R E N E WA B L E E N E R G Y | AUTOMATION | OV E R H E A D T & D | SMART GRID

Summer 2018 Volume 31, No. 3

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SMART GRID ISSUE

BUILDING A
BETTER WORLD OF
SMART STRUCTURES
ON THE SMART GRID
PAGE 20

TRANSFORMING
POWER GRIDS FOR
AN EFFICIENT FUTURE
PAGE 22

GRIDS BECOME
HIGHLY VULNERABLE
PAGE 26

SIEMENS’ WHITE PAPER

OUTLINES DESIGN FOR
MINI-GRIDS TO
ENERGIZE PUERTO RICO
PAGE 27

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMER 2018 • VOL. 31 • NO. 3 FEATURES

PRESIDENT
Randolph W. Hurst
E-Mail: randy@electricity-today.com

MAGAZINE CIRCULATION/
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Colleen Flaherty
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diane@electricity-today.com

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218-1885 Clements Road,
Pickering, Ontario L1W 3V4
8 A SNAPSHOT OF THE US MARKET FOR
SMART SOLAR INVERTERS
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U.S.
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16 DISTRIBUTED ENERGY POISED
FOR ‘EXPLOSIVE GROWTH’ 20 BUILDING A BETTER WORLD
OF SMART STRUCTURES
ON THE US GRID ON THE SMART GRID

4 | SUMMER 2018 FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com

 SUMMER 2018 • VOL. 31 • NO. 3

FEATURES CHANNELS
8 A SNAPSHOT OF THE US MARKET FOR
SMART SOLAR INVERTERS
12 4 BENEFITS OF DISTRIBUTION
AUTOMATION IN A DECENTRALIZED
ENERGY WORLD

16 DISTRIBUTED ENERGY POISED

FOR ‘EXPLOSIVE GROWTH’ 13 HIGH VOLTAGE, INC.
SUMMER NEWSLETTER
ON THE US GRID

22 TRANSFORMING POWER GRIDS

FOR AN EFFICIENT FUTURE
20 BUILDING A BETTER WORLD
OF SMART STRUCTURES
ON THE SMART GRID
26 GRIDS BECOME HIGHLY VULNERABLE

6 ADVERTISER INDEX
27 SIEMENS’ WHITE PAPER OUTLINES
DESIGN FOR MINI-GRIDS TO ENERGIZE
PUERTO RICO

FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com SUMMER 2018 | 5

 ADVERTISER INDEX
ADVERTISER PAGE WEBSITE

ABSOPULSE Electronics Ltd. 5 www.absopulse.com

Aero Tec Laboratories (ATL) 6 www.atlinc.com

Brenco 11 www.brenco-inc.com

EasyPower LLC 2 www.easypower.com

Electricity Distributors Association 9 www.eda-connect.ca

High Voltage, Inc. 15 www.hvinc.com

Lineman’s Testing Laboratories (LTL) 1 www.ltlutilitysupply.com

P&R Technologies 13 www.pr-tech.com

Tallman Equipment Co. Inc 3 www.tallmanequipment.com

The Von Corporation 5 www.voncorp.com

Valard 7 www.valard.com

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FEATURE RENEWABLE ENERGY
A SNAPSHOT OF THE US MARKET FOR
SMART SOLAR INVERTERS
FROM INTERSOLAR, AN UPDATE ON THE MARCH OF ADVANCED INVERTERS
FROM PILOT PROJECT TO REAL-WORLD REQUIREMENTS By: Jeff St. John
A
dvanced solar inverters could be one of
the biggest distributed energy resource
communications and control points out there
someday. With California now requiring at least early-
stage “smart” capabilities from all new solar projects —
and a standards road map for next-stage efforts like real-
time communications and active controls — this future
now has a template.  The key standard in question in the U.S. is IEEE 1547,
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about how
smart inverters will be used.
That was the consensus at Intersolar recently, where
experts discussed the latest developments on the U.S.
smart solar inverter front. After years of pilot projects, multi-
stakeholder technical working groups, and slow and steady
standards development, solar smart inverters are finally
starting to hit the market en masse — even if it’s not yet clear
just what will be done with them once they’re installed.  removing these barriers, Salas said. “They need to be stable,
“From the technical perspective, the standards are firm,”
Roger Salas, distribution engineering manager for Southern
California Edison, said. In September of last year, his utility
started requiring that all new solar installations come with
“Phase 1” advanced inverter functionality, as defined under
the state’s Rule 21.
Later this month, it’s going to start requiring “reactive
power priority” for these inverters, and in February 2019,
it’s going to start requiring that inverters support the
communications capabilities described in “Phase 2,” as well
as some more advanced “Phase 3” capabilities.
8 | SUMMER 2018
INCREASING HOSTING CAPACITY: A WIN-WIN FOR
SOLAR AND UTILITIES
Each of these phases aligns with a different value
proposition for smart inverters. The first phase is largely
preventative, aimed at solving the kinds of problems that
have forced costly upgrades to how inverters operate in
solar-heavy Germany and Hawaii. 
which sets the rules for what grid-connected DERs must do
to stay safe, such as trip offline when the grid goes down, or
avoid overloading local transformers or circuits. 
The old version of the standard, however, had a lot of
restrictive rules on tripping off during relatively common
voltage excursions, which could cause real problems on
circuits with a lot of solar dropping off all at once. 
Phase 1 implementation of IEEE 1547 is all about
they need to be connected, they need to be able to support
the grid.” 
This should increase hosting capacity on circuits
that would have otherwise been constrained by these
unwelcome behaviors, he said. 
REACTIVE POWER: WHERE UTILITY AND SOLAR
IMPERATIVES COLLIDE
The old versions of IEEE 1547 also didn’t provide rules
for how inverters could use one of their more flexible
capabilities: the ability to inject or absorb reactive power
to mitigate voltage fluctuations, including those that may
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 Photo Credit: SolarEdge
The solar and utility industries move to the next phase of smart inverter deployment.

