VOLTAGE CONSERVATION USING ADVANCED METERING INFRASTRUCTURE AND SUBSTATION CENTRALIZED VOLTAGE CONTROL

• US 20100286840A1
• Filed: 05/05/2010
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dominion Energy, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dominion Resources Services Incorporated (Dominion Energy, Inc.)
• Inventors: Parker, Steven K., Pruett, Mark L., POWELL, PHILLIP W., Bollbach, Melissa A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,577,510 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/295
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/10 Regulating voltage or current G05F1/02 takes precedence; for electric railways B60M3/02
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00016 using a wired telecommunication network or a data transmission bus
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00017 using optical fiber
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00034 the elements or equipment being or involving an electric power substation
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/12 for adjusting voltage in ac networks by changing a characteristic of the network load
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/70 Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/16 Electric power substations
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/124 using wired telecommunication networks or data transmission busses

Abstract

A voltage control and conservation (VCC) system is provided, which includes three subsystems, including an energy delivery (ED) system, an energy control (EC) system and an energy regulation (ER) system. The VCC system is configured to monitor energy usage at the ED system and determine one or more energy delivery parameters at the EC system. The EC system may then provide the one or more energy delivery parameters to the ER system to adjust the energy delivered to a plurality of users for maximum energy conservation.

Claims

1. A voltage control and energy conservation system, comprising:

a substation configured to supply electrical power to a plurality of user locations;

a smart meter located at one of the plurality of user locations and configured to generate smart meter data based on a measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter; and

a voltage controller configured to generate an energy delivery parameter based on the smart meter data,

wherein the substation is further configured to adjust a voltage set point value of the electrical power supplied to the plurality of user locations based on the energy delivery parameter, and

wherein the smart meter is configured to operate in a report-by-exception mode and sua sponte send the smart meter data to the voltage controller when the measured component of electrical power is determined to be outside of a target component band.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the substation comprises:

a load tap change transformer that adjusts the voltage set point value based on a load tap change coefficient;

or

a voltage regulator that adjusts the voltage set point value based on the energy delivery parameter.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the voltage controller is configured to adjust the voltage set point at a maximum rate of one load tap change step.

4. The system of claim 1,

wherein the target component band includes a target voltage band, and

wherein the voltage controller is further configured to compare the measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter to the target voltage band and adjust the voltage set point based on a result of the comparison.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the voltage controller comprises:

a meter automation system server (MAS);

a distribution management system (DMS); and

a regional operation center (ROC).

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the voltage controller is further configured to maintain the measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter within the target voltage band based on the result of the comparison.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second smart meter located at a second one of the plurality of user locations and configured to generate second smart meter data based on a second measured component of electrical power received by the second smart meter,

wherein the voltage controller is further configured to determine an average user voltage component by averaging the measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter and the second measured component of electrical power received by the second smart meter.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the voltage controller is further configured to adjust the voltage set point based on the average user voltage component.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the substation comprises:

a distribution bus that supplies the electrical power to the plurality of user locations,

wherein an electrical power supply voltage component is measured on the distribution bus.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the substation comprises a distribution bus that supplies the electrical power to the plurality of user locations and an electrical power supply voltage component is measured on the distribution bus; and

the voltage controller is further configured to increase the voltage set point when either the electrical power supply voltage component or the average user voltage component falls below a target voltage band.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a collector configured to receive the smart meter data from the smart meter and generate collector data,

wherein the voltage controller is further configured to generate the energy delivery parameter based on the collector data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the voltage controller is configured to select said smart meter for monitoring and create a connection to said smart meter after receiving the smart meter data sent sua sponte by said smart meter while operating in the report-by-exception mode.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the voltage controller is further configured to de-select another smart meter that was previously selected to be monitored.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the voltage controller is configured to create a connection to said smart meter and terminate a connection to said another smart meter.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the sun sponte smart meter data received from said smart meter is representative of a low voltage limiting level in the system.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the voltage controller is configured to:

store historical component data that includes at least one of an aggregated energy component data at a substation level, a voltage component data at a substation level, and a weather data;

determine energy usage at each of the plurality of user locations;

compare the historical component data to the determined energy usage; and

determine energy savings attributable to the system based on the results of the comparison of the historical component data to the determined energy usage.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the voltage controller is further configured to determine energy savings attributable to the system based on a linear regression that removes effects of weather, load growth, or economic effects.

