AMR and SMART GRID Role of Power Engineers

Self Healing Smart Grids When Will they be built?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:10:00 -0600

Thnk of it as an Intelligent operator.In Power systems Operators isolate the faulty section and restore the power to good section via other feasibile routes .Now doing all this thru computers does not appear to be a task out of our current knowldge base. What it does require is the kowledge of the feasibile routes and verifying their status. The problem arises when we need to cut the faulty section of a feeder and link the good section to another feeder nearby thru a tie line connected to some point on this feeder.This requires Online simulation of the feeder to which the good section is to be connected as well as the load and voltage scenario after the connection.However the problen can be simplified of the entire load of the good section can be transferred to the new feeder. In case there is very good knowledge of the loads the system could work as a self healing grid with propoer automation.One way to make the system hold is to design feeders thru an area in such a way that there is always such an availability.Thus Self healing grid will require standardization of the grid and feeders design to be a reality

Energy Conservation and Effeciency does not harm Utility

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:54:00 -0600

There is a body of opinion which is saying that it does harm the utility.On the contrary all this helps the utility to conserve and postphone the investments and use its assets better.In the short term it may lower the revenues while this can not be proved by real world xamples

The fact is that it negates the requirement of Demand response which at best is a troublesome excercise quite irritating to domestic consumers. It is only meant for large consumers

Techno-economix studies have shown that revenues loss is more than compensated by extended life of equipment and reduced losses all over in the system

Did you check up how accurate is the Meter at the Pf you encounter in residences?

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:45:00 -0600

The power factor of residential buildings could be as low as 0.63 to 0.7. Now did you check up whether your meter can read the energy correct at this Power factor?.. It could be any thing either high or low.So time to wake up and start designing appliances etc with a higher power factor.You cant starty from top and work downwards. You have to start from Bottom and work upwards.

Do not calibrate your electronic meters every two years and you may have to Scrap MDM etc

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:54:00 -0600

Electronic meters are as much venerable to errors as their earlier avtar electromachanial ones.They require calibration off and on.Unless you devise some method to do it remotely you have to physically check it. Do not do it and your entire so called MDM programs smart metering etc and analytics will be of no use.

Already meters installed and not calibrated for ten years are showing such defects. So do not go in the rel;axation mode on anything and do not trust Software fellows as this could be all because of the bad meter.

Electronic meters will have a life of only ten years at best

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:58:00 -0600

All those who deal with electronic equipmemt that are used in measurement functions know this already.It is sure that the investment being made in Electronic Meters now will be useless after ten years and fresh money will be needed to put into it.

I expect with changing technology this could be even faster.The way meters are being installed without regard to various climatic and mounting situations I expect this will come faster. In India meters are being installed on the outer wall of the building and will be subjected to temperatures of Upto 48 degree centtigrade.I doubt the plastic cover will last in that environment more than four or five years.

So I expect another crisis some three or four years down the line

Are we ready to Switch to Renewables finally?

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 03:44:00 -0600

The answer is no. The technologies are still in the flux and it is hard to find a reliable bio mass based gas generator. Same way where are the Solar panels available across the shelf in supermarkets or shops?Where are the Natural gas generating sets?Where are small Wind turbines of right capacity that I can hang on my roof ?

No where. Only on U tube?We do not have price , do not have proper vendors or installation crews

Unless you bring out these things to trhe Public at large and stop just floating ideasthese technologies will not substitute the grid power or even support the grid power.Only theory does not work.

This info will lead to the celebration by the advocates of Renewable energy-

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:40:00 -0600

In 1988 while working on the Optimized expansion of network and Master plan we worked on calculating how much it costs to bring one KW of power to a consumer. Swedish engineers also worked on it with me and the Figure was 2850 USD for one KW of power to be supplied to a consumer- that is the investment required in generation/ transmission/ distribution etc

Currently this figure could be any where between 4000 to 4500 USD.Now no Renewable energy of any type is that costly not even Fission Energy if it ever comes.

On purely economic terms It is far cheaper to resort to distributed generation based on renewables / natural gas generators etc

Is Renewable Energy the Solution to Electrify Indian Villages and Rural Country side?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:53:00 -0600

It appears to be so.In any power installation 56-60 percent investment Goes towards the Transmission and Distribution. Now Rural feeders are long so this figure could be upto 70%. Add the Technical and Copmmercial losses currently 40-45% and the figure of the cost over thirty years is extraordinarily high at least 9 times the present value of the investments being made now.This no economy can afford and soone or later will lead to collapse of the energy sector for sure as is right now happening to utiities in India

.Electricity is supplied at flat rate in Rural areas another case for immeduiate reform becuse rising prosperity has created nuch more use of electriocity than flat rates will permit.

Only localized Generation in Villages using Bio mass/ solar/ Wind etc and developing storage technologies as suitable is the way to electruify the Villages

India has about 3,00,000 Villages. And it also has about 20,000 Electricity feeders fior rural areas. Connecting Bio mass plants and other Renewable devices will provide energy security to villages at least 80,000 in number. This will alow them to seek better life/ social and other benefits and stop migration to cities It wiil also allow other investors to come in and govt can recover part of its expenditure by raising circle rates in such localities.

