22-12-2012, 04:35 PM
Intelligent Real-Time Tools and Visualizations for Wide-Area Electrical Grid Reliability Management
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Abstract
The establishment of competitive electricity markets
worldwide, the deregulation of the electricity industry, and the
response of the industry to the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005
have resulted in both very large and very small Balancing
Authorities, greater operational complexities, and new reliability
management needs at the wide-area level. Both the industry
and government organizations responsible for different aspects
of reliability management are adapting and responding to these
new developments. This ongoing evolution of the industry and
the increasing numbers of major blackouts around the world
spotlight the need for wide-area visibility of the health of power
systems and real-time monitoring of electrical grid reliability
performance in order to prevent blackouts. Traditional real-time
monitoring tools, real-time hardware-software architectures, and
user interfaces all developed for vertical integrated environments
have proven to be inadequate for the development of the new
wide-area intelligent tools and visualizations required to operate
and manage the evolving electrical grid. This paper describes the
new reliability management needs and organizations emerging at
the wide-area level; new hardware-software user-interface configurations;
intelligent alerts and alarming and geo-graphic multiview
visualization technologies resulting from the Consortium for
Electric Reliability Technology Solutions’ (CERTS) research, and
tailored and applied by the North American Electric Reliability
Corporation’s (NERC) functional organizations for wide-area
real-time Resources Adequacy monitoring, and Intelligent Alert
and Alarming tools currently in use by about 75 operational
organizations in North America.
INTRODUCTION
COMPETITIVE electricity markets worldwide and increasing
numbers of major blackouts around the world
spotlight the need for wide-area visibility of the health of
the power system and real-time monitoring of electrical grid
reliability performance in order to prevent blackouts. Traditional
monitoring applications, real-time hardware-software
architectures, and user interfaces have proven to be inadequate
for the development of the new wide-area intelligent tools and
visualizations required to operate and manage the evolving
electrical grid.
This paper describes the new reliability management needs
and organizations emerging at the wide-area level; new
hardware-software-user interface configurations; intelligent
alert and alarming and geo-graphic multi-view visualizations
technologies resulting from the Consortium for Electric Reliability
Technology Solutions’ (CERTS) research, and tailored
and applied by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s
(NERC) functional organizations for wide-area realtime
Resources Adequacy monitoring, and Intelligent Alert
and Alarming tools currently in use by about 75 operational
organizations in North America.
BACKGROUND
Deregulation, competitive markets, and mandatory reliability
standards are driving the evolution of the electricity
industry in North America. The emerging new layers of
reliability management at the wide-area level are significant
drivers for this evolution.
CERTS1, working together with NERC Reliability Subcommittees
and with financial support from the Department of
Energy (DOE), has been researching and prototyping new realtime
wide-area monitoring tools exploring hardware-software
configuration alternatives and new geo-graphic multi-view
interactive visualizations [1].
The lower half of Figure 1 shows the three traditional layers
of operation at the local level, while the upper half shows
the three new emerging layers at the wide-area level. These
three emerging layers are as follows: NERC, with its role in
monitoring wide-area reliability via Reliability Coordinators
and compliance with reliability standards; FERC, monitoring
the adequacy of approved reliability standards; and the DOE,
using situational awareness for Resources Adequacy. The
needs and requirements of these three wide-area layers have
been the objectives of CERTS research for adequate intelligent
tools and visualizations, which NERC then applies to the
development of tools for production that help them carry out
their Reliability Management responsibilities.
Tools Information Presentation Including Intelligence
Traditional SCADA and EMS systems collect raw data and
make it available in raw or estimated format to operators
and security analysis applications. Operators are supposed to
monitor the application displays 24/7 for alarms or indications
of abnormal behavior. The lower half of Figure 2 shows
the configuration of this traditional monitoring approach. An
alternative way to present information, particularly possible
root causes of critical events and possible remedial actions,
was investigated by creating and introducing a new layer
of intelligence where for abnormal events, specific reliability
performance metrics are compared with thresholds, and,
using related calculations and information from the adequacy
monitoring tools, a summary of all related information is presented
identifying the most probable root causes and possible
remedial actions. The right side of Figure 2 shows the flow of
information from the raw data collected, to the tools, to the
new intelligence layer, and from there to the end-users.
CONCLUSION
CERTS’ experience with intelligent resource adequacy, intelligent
alerts and alarms, and geo-graphic multi-view visualization
tools for wide-area real-time monitoring demonstrates
that these tools can be effectively integrated into current widearea
operational environments. In particular, utilization of the
tools by NERC operation stakeholders in general and Reliability
Coordinators in particular, has shown that they can respond
effectively to their wide-area operational responsibilities.
Experience has also demonstrated that acceptance and utilization
of new intelligent technologies and tools requires a
clear understanding of the problem to address, very close
interaction and coordination with operations management, and
most importantly, feedback from end-users for the tools’
functionality and user-interaction. It also has been demonstrated
that real-time monitoring tools for larger and widearea
operations, which include many more participants with
very different objectives than before, requires a multi-view,
geo-graphic visualization approach beyond the traditional textonly-
oriented displays.