be caused by the PV itself. The new version opens up this
capability, which could allow for an active application of
reactive power to further increase hosting capacity, as well
as solve other grid edge challenges for utilities.
But where utilities see opportunity, the solar industry sees
a threat. Every unit of reactive power comes at the cost of a
reduction in the real power output of solar inverters — and
almost every solar installation out there is paid based on the
real power it produces.  to putting mass-market smart solar inverters to use. “If you
“If you’re tasked to do things that rob your energy sales,
that will reduce compensation,” noted Ric O’Connell,
executive director of the Oakland, Calif.-based GridLab. “And
a lot of systems have third-party owners — the Sunruns,
the Teslas —  that have contracts, performance guarantees,
and they want to get those financed. It’s harder to do that if
there’s uncertainty in the future with curtailment.”
“That’s the bottleneck right now,” said Daniel Munoz-
Alvarez, a GTM Research grid edge analyst. “As we develop
markets on the retail end for ...volt/VAR control to be
compensated on the grid edge and that is compensated
back to the customer, then the customer will be more
willing to allow the utility to control their smart inverters or
to allow some automation.”
But first, he said, “We need some agreed-upon functions.”  of these things for a long time. But utilities and regulators
THE FUTURE: COMMUNICATIONS, CONTROLS AND DER
INTEGRATION
The next stage of smart inverter functionality is establishing
communications with the utility. After that, utilities will be
able use them to monitor key DER data, or issue disconnect
and reconnect commands in emergencies, as well as
actively orchestrate other utility devices and systems. 
This last area is where Salas sees the greatest opportunity
want to maximize the DERs and what they can do, the need
information from the grid. And DERs provide operational
and capability information to the utility.” 
Inverter makers have already been forced by California to
enable the latest IEEE 1547 capabilities into their existing
controls systems — but they are clearly embracing the role
that their devices can play on the grid as well. Microinverter
maker Enphase leveraged its work in Hawaii into a grid
services business, seeking to provide data to utilities where
they already had a significant number of installations. While
Enphase has since scaled back dramatically, its main rival
SolarEdge has taken up the same challenge, launching its
own grid services arm earlier this summer.
Inverters have been technically capable of doing most

10 | SUMMER 2018 FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com

 “Every unit of reactive power comes at the cost of a reduction in the real power
output of solar inverters — and almost every solar installation out there
is paid based on the real power it produces”

have been waiting for the completion of IEEE 1547 to
move forward decisively. Patrick Dalton, senior engineer
for Xcel Energy, said his company’s utilities in Colorado
and Minnesota are still several years away from mandating
advanced inverter capabilities and are waiting for
California’s example in order to choose a path forward.
In the meantime, it’s possible that Xcel’s front-of-meter
volt/VAR optimization investments in Colorado, including
grid edge devices from startup Varentec, could solve many
of the issues that have been addressed by smart inverter
efforts in Hawaii and California, he noted.  Edison in New York; and a three-state pilot funded by the
The broader landscape for rolling out smart inverters for
solar installations hasn’t changed much, with Hawaii and
California still out ahead of the pack. Arizona is the next
most important state, with a high penetration of distributed
solar, a contentious policy climate surrounding its proper
treatment in future years, and a big smart inverter pilot from
utility Arizona Public Service to inform stakeholders. 
All told, eight separate smart inverter pilots are underway
across eight states at present, according to GTM Research:
Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric in
California; APS and Salt River Project in Arizona; Hawaiian
Electric in Hawaii; Duke Energy in North Carolina; Con
Department of Energy’s SunShot program and led by the
Electric Power Research Institute.

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CHANNEL AUTOMATION
4 Benefits of
Distribution Automation
in a Decentralized Energy World
Distribution automation is becoming more important as
electricity systems get flooded with distributed resources
By: GTM Creative Strategies
DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATION: THE BACKBONE OF A
DIGITAL, DISTRIBUTED GRID.
W
hen dozens of utilities received stimulus funds
for distribution automation projects in 2009,
solar was barely a gigawatt-scale market in the
U.S. Sandy was simply a lead character in Grease, not a
superstorm that would prompt cities and states to reassess
the future-readiness of their electricity systems.
Much has changed in America’s power sector in the past
decade. Powerful storms have made resiliency a focus for
12 | SUMMER 2018
the industry. In the past two years alone, 25 gigawatts of
solar have been installed. Renewable portfolio standards
have intensified in many states, and are increasingly being
backed up by regulatory innovation that encourages
utilities to rethink their business models.
The need for more flexible, resilient grids in the face
of extreme weather and increasing distributed energy
resources has made distribution automation all the more
critical. DA brings together digital sensors and switches
with advanced communication and software to automate
activities on the distribution grid, thus providing increased
visibility across the system.
As utilities are increasingly faced with requirements for
FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com
 hosting capacity analyses for distributed resources, DA
has become a fundamental building block for the utility
of the future.
“Getting the right information is key to generate the
business case,” said Makary Tarnoff, senior director of
strategic marketing at Aclara.
There are a multitude of lessons learned for utilities that
want to leverage DA to mitigate impacts of distributed
resources on their systems. “There isn’t a utility I talk to that
doesn’t see that impact,” said Tarnoff. “Even the smallest
ones are seeing it.”
providing measurable impacts to customers, particularly
in regions that have been battered by severe storms in
recent years. Hours-long outages can be cut to minutes
or eliminated entirely, delivering significant value to C&I
customers looking for an even higher level of reliability.
SEEK OUT TRUE VISIBILITY
Now that more than half the meters in the U.S. are
digital, utilities have more visibility than ever down their
distribution lines. But just seeing voltage at the end of the
line isn’t enough, especially as DERs such as solar proliferate

BUILD IN LAYERS making life visibly safer

Although DA applications have been
around a long time, most utilities are still
starting with point solutions. While that
is not a problem by itself, it can create
challenges as applications are layered
onto the system in the future.
Some utilities have run into this
problem when using their smart meter
SpanLite TM

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especially as more and more devices are live lines up to 500 kV
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A roadmap is critical for making the
right investment the first time. “Lay the
foundation, but then modulate the
approach based on the budget that you
have,” said Kumi Premathilake, SVP of
AMI at Aclara. “And keep planning for the
future.”