Thus it is necessary to formulate new Energy policies fior Rural India. Old methodologioes are sure way for failure.

Can Bio Mass based Plants secure the security of big cities in times of a severe storm?

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 02:55:00 -0600

Yes they can. The bio mass plants are almost base load power plants except that properly designed they have a lower carbon print. Ringing the cities is often massive availability of the bio mass. The installation will secure the eupply in the rural aqreas surroundeing the cities but will provide also a source of energy very valuable in times of disaster when nothing else is there.They can be connected in such a MANNER THAT THEY CAN KEEP IMPORTANT INFRA INSIDE CITY OPERATIING

Take a Second Opinion on Suitability of GSM for smart metering

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:59:00 -0600

Enginers not linked to telcos say it is simple to temper the meter with GSM communicaqtion

Hang a coat over the Antenna!

Now I am not talking of massive electromagnmetic devices exploded in the air or cages that restrict communication or special paints that absorb radiation nor I am talking about cyber security.All those are risks all right.

But friends long in the business warned us very early about this in 2003 . At that time it was developmental. Now that is going to mass application it is better to look again And vferify

Have we verified that Smart meter based on GSM commuincation are Hack Proof?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:49:00 -0600

Experts say that any time you put data, which is sensitive in The air, you are prone to hacking By that logic GSM is not a secure medium to handle Utility data. Reports that theft has increased after Smart meters were put is alarming .The power system is having devices, that can, if mis manaqged cause havoc. So there has to be fail proof and hack proof communication.

Fiber optic communication and narrowband communication seems to be the only solution.Other technolgies could be there but they will make the system very exspensive.

So immediate attention should be given to this GSM use in Metering Later on it will be too late

Control of the power sector Pyramids

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 04:20:00 -0600

For last 80 Yeaers or so Power sector Enginerrs have been developing these controls Day and Night that is!

There is so much literature available that one can lay it feet by feet across the world

Now what we have missed all along is development in Old Soviet Union. The language has been a barrier.But for those intiated Let me inform that it was a classic work by a Power system Engineer from Soviet Union in 1972 that had predicted the smart grid and how it could develop.Why it did not progress was shortage of Digital Techniques

I still believe that Soviet Union might be having the best transmission system on Earth.We have never bothered to look at it if you please.I do not know if any has!

For any smart grid to be maningful you got to have spare generation and transmission capacities the foundation of any stable system

Now with 40% shortage and 60% additional pent uop demand how do they want to make a smart grid in India in the first place.?

You can have pockets of so called smart grid but no global one.

Modern technologies have given us a chance to update our management strategies but not beyond a limit.

Smart Grid Objectives and the pyramids that control it

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 09:50:00 -0600

Happy New Year

The mist seems to have been lifted on the concept of smart grid.

Smart grid has to deliver reasonable cost energy consisting of host of energy sources at all times to all consumers and also apply brakes on consumption if and when severe conditions occur.

Now four Pyramids that control this process are

Supply chain

Generation

Transmission

Distribution and utilization

These pyramids are all three level ones and interact with each other at all levels, horizontally and internally vertically

There are two more one Political and the other economic which essentially concern human decisions, making the power system cybernatic

No smart grid is really possibile without designing effecient operation of these pyramids. Hence it is clear smart grid is just not smart metering or its assiciated technologies but a far bigger enterprise.Having defined the base objective of Smart grid it is easier to draw the road map to achieve it

It is now necessary to elaborate these pyramids

What is similar to smart grid network that has already been developed?

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:19:00 -0600

Problems have a way of creating solutions in nature in other spheres of life.Networks have a way of repeating it self in many other spheres of our economic/ social/ political life

There are certain characteristics that networks have- they have nodes that contain assets and information.Also no matter how horizontal you plan them they get to be pyramidical at the end of it all

They also get multilevel but there are hardly ever more than three level. Then they always aspire to be smart!!

Smart grid is the latest of them!

Now think of the Railway network- is it not always aspiring to be smart.?You will say there is indeed three levels of transportation one Passenger train/ other Express train/ third Superfast one.There is a very great resemblance to smart grid

.Does it not have a demand response system already in place?They have only one communication medium Fiber optic network. It has to deal at all the three levels of communication.

Now Most of the problems that Smart grid will confront could have been already solved in a top end Railway Network.

Is it not worth while to learn from it in building smart grid?Railway networks have been in evolution for one hundred fifty years and is a classic example of the Interaction of Pyramids of Politics/Economics/Social etc at every level.How they have done it shows the way to smart grid development!

National Fiber Optic Network spanning upto Villages could serve the Smart grid Communication

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:55:00 -0600

A network of fiber optic communication going up to villages in India could serve admirably as the communication medium for smart grid operation.

However the new associated technology to effect it needs to be developed if this has to serve as one composite system to the needs of smart grid.One important part is deviding communication as to prioritize at various levels and this pertains to operation of system elements.However this seems to be within the capability of the Indian Communication Engineers. This will priove to be very cost effective and secure system. The system of cables is being laid to take Internet to all villages.