The Power Grid: Smart, Secure, Green and Reliable

States

Preface

Brian W. D’Andrade

The evolution of the infrastructure that supports and enriches the lives of billions of people on a daily basis is an extraordinarily remarkable and complex process. Smart cities, smart transportation, smart homes, and of course, the smart grid, are key components of that evolutionary process. It is beyond the capacity of a single book to completely cover any smart system in its entirety, let alone all of them, so the authors of this book have reviewed a number of topics, from the fundamentals to the possibilities. The authors, mainly forensic engineers from Exponent Inc., offer their unique perspectives formed by having led the investigations of failure events. They relish the opportunities to develop technology that is safe, green, secure, and more efficient.

This book addresses several important issues to a smart, green grid in chapters on energy storage, power conversion, and energy transmission. Energy storage is important because clean energy generation systems, such as solar power, may produce more or less energy than the instantaneous demand; hence, one of the major engineering developments in the last decade has been the proliferation of energy storage systems as a means of realizing a more agile and efficient electric grid. Power conversion is important because it enables the integration of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar. Energy transmission is important because the optimal locations for renewable energy sources are found in rural or offshore locations that are long distances away from urban areas.

Additionally, this book provides insight into some of the side effects of making a smart system. The voluminous data require innovative techniques to analyze and the complexity of the controls to operate a smart grid opens up an exponentially increasing attack surface for bad actors to infiltrate and manipulate the grid, a key element of modern civilization.

It is my hope that you glean a deeper knowledge of smart grid technology from this dense collection of information.

1

Evolution of the Traditional Power System

Ahmad Shahsiah,    Exponent Inc., Menlo Park, CA, United States

Abstract

This chapter starts with the history and outlook of the traditional power systems. It includes an introduction to some of the fundamental concepts of the traditional power systems. Topics introduced in this chapter have been taught by the author for several years in academia for different engineering courses. The selected topics are chosen to best represent fundamental knowledge required to understand operation of the traditional power systems as well as providing foundation for more advanced topics that are presented in later chapters of this book. Other topics in this chapter include the existing grid versus the smart grid, evolution and challenges, emerging standards and regulations, and future trends and drives.

Keywords

Power system evolution; power system fundamentals; phasor representation; three-phase circuits; distribution transformers; per-unit calculations; symmetrical components; reactive power compensation

Chapter Outline

1.1 Introduction 1

1.1.1 Background 1

1.1.2 History and Outlook 3

1.1.3 Future Trends and Drives 3

1.1.4 Outline of the Chapters 4

1.2 Electric Power System Fundamentals 5

1.2.1 Background 5

1.2.2 Characteristics and Fundamentals 6

1.2.3 Steady State Operations 13

1.2.4 Transients and Abnormal Conditions 26

1.2.5 Reactive Power Compensation 32

1.3 Evolution and Outlook 34

1.3.1 Existing Grid Versus Smart Grid 34

1.3.2 Evolution and Challenges 35

1.3.3 Emerging Standards and Regulations 35

References 36

1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 Background

The power system in traditional form consists of three major components: generation, transmission, and distribution. Subtransmission levels can also be considered as a separate component in traditional power systems. In this system, the electricity is generated in masses, brought to the main distribution hubs, and then distributed to the end-users, much like any other commodity. However, unlike other commodities, the electricity should be consumed instantaneously at the same time that it is being generated. In other words, the power generation and the demand must match at any moment. Automatic closed-loop control systems at the generating units ensure matching load and generation. That is, of course, in case of availability of enough spinning reserve to quickly match the peak demand with the generation. Load forecasting, using historical data, provides information for the system operators to ensure availability of enough base generation and spinning reserves in order to supply loads while maintaining the system’s frequency and reliability. Combined with the variable cost of electricity from different generating plants, where the system operators decide how to match the next increment of demand with the lowest cost of generation, electricity becomes a sophisticated market. Additionally, local and federal government regulations add to the complexity of this market and its operation. In such a system, complex analytical tools to predict real-time behavior of the system become essential.