TACKLE RESILIENCY FIRST

When it comes to prioritizing investment,
one of the first DA applications that can
provide the best return is fault location
isolation and service restoration. FLISR can
be particularly attractive for utilities with BirdMarkTM & FireFlyTM FAA Obstruction SpanMarkTM & QuikMarkTM
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on distribution circuits. Now utilities need more granular
information to feed into control systems like SCADA.
“The meter only tells the direction of current flow through
the single meter,” said Tarnoff. “You need direction of flow
at key locations on the electric grid. Tying that visibility into
SCADA is critical.”
Along with visibility, communications with those devices
can help control the power flows. The ability to see and
then control distribution circuits allows for more accurate
planning of DERs and surgical use of load control to manage
intermittency of DERs connected to the grid.
“Now that more than half
the meters in the U.S. are digital,
utilities have more visibility
than ever down their
distribution lines”
14 | SUMMER 2018
LEVERAGE PINPOINT ACCURACY
With more distributed resources on the system, DA
applications can allow for load control in new ways. For
example, if electric vehicles create localized capacity
constraints, distribution automation can moderate that
impact. Tarnoff said some utilities are using DA to trade
on locational marginal pricing to reduce the need to buy
capacity when it is most expensive.
One utility in the Southeast has more than 2 gigawatts
of capacity under load control, said Tarnoff, and now it can
manage that capacity in tailored ways, and far more often.
“It’s entirely different than how they were doing load control
before,” he noted. “And they can do it in less than 15 seconds.”
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 Distributed Energy
FEATURE OVERHEAD T&D

Poised for
‘Explosive
Growth’
on the
US Grid

With distributed resources set to double by 2023, GTM Research lays out the
challenges facing U.S. utilities in managing integration. By: Jeff St. John

D
istributed energy resources are poised for “explosive
growth” across the United States over the next five
years. U.S. utilities “need to change, and are slowly
changing,” how they plan, operate and maintain their
distribution grids to adapt.  “These are not all resources that can be dispatched in
That’s how Ben Kellison, grid edge director at GTM
Research, described the key challenges facing the country’s
utilities at this week’s Grid Edge Innovation Summit.
GTM Research has been tracking the rapid growth of
rooftop solar, small-scale combined heat and power (CHP)
systems, residential smart thermostats, electric vehicles and
behind-the-meter batteries across the U.S.
As of 2017, five classes of behind-the-meter DERs
— distributed solar, small-scale CHP, residential smart
thermostats, electric vehicles and energy storage —
contributed 46.4 gigawatts of impact on the U.S. summer
peak, according to Kellison. That’s not a huge number,
compared to the 769-gigawatt summer peak load reached
by the U.S. as a whole in 2016, according to U.S. Energy
Information Administration data. But it’s still a valuable
source of flexibility, if it can be utilized.  the potential load reduction from a residential.
By 2023, that figure is expected to more than double to
total 104 gigawatts of flexible capacity, Kellison said. That’s
led by growth in distributed solar, along with a big increase
in the capacity available from smart thermostats, and a
rising share of EV charging. To put that into perspective,
“just these five classes could equal together almost as much
power as [Texas grid operator] ERCOT has registered for its
bulk generating system,” he said. 
a moment’s notice,” Kellison cautioned. “Many have to be
used in a portfolio approach.” For example, distributed solar,
which makes up the majority of the DERs to be deployed,
generates most of its energy at midday, while typical
summer peaks occur later in the afternoon. Small-scale CHP
systems, defined as less than 50 megawatts of generation
capacity, will run according to the needs of their owners, not
necessarily those of the utility.  
GTM Research also took a conservative approach to
valuing individual DERs, depending on their relative
availability and match or mismatch with peak demand.
For example, it derated the potential reduction capacity
of the nearly 20 million two-way communicating smart
thermostats deployed in the country to about eight-tenths
of a kilowatt — less than the 1 to 2 kilowatts often cited as
 
GTM then reduced that figure by one-quarter, to
account for the need to allow some customers to keep
cycling their air conditioners during the hottest days
of the summer. But even with these reductions, the

16 | SUMMER 2018 FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com

 “Utilities aren’t as threatened by the growth of DERs
as they’ve been in the past, at least according to a GTM
survey of utility executives conducted this year”

FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com SUMMER 2018 | 17

country’s smart thermostat fleet still adds up to about 8
gigawatts, Kellison noted.  As more and more customers invest in DERs, utilities need
Electric vehicles, while fewer in number, contributed
about 2 kilowatts apiece in peak load flexibility, or about
1.6 gigawatts of peak load reduction — if they can be
controlled to stop charging during times of peak demand.
And behind-the-meter batteries and other forms of energy
storage added up to only 160 megawatts of capacity, 90
percent of it in California, a testament to its early stage of
adoption and reliance on state incentives.  of return on investing in DERs, many of them behind
Utilities aren’t as threatened by the growth of DERs as
they’ve been in the past, at least according to a GTM survey
of utility executives conducted this year. Only 3 percent
viewed them purely as a threat, while 44 percent labeled
them an opportunity — although, to be fair, 55 percent of
respondents chose “both a threat and an opportunity” as
their answer.  Oregon, Vermont and California account for all but 8 percent
Utilities are also engaging their customers on the
DER front, at least in some form, Kellison said.
More than 100 U.S. utilities have set up
at least a “basic DER marketplace,” he
said — some kind of online portal “The biggest
allowing customers to shop for
energy-efficient appliances and impact of DER will
services, and connecting them be in how utilities plan,
with utility rebates and third-party
offers. These programs, offered
invest, operate and
via internally developed utility maintain their
portals or by vendors such as EFI, distribution grids “
Enervee, PlanetEcosystems or Simple
Energy, now cover more than 60 million
customers, or about 40 percent of the
country, he said.
The biggest impact of DERs will be in how utilities
plan, invest, operate and maintain their distribution grids,
Kellison said. According to data GTM Research compiled
from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the
country’s largest distribution utilities have continued to
increase investment in distribution infrastructure, primarily
in traditional structures, station equipment, power lines and
transformers.  management systems, which can integrate data from
But these investment plans are largely focused on
traditional measures of what’s needed to keep the grid
running, designed to meet worst-case scenarios, and
predicated on the fact that utilities have until recently had
very little data on what’s actually happening on their low-
voltage networks. “That also leads to common oversizing of
equipment, by as much as 50 percent, and leads to a lot of
18 | SUMMER 2018
waste in the process as well,” Kellison said.
to integrate that data into their grid planning, he said. “If
you know several customers are going to adopt storage, you
might avert the need for an upgrade by incentivizing those
customers to upgrade early.”
That’s the fundamental idea behind non-wires
alternatives, or NWAs — a term coined by New York state
to describe projects that allow utilities to earn some form
the meter, in lieu of infrastructure upgrades. As of the
fourth quarter of 2017, 19 states had some form of NWA-
type policy either in planning mode or in some stage of
completion, accounting for more than 1.7 gigawatts spread
across 141 projects. 
Still, New York accounts for nearly half of all projects, and
of the rest of them, he noted. “Most of the states involved
are in pilot mode, and it will be several years
before any of these are fully integrated” into
utility planning processes, he said. 
GTM Research has a “DER life-cycle
process” to explain how utilities can
s integrate their legacy customer,
analytics, operational and asset
management software systems
into those centered on DER
integration. “This allows utilities to
connect lots of different processes,”
he said. “Customer systems have to
feed into planning. Planning systems
have to feed into operations. And
operations eventually has to feed into O&M,
which largely involves utilities doing maintenance
on their own equipment, but may in the future involve them
working more directly with customers.” 
Finally, “we’re talking about a lot more data than we’re
used to,” said Kellison. “To get to a point where we can
identify and target these resources, we’re going to need
new platforms,” such as distributed energy resource
multiple systems and sources and convert it into actionable
intelligence for utilities. 
“In some ways, that portion of this evolution is something
like what we saw in...the late 2000s, when utilities spent
billions to upgrade their GIS technology,” he said. “That same
transformation has to happen in distribution planning and
operations over the next five to 10 years.”
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 “As more and more customers invest
in DERs, utilities need to integrate that
data into their grid planning”