18. A voltage control and energy conservation system, comprising:

a substation configured to supply electrical power to a plurality of user locations;

a smart meter located at one of the plurality of user locations and configured to generate smart meter data based on a measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter; and

a voltage controller configured to control a voltage set point of the electrical power supplied by the substation based on the smart meter data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the smart meter is configured to operate in a report-by-exception mode, which comprises sua sponte sending the smart meter data to the voltage controller when the measured component of electrical power is determined to be outside of a target component band.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the substation comprises:

a load tap change transformer that adjusts the voltage set point value based on a load tap change coefficient;

or

a voltage regulator that adjusts the voltage set point value based on the energy delivery parameter.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the voltage controller is configured to adjust the voltage set point at a maximum rate of one load tap change step.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the voltage controller is further configured to compare the measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter to a target component band and adjust the voltage set point based on a result of the comparison.

23. The system of claim 22,

wherein the target component band includes a target voltage band, and

wherein the voltage controller is further configured to maintain the measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter within the target voltage band based on the result of the comparison.

24. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a second smart meter located at a second one of the plurality of user locations, the second smart meter being configured to generate second smart meter data based on a second measured component of electrical power received by the second smart meter,

wherein the voltage controller is further configured to determine an average user voltage component by averaging the measured component of electrical power received by the smart meter and the second measured component of electrical power received by the second smart meter.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the voltage controller is further configured to adjust the voltage set point based on the average user voltage component.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the substation comprises:

a distribution bus that supplies the electrical power to the plurality of user locations,

wherein an electrical power supply voltage component is measured on the distribution bus.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the substation comprises a distribution bus that supplies the electrical power to the plurality of user locations and an electrical power supply voltage component is measured on the distribution bus; and

the voltage controller is further configured to increase the voltage set point when either the electrical power supply voltage component or the average user voltage component falls below a target voltage band.

28. A method for controlling electrical power supplied to a plurality of user locations, the method comprising:

receiving smart meter data from a first one of the plurality of user locations; and

adjusting a voltage set point at a substation based on the smart meter data,

wherein the smart meter data is sua sponte generated at the first one of the plurality of user locations when a measured component of electrical power that is supplied to the first one of the plurality of user locations is determined to be outside of a target component band.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the target component band includes a target voltage band, the method further comprising:

determining the target voltage band; and

comparing an average user voltage component to the target voltage band.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the voltage set point is adjusted based on the result of comparing the average user voltage component to the target voltage band.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

maintaining the average user voltage component within the target voltage band.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

measuring a voltage component of the supplied electrical power on a distribution bus.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

increasing the voltage set point when either the electrical power supply voltage component or an average user voltage component falls below the target component band.

34. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

selecting said smart meter for monitoring; and

creating a connection to said smart meter after receiving the smart meter data sent sua sponte by said smart meter while operating in a report-by-exception mode.

35. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

de-selecting another smart meter from a group of smart meters previously selected to be monitored.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

terminating a connection to said another smart meter.

37. The method of claim 28, wherein the sua sponte smart meter data received from said smart meter is representative of a low voltage limiting level in the system.

38. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

storing historical component data that includes at least one of an aggregated energy component data at a substation level, a voltage component data at a substation level, and a weather data;

determining energy usage at each of the plurality of user locations;

comparing the historical component data to the determined energy usage; and

determining energy savings attributable to the system based on the results of the comparison of the historical component data to the determined energy usage.