Over decades the traditional power system has been studied, understood, and modeled, and sophisticated tools and methods have been developed to analyze and operate this system reliably. In a large traditional power system, the flow of electricity and contribution of each generator to the loads can be described by a system of equations known as the load flow equations. The equations are nonlinear and numerous (as many as the number of nodes in the system). The resulting nonlinear matrices that describe the system of equations can therefore be large. Although these matrices are usually sparse and can be presented with good approximations in the form of decoupled systems of matrices, solutions require advance numerical methods. For a large power system, such as the North American grid, the sheer number and nature of nodes combined with the speed at which the demand and generation changes at any moment challenges even the most advanced computers and methods of numerical solution. For this reason, and perhaps because of the associated cost, real-time simulations often include generation and transmission systems, which comparatively include fewer components than the distributions systems. Load-flow studies in the distribution systems are often done offline and in discrete studies for scenarios such as maximum loads as part of the reliability and protection studies of the systems.

For the reasons mentioned above, some aspects of the traditional power systems (particularly on the distribution side) are managed conservatively and therefore not optimally due to the sheer size and complexity of this system. This results in either oversizing or overloading equipment to meet the peak demand. This, combined with other factors such as reliability and cost of operation, has prompted application of newer systems with better and more efficient usage of the existing resources. A more efficient system utilizes new technologies to optimize generation and delivery of the electricity to end-users. This is widely known as the smart grid. In general, the traditional large power systems have centralized generation with limited control over the flow of electricity. Failures and blackouts in such large interconnected systems are not uncommon. A smart grid will have distributed generation, better monitoring, and control capabilities and will provide more efficient delivery of the electricity from the generating units to the end-users.

1.1.2 History and Outlook

Power systems in traditional forms have been in operation for more than a century. The first three-phase line in the United States became operational in 1893. Steam-driven generators became operational in the same year. Steam-driven generators still account for more than 80% of the US electric energy generation. Gas turbines are also used in some cases to meet the peak demand. Steam plants are fueled primarily by coal, gas, oil, and nuclear fuel. Coal has been the most widely used fuel for this type of generator in the United States due to its abundance. In 2014 the total net electricity generation from all fuels was 4,093,606 gigawatt-hours of which 1,581,710 gigawatt-hours generated from the coal which is approximately 39% of the net generation. Other main sources of generation include natural gas, nuclear, and hydrogenation with approximately 28%, 19%, and 6% share of generation, respectively, in 2014. The share of the renewable sources in total generation of electrical energy in 2014 was approximately 7%, which includes wind, utility-scale solar, geothermal, and biomass according to the US energy information administration (U.S.Energy_Informaion_Administration, 2016). This data shows that a large portion of the electricity in the United States still depends on the concentrated generation (mainly at large steam-driven power plants) with transmission, and distribution of electricity via the existing and aging traditional power system. The distributed and renewable sources are central to a fully implemented smart grid. Although the outlook is toward increasing the renewable sources and moving away from large centralized generation, as it is evident from the presented data, transition from the traditional power system to a fully implemented smart grid is still a distant future. This is further discussed later in this book in Chapter 10, Prognostics for the Power Industry.

1.1.3 Future Trends and Drives

The smart grid has received a lot of attention in recent years although studies for such systems go back more than a decade. The main drive for the industry to move toward a smart grid is the newer and cheaper technologies and government incentives, particularly in the area of renewable energy. The existing traditional grid has been retrofitted with new data acquisition and control systems. At the distribution level, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been implemented in many large metropolitan areas that allow monitoring or control of the distribution grid. More information from the status of the system is available through a wide application of sensors, and more components of the distribution systems can be monitored or automatically controlled now than ever before. Smart meters have been installed in large scales by many utilities that allow collection of the load data easily and efficiently. Vast amounts of data collected by smart meters can be used for many applications, including energy efficiency planning. Despite all the advancements in this area, many challenges still lie ahead for a full smart grid. Among these challenges are the legal aspects of a fully implemented smart grid. In a distributed generation system, for example, failure of local generation units can affect the loads in the same island or section of the system. Unless the legal ownership of the distributed generation equipment and the associated responsibilities and liabilities are fully defined, claims of damages as a result of equipment failure in such systems cannot be easily