FREE Subscription: www.electricity-today.com SUMMER 2018 | 19

FEATURE SMART GRID
Building a better world of smart structures
on the smart grid
By: Hussain Kazmi, PhD
I
t is a truth universally acknowledged that billions of
people around the world live in poverty. But does it have
to be that way? Today’s technological progress means that
tomorrow we will be able to produce more, more efficiently
– lifting people above the breadline with accelerated
economic growth all around the world.
Key to these efforts are smart buildings. A world of
connected structures, making use of the whole range of
technologies and data to enable efficient energy use, could
ease the delivery of healthcare, education and industrial
production across the developing world. And by leveraging
abundant renewable energy sources such as solar, this can
all be achieved in a sustainable way – without incurring
large carbon costs.
But we are not there yet. The story of smart buildings
in the developing world is still in its first few chapters. To
make sure the tale is a happy one, smart buildings ought to
operate on a smart grid. Yet in many developing countries,
the grid itself is under tremendous pressure. These nations
need to take charge.
THE BURDEN OF BATTERIES
A major obstacle standing between developing countries,
such as India and Pakistan, and smart grids is intermittent
energy supply through the network. And batteries, the
traditional solution to such a problem (and indeed a
technology that is crucial to building flexible smart grids),
20 | SUMMER 2018
can exacerbate the issue.
Imagine a grid that is offline for a few hours a day – an
issue that is rather common in villages around the world.
When such a system goes down, people use their batteries
instead. So far, so good. But unfortunately, as soon as the
grid comes back on, these batteries all start charging.
And when there are lots of batteries in a small area,
this can have a real impact on the network. Grids are
rarely designed to handle such loads and repeatedly
overloading transformers in this way dramatically
reduces their lifespan – meaning expensive infrastructure
costs just to maintain the grid. And for governments with
limited budgets this makes it very difficult to invest in
building something better.
TAKING CHARGE
It is apparent therefore that developing nations need
to take control of their grids. To help flatten out energy
consumption – reducing loads and preventing the spikes in
demand that are holding local power sectors back.
This should start on an individual building level – making
buildings smarter to support the smart grid upon which
they will depend. By integrating sensors into these buildings
and the appliances within them, both power suppliers
and consumers will be able to track and manage energy
consumption and start matching supply to aggregate
demand across the grid throughout the day.
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 “Perhaps the biggest difficulty that developing countries
face is in getting the legal framework right to enable a
flexible smart grid and smart buildings.”
This would seem like a complicated calculation. But
with machine learning, we can program algorithms to
decipher consumption patterns and predictively allocate
power wherever and whenever it is needed; allowing
governments to focus on developing the infrastructure,
rather than merely maintaining it.
Indeed, this is the focus of my work at Enervalis with
the InnoEnergy PhD School. Working with support from
Enervalis and InnoEnergy’s huge network of contacts, I have
been developing smart controllers that respond to sensor
data and optimise the allocation of energy in real-time. And
things are looking promising; in large scale pilots in the
Netherlands, we have already seen that these algorithms
can reduce energy consumption without affecting the
comfort of building occupants.
In fact, the benefits to occupants in developing
economies can be even greater, saving hundreds of
thousands of households in South Asia up to €50 per year
– a huge amount for people in villages where the annual
household income can be as little as €1,000.
We are now in the midst of a year-long test of our
technology in Lahore to investigate its potential for
replication, with a view to undertaking a full pilot next year.
INCENTIVES FOR CHANGE
But just having the technology is not enough. It needs to
be implemented. And implemented properly. Perhaps the
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biggest difficulty that developing countries face is in getting
the legal framework right to enable a flexible smart grid and
smart buildings.
This is no mean feat. It has taken European governments
years to develop frameworks that take into account the
need for secure and flexible power supplies, for privacy and
for energy to come at a fair price. And the continent is still
developing its legislation to get it right. It is an ongoing
process even for the most advanced economies and one
that the developing world cannot expect to rush.
The other element is commercialisation. As with any
technology, it needs to be commercially viable to catch on.
The benefits of smart buildings are clear. So governments
should be looking at ways to incentivise the private sector
to start adopting the technology they are made up of.
And they should. Developing nations have a tremendous
opportunity to jump ahead in the energy infrastructure
stakes without the encumbrance of existing antiquated
infrastructure to hold them back. Just as Africa’s mobile
internet has emerged free from landline connections.
Smart buildings on the smart grid can have a similarly
transformative effect on people’s lives around the world.
All that is needed is for governments to make it easy for
companies to implement the latest technological solutions.
Then, perhaps poverty need not be a truth universally
acknowledged.
SUMMER 2018 | 21
CHANNEL SMART GRID
By: Azeez Mohammed, president & CEO at GE’s Power Conversion business
W
ith a fast-growing global population and
increasing levels of industrialization, demand
for electricity is expected to soar 60 percent
between now and 2040. That means power grids will be
called on to transmit more power, more efficiently. And to
do so, they’ll have to adapt to an evolving energy landscape.
Today’s grid is still structured around transmitting
electricity from a handful of large, centralized power plants
running on coal, oil, gas and nuclear. While these will
continue to dominate the mix for years to come, renewables
are increasingly making their presence felt—and are
expected to supply a third of global power by 2040.
With renewables growth comes an increasingly diverse
distribution network—from remote and offshore generation
sites to microgrids. All must be brought together to ensure
we continue to have a reliable, resilient power supply. The
challenge now is that the majority of power grids are made
up of decades-old infrastructure that’s simply not—yet—up
to the task.
22 | SUMMER 2018
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
Creating a future-proof power grid means fusing time-
honored knowledge with forward-thinking technology. For
over 100 years, GE electrical engineers have recognized that
DC electricity transmission is more efficient than AC. Now,
DC is becoming more prominent—both at the beginning
and end of the grid. It’s produced by wind turbines and solar
PV and used by everything from smartphones, laptops and
electric cars to the data centers that keep our digital world
up and running. However, having to convert back and forth
between AC and DC along the way leads to wasted energy
through resistance and heat.
AC may have won the “War of the Currents”—that raged
between the Edison Electric Company (which favored DC
and would become General Electric) and Westinghouse
(which favored AC) in the 1890s—which was due to its
ability to easily step up voltages to the higher levels
needed to transmit it over long distances and back down
again for safe usage. But today, new power conversion
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 and transmission technology means it’s becoming more
cost-effective to use DC to transmit at higher voltages, with
less energy losses. It’s the same attractive cost story when
it comes to integrating new, often remote, DC-producing
renewables into the wider grid network.
At GE’s Power Conversion business, we’re developing the
use of DC to enable more efficient power transmission to
and from remote areas—both onshore and offshore.
 
