Get Smart

Get Smart

June 29, 2009

Kate Rowland
Editor-in-Chief
Intelligent Utility Topics

Tell Ken Copp that the U.S. electric grid needs to "get smart," and he'll politely set you straight.

Copp, the strategic technical advisor for American Transmission Company (ATC), is but one of an increasingly vocal number of power engineers and transmission and distribution utility owners who beg to differ with the popular opinion that our electric grid is somehow "dumb," or operating "without a brain."

"The way we look at it, the grid's been smart for a while," he said. "It takes some pretty sophisticated tools to monitor, dispatch and control electricity flow."

Back in 2001, ATC opened its doors as the first multi-state electric transmission-only utility in the United States. Almost 30 utilities, municipalities, municipal electric companies and electric cooperatives from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois have invested assets or money for an ownership stake in ATC. Since then, the company has upgraded more than 1,350 miles of transmission line, improved 110 of its 500 wholly or jointly owned substations, and built 344 miles of new transmission lines, with many more miles in current and proposed projects.

In the eight years since the company was formed, ATC has been rebuilding and upgrading its existing transmission lines and substations, and adding new lines to the system. It's also adding intelligence as its more than 3,000 microprocessor-based relays placed in substations throughout ATC's 9,350 circuit miles of transmission line have the ability to take in multiple attributes to protect the line.

The choice of microprocessor-based relays over electromechanical relays is nothing new -- transmission companies have been putting them into play for the past decade. And they not only provide cost savings over their predecessors, but they also offer special features such as advanced meter functions and event reporting. Microprocessor-based relays also offer programmable logic, allowing the user to define the operation of the relay and to create unique protection schemes.

"This focused use of technology allows the industry to develop more sophisticated alarms and triggers for system operators," said Copp. "We want to use every drop of capability the system has to offer without compromising reliability." Response times are also fast.

And while system reliability is better maintained with this eyes-wide-open approach to the grid, long-distance high-voltage transmission lines also offer higher energy efficiency and reduced electricity losses. The company, for instance, has a 220-mile line from Wisconsin to Minnesota. It carries 660 MW of new electricity into northern and central Wisconsin and provides an energy efficiency savings of 5.7 million MWh of electricity per year. Wisconsin utilities, as net importers of electricity, use ATC's high-voltage lines to gain flexibility in the electricity wholesale market.

Robust Lines

For Wisconsin, these high-voltage lines are of great importance, as getting the best deal on power is largely dependent on the transmission system. The more connections it gains to other states, the better position it is in to take advantage of cheaper power or renewables-based power for its customers.

"In general, in the past, generation was built close to load," said Copp. "Now, with the emergence of locational marginal price markets, utilities can shop among distant generation for the lowest-cost power opportunities." This setup relies on the ability to carry electricity longer distances.

Its Wisconsin-to-Minnesota line offers greater reliability for the region, as well. Copp said phase-shifting transformers along the line allow system operators to change the electricity's path when necessary, redirecting the flow to more robust lines.

The transmission grid's intelligence in some ways sets the stage for the monumental changes about to occur at either end of its lines. "We think the grid is pretty smart on the transmission side, but we are going to have to embrace dramatic changes on the generation and customer sides," he said.

The opening of the Midwest ISO LMP market in 2005 began to change the way business was done in the region. While it was only operating at a wholesale level, the market was able to produce hourly day-ahead prices, with real-time prices produced every five minutes. What that inevitably led to is what Copp described as "a more granular view of how consumer use and price interacted and varied throughout the day."

The one-way communication stream that worked so well before is now changing, and quickly. With the advent of smart meters, two-way interrogation is now possible. This two-way communication capability, he said, goes hand-in-hand with more sophisticated systems being built all along the communication path.

And it's more secure, as well. "Our construction standard dictates that every time we build or rebuild a transmission line, we put in fiber-optics," Copp said. "In a post-9/11 world, [our lines] are cyber-secure."

The proposed processes set forward by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 19 for adopting smart grid interoperability standards will move that two-way communication ability even further forward by allowing customers to participate more interactively with their own preprogrammed energy strategies.

The effort to make the grid smarter is in overdrive. But some companies such as ATC have always been trying to get better. The pursuit of these strategies is destined to make the grid not just more intelligent but more secure and more reliable.