April 27, 2009
Imagine the look of surprise on the faces of thieves who break into a substation facility in search of highly valuable copper to steal, only to find that the building contains hardly any copper at all.
Although deterring theft is not the main driver behind the move to substation automation projects, it certainly relates to one of the many advantages -- using less copper wiring and other expensive devices. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which unveiled its highly automated substation in Bradley, Tenn., last summer, estimates that it used 50 percent less copper than in a traditional substation.
That's just one of many business cases for substation automation. The ability to share messages between relays has enabled utilities to greatly reduce costs for installation of protection and control devices. They do that by eliminating a lot of copper wiring and replacing it with communications where relays can send information to each other quickly and reliably. TVA was also able to eliminate manual control switches, panel meters and one relay per line.
Other substation automation benefits include dramatic labor savings, quicker construction, and vastly improved customer service in the form of quicker restoration of service when power is interrupted. With all these benefits, utilities need to be careful not to rush into projects. Careful due diligence is required, C-level buy-in is essential, and collaboration from departments across the utility and its vendors is critical.
"This is a great opportunity for us to work collectively among different departments to come up with a business case for substation automation," said Simon Chiang, manager of system automation for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Chiang is a member of PG&E's smart grid team, which hopes to assemble a substation automation business case by mid-2009. "Collectively, we have the smart meter department, the automation people, some folks from generation, and obviously IT is a key part of it."
When it comes to collaboration, some groups will need to give up certain tasks that they consider under their jurisdiction.
"There are multiple departments that need to work together at the utility and that hasn't always been the case," said Rob Deveaux, protection and control marketing manager for GE Digital Energy-Multilin. "Today, communications are a very big part of the substation. There are a lot of different stakeholders in the business with different domains."
He notes that while the IT department may be relied on for critical steps, like security standards and relay routings, IT personnel may not be the best choice to specify the complicated equipment that goes into the facility, like ruggedized Ethernet switches.
Robust Communication
Once departmental teams are working together, utilities are in line to reap the benefits of their substation automation project. Chief among them is the ability to leverage technology on the line as well as in the substation, so that utilities can remotely monitor systems on a real-time basis. When an equipment malfunction occurs, the utility can hopefully detect and fix it before a customer complains.
Utilities also stand to gain a lot from reduced labor. PG&E utilizes 15 fully manned control centers, and is four years into a project that will automate those facilities by 2010, saving three shifts of manpower, 24/7.
In addition, Chiang notes that substation automation projects increase safety, and can even have a large impact on a utility's carbon footprint. By having greater automation both for substations and the lines, utilities don't need as many truck rolls to visually inspect problems when faults occur. Because technology determines exactly where the fault is, utilities can send crews to a specific location rather than patrolling lines in order to find the problem. From an environmental standpoint, utilities can dramatically reduce their CO2 emissions.
With all these enticing benefits, it would be easy to see why utilities would rush out and implement substation automation projects. But Chiang stresses the need to start small.
"The main thing is having a robust communication system in place," Chiang said. "The problem most utilities face is that they don't have a good communication [network] as the foundation. In order for us to deploy smart grid, communication is the central part. And you want to phase in slowly. If you do too much and put too much on your plate it could be counter-productive. So we are hoping to identify the major drivers and major benefits and tackle those first."
Utility technologies are destined to get better and better. Improved substations and the use of less copper wiring in favor of other devices is one such subset. It will all take time and money but in the end, utility customers will be better off for it.
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John R. Johnson