STRENGTHENING ANGLESEY’S POWER SUPPLY
 At GE’s Power Conversion business, we are delivering
Europe’s very first medium-voltage direct current (MVDC)
link as part of Scottish Power Energy Network’s Angle DC
project in Anglesey and surrounding North Wales area. A
growing demand for electricity in the region, combined
with increasing volumes of renewable generation, is
putting the existing 33-kilovolt AC links between the isle of
Anglesey and the Welsh mainland under strain.
Converting the existing AC connection to MVDC could
help it to carry more than twice the power and do so more
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efficiently. GE’s MVDC technology is providing a critical
project asset, as it allows for the creation of a more-secure,
higher-capacity grid without the need to overhaul existing
infrastructure or install new power distribution assets.
Instead, GE will install MVDC power modules at the two
existing substations in Bangor and Llanfair PG, where the
AC to DC conversion will be performed. GE’s MV7000 power
electronic inverters will transmit the power via the existing
33-kilovolt AC overhead line and cable circuit, increasing
Anglesey’s available power by 23 percent to meet its future
needs without additional environmental impact. What’s
more, the DC equipment will assist in the provision of
further grid support, as the inverters are able to support the
AC voltage at each substation.
This MVDC technology works in much the same way as our
high-voltage direct current (HVDC) projects, but on a smaller
and simpler scale. For example, a comparable HVDC system
would operate at 320-400 kilovolts DC, whereas the Angle DC
project will operate at 27 kilovolts DC—demonstrating how
this technology can be scaled to fit a variety of customer needs.
SUMMER 2018 | 23
LOWERING THE COST OF OFFSHORE POWER
From wind turbines stationed far out at sea to solar farms
in inhospitable deserts, renewable generation networks
are often found in hard-to-reach places. Getting the power
generated to a centralized grid via AC can waste energy and
keep renewable electricity costs higher than they need to be.
Now, similar technology behind the MV7000 converters
used for Angle DC has also been successfully trialed for use
in remote power networks. Our PassiveBoost* solution will
enable DC power transmission, opening up the potential to
boost electrical output from these remote sites while also
reducing power costs.
PassiveBoost is an MVDC converter which provides a
straight replacement, with the same footprint and volume,
for the AC transformer inside every wind turbine. This helps
to facilitate a direct connection to an efficient MVDC power
collection grid, resulting in a lower cable cost and no need
for an expensive and complex DC breaker. A 6 megavolt-
ampere converter was designed and tested at GE’s power
test facility in the U.K. There, it successfully demonstrated
the capability of generation, distribution and protection
at MVDC, highlighting efficiency levels that could bring
a 15 percent cost saving for offshore wind electricity by
significant reductions in component count, cabling costs
and removal of need for offshore platforms.
24 | SUMMER 2018
GREATER GRID CONTROL THROUGH DATA-DRIVEN
INSIGHTS
To drive further efficiency across the power grid, GE can also
offer VISOR 2.0*, an asset management tool that provides
remote connectivity to key assets. This not only enables
an improved service response time, but also access to real-
time support and advice in the event of a fault or problem.
By pairing this tool with Data Historian, which collects,
processes and stores data, customers can more easily
review the capabilities of their MVDC system. Its ability to
capture and analyze data about asset performance means
customers can then develop optimum control algorithms
for the distribution system, helping to ensure the grid is
always functioning as effectively as possible.
As electrification within all industries gathers pace and
the burden on existing energy distribution networks
increases, we’re ready to put our expertise into
action where it’s most needed.
*indicates a trademark of
the General Electric
Company and/or its
subsidiaries.
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CHANNEL SMART GRID
GRIDS BECOME
HIGHLY VULNERABLE
By: IDTechEx
I
ncreasingly violent weather, probably caused by
global warming, is increasingly taking down electricity
distribution lines and poles and cyberattacks are
increasingly taking out electricity, apparently just as trials
for major terrorism of this sort. Little wonder that the price
of grid electricity is so often rising, further aggravated by
the chronic intermittency of solar and wind power being
added to save the planet. In countries such as the USA, the
trillions of dollars needed to maintain and upgrade the
national grid do not seem to be forthcoming but help is at
hand from micro and minigrids. These tend to be attached
to grids but capable of working independently. As a next
stage most of them will not even be attached to grids.
We are starting to purchase self-powered cars, boats
and aircraft and solar windows and there are 110 solar
road projects. Some cities already have water turbines
making electricity in their water supply pipes. That is all
zero emission and the change is extending to replacing
cooking, air conditioning and heating by fossil fuels
with locally generated solar, wind and water power. See
the IDTechEx Research reports, “Distributed Generation:
Minigrid Microgrid Zero Emission 2018-2038”, “Self-
Powering Smart Cities 2018-2028” and “Structural
Electronics 2018-2028: Applications, Technologies,
Forecasts”. A new and welcome development is tidal and
wave power now on sale without infrastructure like dams
and tidal barriers, the tidal form even being suitable for
rivers. Often these compact units are mobile. See the
IDTechEx Research report, “Wave, Tidal and Hydro Power
1W-10MW 2018-2038”. In all cases you can make electricity
where you use it without the vulnerability of long power
lines over the horizon or internet or grid connection.  and electric vehicles has some questioning whether we
A cyberattack took down power in Kiev, December
26 | SUMMER 2018
2016. ISSC linked it to a winter hack and blackout in 2015.
President Poroshenko says Russia is waging a cyber-war
against Ukraine: criminal groups work together testing
techniques for sabotage wordwide. “The investigation of
a number of incidents indicated the complicity directly or
indirectly of Russian security services.”
U.S. officials note Russian hackers targeting the U.S.
energy grid as part of penetrating the economy. “Since
at least March 2016, Russian government cyber actors …
targeted government entities and multiple U.S. critical
infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, com-
mercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufactur-
ing sectors,” announced the Department of Homeland
Security and the FBI.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry warns, “Cyberattacks are
literally happening hundreds of thousands of times a day.”
Bloomberg reports the group responsible breaches systems
to facilitate a more advanced wave of attacks targeting
industrial control systems that, if disabled, leave millions
without power or water.
Lloyd’s and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Risk
Studies calculate that a major attack on the US grid could
cost the economy up to $1 trillion, equivalent to 40 to 50
major hurricanes.
Nathan Sproul, Lincoln Strategy Group, warns, “At the
same time, the electrical grid is becoming less reliable
and less prudent—and not just because of vulnerability
to hacking. As innovation spurs the development of
renewable energy in America, consumers have more choice
in how they power their lives than ever before. The rise of
distributed energy sources like solar panels, home batteries
ought to reimagine the grid all together”.
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 CHANNEL SMART GRID
Siemens’ White Paper Outlines Design for Mini-Grids
to Energize Puerto Rico By: Kara Evanko
S
iemens proposes 10 mini-grids that will cover most
of Puerto Rico and will be designed to enhance
resiliency to withstand or recover quickly from future
natural disasters.
Design enhances reliance on renewables and exceeds the
established renewables penetration goal by 15 percent.   to provide maximum grid resiliency. In Chicago, Siemens
Today, Siemens released its white paper, “Resilient by
Design: Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Puerto Rico’s
Electric Grid,” which outlines a new energy infrastructure
framework in the wake of last year’s Hurricane Maria. The
storm devastated the island, leaving 1.2 million households
or 75 percent of those on the island without power for more
than a month. Now, nearly a year after the hurricane, the
island is redesigning its power infrastructure with the vision
of providing a more resilient, cleaner system that will provide
reliable power to residents and businesses.   producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies,
The white paper outlines an innovative approach to a
distributed energy system (DES). A series of 10 mini-grids
throughout the island will incorporate and enhance existing
energy infrastructure. The mini-grid solution incorporates
energy storage, renewables, and existing conventional
infrastructure that will operate both connected to the grid
as well as in island-mode in case of natural disasters.
“The proposed mini-grids leverage existing infrastructure
and act as “islands”-within-the-island – to improve resilience
during natural disasters – or can be interconnected to
sustain the full Puerto Rico island community during normal
operations. One mini-grid could encompass the entire San
Juan region, for example,” stated Alan Bloodgood, Senior
Vice President of Energy and Infrastructure of Siemens
Government Technologies, Inc. “This approach is tailored to
meet Puerto Rico’s specific needs and would optimize a wide
array of resilient energy infrastructure options by lessening
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reliance on one central power source, and, shorten the
duration of any outages and minimize emergency power
restoration costs brought about by natural disasters.”
Following Hurricane Sandy, Siemens developed mobile
resilience transformers in collaboration with ConEdison
works with Commonwealth Edison where it will manage its
Bronzeville micro-grid. The solution will enable the Chicago
Police Department to maintain operations during any
emergency situations that impacts power-grid operations.
 
