This project establishes the communications needs and requirements specifications for Smart Grid development by studying the characteristics of the applications that will allow the Smart Grid to be realized. We identify existing and evolving communications systems thatcan best meet the needs of the Smart Grid for consumers and utilities. To achieve this goal, we evaluated representative Smart Grid applications for both transmission and distribution systems. Using these two systems, the communication needs for the Smart Grid were defined and protocols for communications were recommended.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-39; Uploaded March 12, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-39; Uploaded March 12, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-37; Uploaded: May 16, 2012.

This report is motivated by the major opportunities offered by the deployment of near real time synchrophasor measurements.For the first time it has become possible to consider wide-area synchronized sensing, communications and use for automated control and protection. Part A of this report shows how synchrophasor measurements can be used to close the loop and regulate key, pilot point, voltages in each control area and/or regulate the deviations in tie-line flow exchanges between the control areas. Part B of this report proposes a synchrophasors-based substation voltage controller. Finally, Part C of this report is concerned with a development of a practical method to identify the external line outages using the data available to internal power system operator in real-time, namely real-time data from internal system as well as measurements from those external buses with PMUs.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-37; Uploaded: May 16, 2012.

Several methods are presently available to improve performance of station insulators under contaminated conditions, of which the application of hydrophobic coatings (like grease, oils and room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber material, fluorinated compounds) are attractive to utilities as it can be applied over existing installations. Of the hydrophobic coatings, RTV silicone rubber has proven to be the most popular type. The chief concerns with this method are the time of effectiveness of the coating, and insulator performance with time in service. This project describes the testing and analysis of porcelain post insulators that were coated with a room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber material.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-46G; Uploaded July 18, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-46G; Uploaded July 18, 2012.

The project report presents a new test methodology for verifying the conformance, interoperability and application performance of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), PMU-enabled IEDs and Phasor Data Concentrator (PDCs) at the device and system level. Two types of tests are defined to evaluate the performance of synchrophasor devices verifying two different aspects: design and application. Discussion of the results from performing the Design Test and Application Test is also provided. The test platform, such as the test equipment and tools, and the configuration of the device under test, are also included for the purpose of making the procedure repetitive should a third party wish to verify the results.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-43; Uploaded August 17, 2012.

Executive Summary - Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-43; Uploaded August 17, 2012

This project aimed at identifying interoperability issues and finding a solution to achieve interoperability of data and models. Interoperability is basically seamlessly correlating data and models expressed in different formats but having similar descriptions, extracting useful information from them automatically, and using such information in all power system applications consistently. Both legacy and future smart grid applications should utilize the interoperable data and models depending on their requirements. Three advanced applications which require both system-wide model information and field data captured are discussed: State Estimation, Alarm Processor, and Fault Location. They illustrate how the proposed solution may be utilized to simplify matching of data and models, and to assure interoperability.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-39; Uploaded: August 20, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-39; Uploaded: August 20, 2012

The project also evaluated porcelain insulators which can be classified as microfilled dielectric materials. Few field aged insulators were provided by EPRI and new samples were provided by SRP. There was no noticeable change in the microstructure between the new and aged units that could be attributed to time in service. As the field aged samples available was limited, it was not possible to arrive at any reasonable conclusion. Project Title "Micro and Nano Dielectrics for Utility Applications".

Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-42; Uploaded August 22, 2012.

Executive Summary - Final Project Report for PSERC Project T-42; Uploaded: August 22, 2012.

The increase in economic and environmental concerns has resulted in the fast growth of renewable resource penetration in the electric power grid. This project addresses three important aspects of integrating renewable resources into the bulk power system:

1. Transmission expansion planning including renewable resources;
2. The impact of flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS);
3. Impact of large scale energy storage.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-41. Uploaded: September 4, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-41. Uploaded: September 4, 2012.

The recent advances in the state of the art of storage technology have led to wider deployment of storage technologies in today’ s electricity networks. This project developed models, simulation methodologies and control strategies for analyzing the effects of storage integration into grids at the transmission and distribution levels and for their effective operations in those grids. The advancements of this research explicitly make use of storage as a system resource that provides the flexibility to mitigate the effects of variable renewable energy sources, improves the overall system reliability, and has the ability to provide energy- and capacity-based ancillary services.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-40; Uploaded: September 16, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-40; Uploaded: September 16, 2012.

This report examines alternative futures for the electric power industry for the continental United States over the next 20 years by using the SuperOPF Planning Tool to analyze plausible policy and fuel price scenarios. This analysis used an integrated engineering, economic and environmental modeling framework for the electric power system (the SuperOPF Planning Tool), developed with support from the Department of Energy CERTS program. The model maximizes the net expected benefits of electricity production, optimizes investment in new generation, and includes environmental and other regulations and incentives. The analysis was conducted for three separate systems: the Eastern Interconnection, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Final Project Report for PSERC Project M-24. Uploaded on September 16, 2012

Executive Summary for PSERC Research Project M-24. Uploaded on September 16, 2012

As the penetration of renewable generation resources in the power grid deepens, the intermittent nature of renewable generation poses significant challenges to the reliable operation of power grids by system operators. In particular, imposing higher requirements on reserves can accommodate the increasing integration of renewable resources. The increased reserve requirement can be met using the so-called demand response resources (DRRs) that play an increasingly important role in maintaining the supply-demand balance. Appropriate DRRs create demand-side flexibility, such as shifting, reducing, increasing, or curtailing the electricity loads, instead of dealing with the increasing uncertainty in the supply-side. In this project, we investigate the design of appropriate demand response (DR) mechanisms, which create additional controllable resources to attain supply-demand equilibrium for systems with intermittent renewable generation supply.

