Modernizing and Increasing Efficiency of Transmission Grid for Decarbonization

The power industry is facing systemic changes, such as the decentralization of the grid via the integration of distributed energy resources, decarbonization and increased utilization of renewables, and digitization via the development of smart energy networks. These rapid and prolific changes will increase the amount of uncertainty that comes with planning and operating power systems and will bring several urgent challenges to the industry. This rapid pace of change clearly demands new ways of thinking and operating the network, in addition to the need for more advanced Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs). Based on the study and report from The Brattle Group in collaboration with WATT Coalition, The U.S. could double its capacity for new wind and solar power, save billions of dollars, and cut millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions from its generation fleets. The study modeled the benefits of a set of "grid-enhancing technologies" including Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), advanced modular power flow control, and topology optimization across the wind-power-rich grids of Kansas and Oklahoma in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) region. According to its analysis, spending about $90 million to implement these technologies could on the existing grid yield a payback in about 6 months, with annual power cost savings of about $175 million delivering ongoing benefits for years to come. The GETs technologies could free up interconnection for the gigawatts' worth of wind and solar generation interconnection projects that are being held back due to concerns that they’ll overwhelm the grid without expensive and time-consuming reconductoring or transmission expansions. Resolving those concerns could more than double the region’s interconnection capacity, from about 2.6GW to about 5.3GW, all without any transmission grid upgrades.

Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) have been getting utilized around the globe especially in Europe as smarter technologies for moving toward Net-Zero, yet to be widely deployed in the U.S. That’s primarily because of the structure lack of incentive in the U.S for transmission grid owners and operators. So far in the U.S. utilities that own and build transmission earn a rate of return for the capital costs involved, not for how efficiently those systems are run once they’re built.

Saifur Rahman

Energy Efficiency in Smart Buildings Through IoT Sensor Integration

Carbon neutrality, green energy, electric vehicles and electrification are topics of discussion today among technologists, policymakers, researchers and students. Different countries have different programs which they are putting forward. For example, 100 countries and 400 cities around the world have pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050 or before. The United States Government is targeting the US power sector greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to drop to 50% by 2030 and net-zero by 2050, and the country as a whole to be free from GHG emissions by 2050. In China, the plan is to generate more than half the electricity from renewable sources by 2030. India has an aggressive national program to raise the country’s renewable energy output significantly.  This is important because China, US and India together are responsible for more than 50% of the global CO2 emissions today. Additional data shows 20 countries in the world generate 81% of CO2 globally. 

Countering Dynamic Risks: Lessons Learned and Pathways Forward to Secure Critical Power & Energy Infrastructures Strategically -- Assuring Proactive Security and Resilience

Energy and power infrastructure stakeholders, and the broader society, face challenges such as: Aging assets, severe weather events and billions of dollars in damage annually, physical and cyber attacks, interdependencies with other infrastructures (gas, telecommunications, transportation, water, etc.), investment recovery, and policy. The added spectra of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks have raised considerable concerns, hope and fears in a wide range of audiences not intimately involved in security the power and energy sectors, raising a whole range of concerns all the way to “are prolonged and total ‘lights out’ scenarios probable or even possible, and could they lead to the end of our civilization?”

While such concerns and a widening spectrum of threats are not new, they are highlighted every time outages make the headlines, and unfortunately are forgotten a while later. We tend to be a nation of “fire fighters,” reactive during and post- crises, rather than strategic and proactive. Success in managing risk, training a well-prepared work force, and growing our economy will come from taking a greater foresight and committed action.

Accounting for and managing risks and uncertainties can and must be dynamically triaged and addressed in a transparent and secure-as-needed dashboard at the level of detail that operators, consumers, regulators, decision-makers and investors demand. In this presentation, key questions we address include the security of interdependent infrastructure security and resilience and proactive countermeasures.

Hamed Heyhat 

Modernizing grid infrastructure and digital substations

The United States recently shared its infrastructure plan building world-class infrastructure including renewed electric grid, as well as a path to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035. Today’s electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages and needs to build a more resilient electric transmission & distribution system for reliable, cleaner, and safer electricity to all.

The evolution of decarbonization, digitalization, decentralization,  and electrification of our power grid brings new challenges as they work to improve grid reliability and while reducing O&M costs with condition-based maintenance. Texas power outage is just one recent example, US Department of Energy study found that power outages cost the U.S. economy up to $70 billion annually. To address these challenges and unlock sustainable development, utilities are embracing digital transformation of the transmission and distribution substations, using which we are enabling next generation infrastructures with seamless bidirectional flow of electricity and data communications. Modernizing grid infrastructures should be based on international standards for digital communication within substations as well as across the grid networks. For example, advanced automation applications provide grid resilience using high-speed secured communications for system integrity protection & remedial action schemes across the transmission network. Going digital into substations enabling Centralized Protection & Control, and integrated condition monitoring for transformer and switchgear by enabling digital technologies and laying the foundation for the future grid.

Anu Annaswamy

Significant changes have occurred over the past decade in the energy landscape, especially in the power sector. World over, there’s a big push towards a 100% incorporation of wind and solar power for electricity production. Natural gas prices have declined, costs of renewable energy technologies have come down, and large‐scale battery energy storage technologies have advanced rapidly. A large percentage of renewable energy resources are expected to be deployed on the distribution grid. This, along with the emergence of Internet-of-Things (IoT)-networks, provides a unique opportunity to make real-time decisions, enhance situational awareness of distribution systems, and enable resilient operation. There are however a host of challenges, most of which are due to the intermittency and unpredictability of the renewable energy resources. Most of the requisite solutions for the deep integration of these renewable resources for electricity production are control‐centric. A distributed optimization approach that judiciously combines renewable generation with storage and flexible loads has the possibility for ensuring power balance. A distributed control approach that enables a coordinated network of millions of controllers, all integrated with solar and wind power generation nodes, storage sites, and flexible consumption can lead to effective frequency regulation and voltage control in real‐time. I will focus in my presentation, a few opportunities and challenges of what a DER-rich grid edge precipitates.