ABOUT SIEMENS
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a
global powerhouse focusing on the areas of electrification,
automation and digitalization. One of the world’s largest
Siemens is a leading supplier of systems for power
generation and transmission as well as medical diagnosis.
With approximately 372,000 employees in 190 countries,
Siemens reported worldwide revenue of $92.0 billion in
fiscal 2017. Siemens in the USA reported revenue of $23.3
billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs
approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and
Puerto Rico.
 
ABOUT SIEMENS GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGIES
Siemens Government Technologies is the integrator of
Siemens’ innovative products, technologies and services
for programs and requirements led by federal government
agencies and departments in the areas of energy generation,
transmission, distribution and efficiency, infrastructure
modernization, industrial applications and integrated electric
power solutions for the air, land and sea domains.
SUMMER 2018 | 27
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they are delivered using the equipment your electrical technicians use
each day. This will maximize the educational value of your electrical
TRAINING QUOTATION TODAY!
training investment. www.electricityforum.com/onsite-training-quote

2018 5-DAY TORONTO ELECTRICAL GROUNDING WEEK

GROUNDING AND BONDING, HV/SUBSTATION GROUNDING, TELECOM GROUNDING
3 GREAT COURSES: BASIC GROUNDING AND BONDING, HV GROUNDING, GROUNDING
FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS.
This 5-Day Electrical Grounding Course encompasses three of our leading grounding and
bonding courses:
This course will provide the participants with a good understanding of the principles LV/MV and
HV electrical grounding and bonding in industrial, utility and telecommunications facilities.
October 15-19 , 2018 | Mississauga, ON
www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/toronto-grounding-week
5-DAY
COURSE $1599
UPS/BATTERY HV ELECTRICAL
SYSTEMS MAINTENANCE
+ CABLE
Our 2-day UPS/Battery systems
SPLICING
training course teaches the proper
and effective techniques for This intensive 2-day high voltage
designing, operating, testing and electrical maintenance training
maintaining UPS and emergency course provides invaluable
power systems. information to anyone who
This two-day technical course wishes to know and understand
begins with a discussion of the the role of electrical maintenance
need for UPS systems. It then standards, programs and
covers the relative comparisons between various UPS topologies procedures for the optimal maintenance of electric power systems.
and their modes of operation. The batteries used for UPS systems High Voltage Electrical Maintenance and Testing of electric power
are covered next. How the latest batteries are designed - their systems is essential to the safe operation of any electrical system,
maintenance, safety and testing is thoroughly discussed. regardless of its size, type or industry.

October 1-2, 2018 | Ottawa, ON October 29-30, 2018 | Saskatoon, SK

October 4-5, 2018 | Toronto, ON October 31- Nov 1 | Winnipeg, MB *
October 23-24, 2018 | Winnipeg, MB November 5-6, 2018 | Edmonton, AB*
October 25-26, 2018 | Calgary, AB November 8-9 2018 | Richmond, BC
October 29-30, 2018 | Richmond, BC November 14-15, 2018 | Toronto, ON*
* Combine this Course with MV Cable Splicing One Day Training For
Students receive Just $999
• FREE 100-Page Digital Electrical Safety Handbook
• $100 Coupon Towards any Future Electricity Forum Event Students receive
(Restrictions Apply) • FREE 100-Page Digital Electrical Safety Handbook
• 1.4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Credits • $100 Coupon Towards any Future Electricity Forum Event
• FREE Magazine Subscription • 1.4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Credits
• Course Materials in Paper Format • FREE Magazine Subscription
• Course Materials in Paper Format

www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/ups-system-training www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/high-voltage-electrical-maintenance-training

