A Conversation with Henry S. Kenchington, Department of Energy

Location: Washington, DC Date: 2014-04-09

Henry S. Kenchington, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Advanced Grid Integration in the Office of Electricity Deliverability & Energy Reliability at the Department of Energy shares his thoughts in the following interview with Energy Central.
What changes do you see in U.S. T&D sector in the 2014-2020 timeframe?
We have seen several SGIG projects already starting to build new private projects on our public-private investments, such as CenterPoint Energy and New York ISO. In addition, utilities we did not have the opportunity to partner with are creating projects that are informed by SGIG and SGDP work.

How is the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability preparing for those changes?
Our office is the focal point for the federal government's activities in electric grid modernization activities. Our priorities include technology development activities to strengthen grid reliability and resiliency, grid integration of renewables, demand response, energy storage, and distributed operation. We are also supporting projects in modeling and analysis to equip grid operators with better tools and techniques to make use of the large volumes of data being created by the installation of smart meters, distribution sensors, and synchrophasor technologies. Our programs also support the development of secure interoperability standards so devices and systems can communicate with each other. We are also involved in cybersecurity technologies to strengthen grid protections against cyber attacks. Our activities are carried out in partnership with utilities, equipment manufacturers, and system developers, other federal, state, local, and regional agencies, universities, and national laboratories.

How do you see grid modernization developing in the U.S. through 2020?
The numbers of intelligent, communicating assets both on the grid-side and the customer-side of the meter are increasing. Data and information are proliferating at the edge of the grid, and we believe that intelligent, coordinated action closer to the edge of the grid follows logically. The Administration has prioritized the need for increased customer involvement with the availability of green button data to help empower customers to make informed energy consumption decisions.

What should utilities be doing right now to modernize for the future?
There are dozens of promising technologies and applications in transmission, distribution, metering, and on the customer side of the meter. While it's true that one size does not fit all, peer experiences with cutting edge technologies are accumulating.

For example, in electric transmission, synchrophasor technologies are being installed, thanks to the Recovery Act-funded smart grid projects. In distribution, automated feeder switches, capacitors, voltage regulators, and equipment health monitors are important technologies for grid modernization efforts. These devices can be used to reduce the frequency and duration of outages and support better control of voltage levels and reactive power management. Smart meters are opening up opportunities for customer participation in electricity. The application of new time-based rate programs, such as critical peak and variable pricing, are proving to be valuable tools for both customers and utilities.

How will the Smart Grid Investment Grants continue to fit into that picture for a more modern future?
The Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program projects are nearing completion of the equipment installation phase. In the next year all of the equipment under the SGIG program will be installed, and we will "graduate" a class of highly experienced utilities and companies that could be ideal peers for the next generation of utility projects.

What three areas of distribution technology do you think will be the most important through 2020?
Outage management for reliability and resiliency is an important opportunity for most utilities. This includes systems that can use data from SCADA systems, smart meters, line sensors, and customers to identify where outages have occurred, dispatch repair crews to the precise locations where they are needed, and keep customers informed of the progress of restoration activities so they can resume their normal routines as rapidly as possible. Another important and related opportunity involves expanding the capabilities of distribution management systems (DMS) to use information from many of the above-mentioned sources to operate the grid more efficiently and optimize application of new devices such as automated feeder switches and voltage controllers. Enhanced DMS can be part of the outage management equation but can also be part of the solution for fault identification and implementation of fixes to prevent them from becoming problems and causing outages. A third area involves the integration of renewables and demand-side resources on the customer's side of the meter. Systems are needed for managing the two-way flow of power in a safe and reliable manner. Also needed are tools and techniques for engaging customers and equipping them with systems for managing their own consumption and costs including in-home displays, programmable communicating thermostats, and web portals.

What transmission changes are on the horizon?
We believe that synchrophasor technologies present grid operators with tremendous opportunities to transform how transmission systems are planned, managed, and operated in the future. Real-time applications include wide-area monitoring and visualization, state estimation, voltage stability monitoring, frequency stability monitoring, oscillation detection, disturbance detection and alarming, congestion management, islanding and restoration, and renewable energy integration. Off-line applications include post-event analysis and model validation. These applications will take several years to be implemented by control centers across the country. We work closely with the North American Synchrophasor Initiative and other stakeholders to get the word out and coordinate technical progress.

How will cybersecurity initiatives grow and develop?
Improving resilience of the electric power grid is a shared responsibility among federal agencies, state and local regulatory entities, and industry partners. Because the majority of the electric power infrastructure is owned and operated by private utilities, partnerships between government and industry are essential. The Energy Department continues to invest in critical cybersecurity research and development to provide the industry with technology options it can use to help protect the energy infrastructure. The Department also works with federal partners and the private sector to promote best practices for cybersecurity and improve incident response.

How will data and analytics fit into the bigger energy picture?
Like many observers, we expect data analytics to play an essential role in the grid of the future. Large volumes of data are being generated by smart grid devices at the transmission and distribution levels, and on the customer side of the meter. Decision makers who operate transmission systems, distribution systems and customer systems need simple and easy to access visualization tools and actionable intelligence, which can be found in the data but only after appropriate algorithms and models have been developed.

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