Smart Grid Roadmap: The Missing Ingredient

Today there is not a final roadmap to show utilities how to develop a Smart Grid that is truly in that utility’s unique own best interests. Rather, we believe that each utility must analyze and plan for its Smart Grid foundation and future based on its various stakeholders’ interests, and the financial and human resource limitations imposed in the current economy.

There are many aspects to successful Smart Grid development, some of which involve administrative as well as operational components of an electric power utility, and must include a variety of components:

IT involvement as well as Operations and Engineering

·         Administrative management of customer information systems (CIS) and geographic information systems (GIS) as well as control center and dispatching operation outage management systems (OMS) and document management systems (DMS)

·         Substation automation as well as true field automation

·         Third party services as well as in-house commitment

·         Smart metering at all levels.

We know now that a flexible planning environment, set within a long-term strategy is required.  This will allow for flexibility and adaptations as power electronics technology and automation schemes develop and mature. A key position within the progressive utility (as we are now seeing in the power equipment industry) is that of a skilled Smart Grid “architect” who can oversee the increasingly complex duties of an effective systems planning organization that can communicate effectively within the larger utility community.

As each Smart Grid component or building block is put into service and is integrated and made remotely accessible, the overall Smart Grid necessarily becomes more complex, more communications-centric and more reliant on sensor-based field developments.

For an analogy, think of the construction of the International Space Station. The Smart Grid has many of the same attributes:

·         Takes a long time to complete

·         Involves iterative process

·         Includes deploying one component after another

·         Requires planning on a system-wide basis

·         Lacks quick solutions

·         Needs a systematic approach from the onset

·         Demands flexibility and adaptability to changing technology over time

In reviewing the operational/engineering components of Smart Grid developments, centering on the physical power delivery grid itself (whether a transmission grid, or a distribution grid or both) one must include what today comprises protection and control, feeder and switch automation, control center-based systems, substation measurement and automation systems, and other significant distribution automation activities such as volt/VAR control.  This work is already underway at most key utilities. However, the work is often being undertaken in distinct “silo-like” project form, without an eye to the bigger implications for an effective Smart Grid.

Charles Newton is CEO of Newton-Evans Research Co. based in Ellicott City, Maryland.