$799 $799
RECOGNIZED BY
SPONSORED BY
2-DAY 2-DAY
COURSE EARN CONTINUING
COURSE
EDUCATION UNITS (CEUS)
 INTERESTED IN ONSITE ELECTRICAL TRAINING? Download Our FREE 60-Page 2018
Cost Effective Onsite Electrical Training Onsite Electrical Training Catalog Today!
Save the cost of travel and hotels AND save on our Electricity Forum
Training Institute ONSITE TRAINING BENEFITS:
regular public enrollment registration fees. 2016
2018 ON-SITE ELECTRICAL
TRAINING CATALOG – Affordable and Cost Effective
– Course Customization
For more information, contact our office at – Flexibility of Schedule
905-686-1040/1-855-824-6131 or you can go to our onsite – Convenience for Employees
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MV/HV ELECTRICAL
CABLE TESTING AND
SPLICING COMMISSIONING
This electrical testing and
Our 1-day Hands-On commissioning training
cable splicing training course covers practices
course teaches students and procedures that are
the basics of proper essential to the safe start-
splices and terminations in up of any electrical system
medium voltage cable. for the first time, regardless
There are two things of its size type or industry.
you should remember Electrical Testing and Commissioning is a very special
when it comes to cable splicing and terminating: Proper occurrence and poses some unique challenges to electrical
splices and terminations are an integral part of any cable personnel. Inexperience and poor planning will inevitably
system, and 2. Cable splices and terminations become result in prolonged delays in the start-up which can lead to
more susceptible to failure at higher voltages. costly productivity losses. This course provides invaluable
Therefore, whether splicing or terminating is done by information to anyone who wishes to know and understand
the use of hand-applied tapes, a filled or molded device, the role of Electrical testing, troubleshooting and
heat-shrinkable tubing, or a prefabricated device, care commissioning of electric power systems.
should be exercised during the application. Learn how.
November 1-2, 2018 | Mississauga, ON
November 2, 2018 | Winnipeg, MB November 19-20,2018 | Ottawa, ON
November 7, 2018 | Edmonton, AB November 26-27, 2018 | Winnipeg, MB
November 16, 2018 | Mississauga, ON November 28-29, 2018 | Edmonton, AB
December 3-4, 2018 | Richmond, BC
Students receive Students receive
• Our latest Digital Electric Motor and VFD Handbook • Our latest Digital Electrical Maintenance Handbook
• $100 Coupon Towards any Future Electricity Forum • $100 Coupon Towards any Future Electricity Forum
Event (Restrictions Apply) Event (Restrictions Apply)
• 1.4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Credits • 1.4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Credits
• FREE Magazine Subscription • FREE Magazine Subscription
• Course Materials in Paper Format • Forum Presentation Materials in Paper Format

www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/medium-voltage-cable-splicing www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/electrical-testing-and-commissioning

$499 $799
RECOGNIZED BY
SPONSORED BY
1-DAY 2-DAY
COURSE EARN CONTINUING
COURSE
EDUCATION UNITS (CEUS)
 Electricity Forum
Training Institute 2018 ELECTRICAL TRAINING
COURSE SCHEDULE
Register and prepay 14 days before forum date and receive an early bird discount
of $50.00 off the full 1-Day course price, $100 off the full 2-Day course price. WAYS TO REGISTER
SPECIAL PROMOTION: Register 3 delegates at full price, and get a 4th
registration FREE!
* Note: The Electricity Forum is an independent provider of electrical safety training
1 (855) 824-6131
and is a Corporate Supporter of the CSA. All trademarks and copyright associated with
the [CSA Z462-15 Arc Flash Standard] are the intellectual property of the Canadian 1 (905) 686-1040
Standards Association and the Electricity Forum claims no ownership of rights thereto.

CANCELLATION AND REFUND POLICYRegistration fees are

refundable only upon receipt of written notification 10 days prior to the conference
ONLINE:
date, less a 10 per cent service charge. Substitution of participants is permissible. The www.electricityforum.com/
Electricity Forum reserves the right to cancel any conference it deems necessary and electrical-training/courses
will, in such event, make a full refund of the registration fees.

ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION
GROUNDING SYSTEM
AND BONDING PROTECTION
This 2-day Grounding and
Bonding Training course is
ENGINEERING
founded on the latest changes Refresh your knowledge of
to the 2018 CE Code and is the industrial and utility system
designed to give you the correct protection techniques including
information you need to design, fault analysis and overvoltage
install and maintain effective assessment. Develop your own
electrical grounding systems in industrial, commercial and institutional relay settings and thoroughly understand the philosophy of protective
power systems. One of the most important AND least understood systems. Study actual cases illustrating various techniques in present
sections of the CE Code is the section on Electrical Grounding. use and highlighting particular approaches used by experienced system
It has been determined that more than 70 per cent of all electrical designers. Enhance your experience with power system protection
problems in industrial power systems are due to poor grounding, problems generally faced, and solutions successfully adopted, by industry.
and bonding errors. Without proper electrical grounding, sensitive Understand how to apply microprocessor-based multifunction relays for
electronic equipment is subjected to catastrophic damage. the protection of various power system equipment and apparatus.
September 26-27 , 2018 | Richmond, BC
October 1-2 , 2018 | Edmonton, AB November 27-28 , 2018 | Toronto, ON
October 9-10 , 2018 | Saskatoon, SK November 29-30 , 2018 | Winnipeg, MB
October 11-12 , 2018 | Winnipeg, MB December 11-12 , 2018 | Richmond, BC
October 15-16 , 2018 | Toronto, ON December 13-14 , 2018 | Calgary, AB
Students receive Students receive
• Our latest Digital PQ/Grounding Digital Handbook • Our latest Electrical Protection Digital Handbook
• $100 Coupon Towards any Future Electricity Forum Event • $100 Coupon Towards Any Future Electricity Forum Event
(Restrictions Apply) (Restrictions Apply)
• 1.4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Credits • 1.4 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Credits
• FREE Magazine Subscription • FREE Magazine Subscription
• Forum Presentation Materials in Paper Format • Course Materials In Paper Format

www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/grounding-and-bonding-training www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/distribution-protection

$799 $799
RECOGNIZED BY
SPONSORED BY
2-DAY 2-DAY
COURSE EARN CONTINUING
COURSE
EDUCATION UNITS (CEUS)

EMERGENCY GENERATORS will learn what you can do, and should do with standby electrical generators

AND STANDBY POWER SYSTEMS
This 2-day emergency generator/standby power system
training course is designed to assist organizations to identify
and emergency power generation systems, to make sure your facility will keep
running even if the electricity to your plant doesn’t.
October 15-16, 2018 | Richmond, BC

$799
the many savings to be gained from proper UPS system design. October 17-18, 2018 | Edmonton, AB
From portable electrical generators to standby power December 10-11, 2018 | Mississauga, ON 2-DAY
cogeneration units - from the facility manager to the December 12-13, 2018 | Winnipeg, MB COURSE
maintenance technician - this backup power generation course
is designed for anyone involved with electrical generation
equipment in their plant or facility. During this course, you www.electricityforum.com/electrical-training/emergency-generator-standby-power