Final PSERC Report for Project M-23. Uploaded on October 11, 2012.

Executive Summary for PSERC Final Report for Project M-23. Uploaded on October 11, 2012.

Executive Summary from Parts 3 and 4 of the PSERC Final Report for Project S-38; Uploaded: October 24, 2012.

This project addresses five elemental aspects of analysis for the enhanced performance of on-line dynamic security assessment. These five elemental components include: a) A systematic process to determine the right-sized dynamic equivalent for the phenomenon to be analyzed, b) Employing risk based analysis to select multi-element contingencies, c) Increased processing efficiency in decision-tree training, d) Using efficient trajectory sensitivity method to evaluate ability for changing system conditions, and e) Efficient determination of the appropriate level of preventive and/or corrective control action to steer the system away from the boundary of insecurity. This report contains Parts III and IV of the final project report: Dynamic Security Assessment Processing System and Applications to High Probability Events (Part III) and Low Probability Events (Part IV).

Parts 3 and 4 for Final Project Report for S-38; Uploaded: October 24, 2012.

The goal of this project is to evaluate alternative transmission systems from remote wind farms to the main grid using low-frequency AC technology. Low frequency means a frequency lower than nominal frequency (60/50Hz). To minimize costs, cyclo-converter technology is utilized resulting in systems of 20/16.66 Hz (for 60/50Hz systems respectively). The technical and economic performance of low-frequency AC transmission technology is compared to HVDC transmission and conventional AC transmission in different configurations. The issue is quite important since wind potential exists in remote and off-shore locations and the transmission system required to bring wind energy to the main power grid represents a substantial expenditure of the overall wind energy projects. The end result of this study is a comprehensive method for evaluating and selecting the design parameters for alternative configurations of wind projects and typical results of these evaluations for selected example systems.

Final PSERC Report for Project S-42. Uploaded on November 2, 2012.

Executive Summary from the Final Report for Project S-42. Uploaded on November 2, 2012.

This report identifies design requirements to transition to a new systems analysis platform that encapsulates a comprehensive power system model with seamless analytics. Design requirements are organized as: (a) types of organizations and analysis needs of each; (b) computing applications associated with each analysis need; (c) basic functions comprising each computing application; (d) algorithm/hardware combinations associated with each function; (e) software architecture designs to facilitate seamless and computationally efficient power system analysis.

Final Project Report for PSERC Project S-46G (joint publication with EPRI); Uploaded: November 8, 2012.

Control centers that control the transmission generation grid, known as energy management systems (EMS) are organized in a hierarchy of two or three levels depending on the size of the interconnected grid. These EMS, first using digital computers in the 60s, have evolved gradually over the last decades but now major transformation is essential to support emerging power system operations and grid objectives. The expanding power grid requires operation and control of system behavior that occurs at temporal and spatial scales, different from the scales traditionally considered by the EMS. New technologies in measurements, communications, computation and control make such transition to a new generation of EMS possible. These same technologies are increasingly being applied to the distribution system and new generations of distribution management systems (DMS) are now being deployed that are increasingly connected to the EMS. We will explore how these new technologies may be applied to centers for operations ranging from millisecond to day ahead, spread over whole continents.

Final PSERC Report for Project S-47G - published jointly with EPRI. Uploaded: November 8, 2012.

The capabilities of protective relays have increased dramatically as more powerful microprocessors are used in modern numerical relays. At the same time the complexity has increased primarily because numerical relays are set to mimic the traditional electromechanical counterparts. In addition, despite the progress of the last few decades, some problems persists: we still do not have good 100% reliable approaches for certain fault types, such as high impedance faults, faults near neutrals, etc. Also the training requirement for protection engineers is ever increasing and requiring even broader based knowledge that before. We will examine several approaches that should lead to setting-less protection schemes. The approaches to be examined are adaptive relaying, component state estimation approach, substation based protection and pattern recognition based approach. Each approach will be evaluated with the following criteria: feasibility, dependability, security, reliability, and speed of protection. It is expected that these approaches will lead to or form the foundation for true setting-less protection schemes.

Final PSERC Report for Project S-48G - published jointly with EPRI. Uploaded: November 8, 2012.

Executive Summary - Final PSERC Report for Project M-22. Uploaded on November 13, 2012.

As electric utilities are required to purchase increasing amounts of energy from renewable resources, the intermittent nature of these resources will play a significant role in shaping power system operations and planning. The anticipated capacity of wind power to be installed suggests that significant increases in regulation reserves will be required, which will fundamentally alter the traditional generation technology mix. This will place a greater value on technologies with flexible and rapid response capabilities, highlighting an increased role for storage technologies and demand response in the new regime.

Researchers used the SuperOPF model to analyze (1) the optimal use of hour ahead and 10-minute ahead demand response resources in mitigating wind variability, (2) the effects of ramping costs on the optimal patterns of dispatch and reserves, (3) why there is “ missing money” for some conventional generators when there is a high penetration of wind generation, (4) optimal use of storage capacity over a planning horizon, (5) the optimum level of reserve generating capacity needed to cover equipment failures (contingencies) and ramping requirements. The results demonstrate that coupling controllable load with wind generation is an effective way to offset much of the period-to-period variability of wind generation, reduce congestion on the network, and flatten the daily pattern of generation for conventional generators.

Final PSERC Report for Project M-22. Uploaded on November 13, 2012.