducing a Smart Grid infra-structure, the industry can expect a rise in the demand for metering technologies such as Automated Meter reading (AMR) and prepaid metering. Smart meters will be installed at the customers premises to enable a bi-directional communication between the meters and the Utility meter data management system. This two way communication will enable Utility to understand the demand profile of the customers in near real time. The real time data also allows the customers to monitor and control their consumption. Implementation of tariff of day (TOD) functionality incentivizes customers for demand side management.Smart metering also enables the remote connect and/or disconnect of erroneous customers thus introducing a transparent mechanism and ultimate control. A meter Data Management System (MDMS) is required to be implemented to interface the SAP-ISU billing system. This system obtains the meter data from the smart meters and is used for various purposes like billing, planning and load forecast etc.Implementation of AMI in India does present a few challenges :

Smart meters are relatively a new concept in the Indian infrastructure and there are a few technical challenges with respect to their customization for Indian conditions like security protocals and at the same time there are no standards yet formulated for smart meters.

Suppliers are not yet prepared to bring smart meters in the Indian market as the technical regulations are not yet harmonized between the utilities and the suppliers and also because of a lack of skilled resources.

Worldwide such projects have been implemented using GPRS and PLC. While as the PLC implementation requires a very high quality of power cable framework which is a relatively new concept for the Indian conditions. GPRS requires enhanced provisioning and a superior service quality from the service providers.

AMI facilitates the collection of data which is critical for utility planning and implementation. Such data also improves the inputs to the retail tariff structure, help with regulatory compliance, and help customers better understand their consumption and plan their usage accordingly.

Home Area Network:

Even though Home Area Network is not a primary driver of implementing the Smart Grid in India but it provides a definite edge to the idea of complete overhaul of the traditional power system to a grid of the future. A Home Area Network provides the platform for a home to communicate directly with the grid and enables the consumers to manage their electricity usage by measuring a home’s electricity consumption more frequently through a smart meter; utilities can provide their customers with much better information to manage their electricity bills. Inside the Smart Home, a Home Area Network (HAN) connects thermostats, refrigerators and other electrical devices to an energy management system. Smart appliances and devices will adjust their run schedule to reduce electricity demand on the grid at critical times and lower consumer’s energy bills.

Implementation of HAN:

There are myriad standards protocols vying for dominance in the Smart Grid market. With so many devices needing to be incorporated in the network, a deeper analysis of the technologies and architectural models is necessary. There are two distinct schools of thoughts with variations of the HAN architecture as it relates to the utility. The first is that the utility, which has up till now controlled the majority of the electrical infra-structure be able to control all the appliances within the grid to better manage the grid. This can be used with consumers who opt-in the allow the utility to shut off their Air Conditioning units during peak demand. The other camp sees the utility having access to a gateway within the home and then the consumer has the authority to control what happens in the home or delegate that to a third party. Understanding various standards that are needed to be operable for HAN infra-structure in a Smart Grid are:

Wiring:

The basic standard for wiring is Ethernet. Most of the homes in India lack Ethernet running in their structures. The cost and effort of retrofitting a home or a building with new wires is appalling. Speed, reliability and security are often the reasons cited for installing new wires. The demands for most HAN Smart Grid applications are between 10kbps and 500 kbps thus speed doesn’t seem as a working driver for installing new wires but reliability and security are a plausible excuse.

IEEE 802.3 Ethernet

IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet as it is more commonly known is used widely for establishing local networks in offices and certain homes. Systems communicating over Ethernet divide a stream of data into shorter pieces called frames. Each frame contains source and destination address and error checking data so that damaged data can be detected and re-transmitted. Ethernet provides service up to and including data link layer.

Power Line Communication (HomePlug)

HomePlug GREEN PHY (GP) is a low power, robust data communications technology that provides data rates of 4-10 Mbps over a buildings existing electrical wiring. To define the media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) for power line communications in Home Area Networks (HAN) the GP specification is used and has been recently adopted as a profile of the IEEE standard 1901 for broadband over power line networks.

Integration of Renewable Generation:

Integration of renewable energy in the grid is one of the biggest thrust areas for infrastructure up-gradation in India. The installed generation capacity of renewable generators is expected to grow manifold in the near future. India has set itself ambitious plans to achieve high generation targets in the next ten years. Considering the high variability and unpredictability of generation from renewable, the injection from renewable sources can be safely absorbed in the grid if the frequency in the grid is maintained in a comfortable range. Frequency Support Ancillary Service (FSAS) can be used to complement the diurnal changes in the renewable generation. In future, based in the renewable forecast for the next day, a dispatch schedule for FSAS can be prepared such that the variation in the renewable generation can be absorbed easily. FSAS can thus also be used as mechanism to facilitate renewable integration by reducing the impact in the variation.

Taking into account the compelling concerns regarding climate change, the need for distributed solar and wind power is critical. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources (MNRE) estimates that integrating wind or solar power into the grid at large scale will require advanced energy management techniques and approaches at the grid operator level. The Smart Grid’s enhanced capability to dynamically introduce new sources of energy on the grid clearly signifies that more distributed generation can be integrated within it.

Solar and Wind power are necessary and desirable components of a cleaner energy future. A grid capable of introducing new and green sources of energy such as wind and solar power is the future of electricity infra-structure.