Picture the grid operator as a conductor. They’re leading an orchestra made up of traditional energy assets. Just as the show is about to begin, they realize audience members have brought their own ‘instruments’–solar panels, heat pumps, and electric vehicles. These consumers want to join the performance too. How does our conductor employ a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) to ensure everyone performs in harmony?
Our players take the stage
Up on the stage, an orchestra of classical instruments is ready to begin. However, instead of violins and cellos, picture an ensemble of traditional energy assets like coal-fired power stations and gas turbines. They’re utility-owned and they’ve been performing like this for the last 150 years. You could say, they’re seasoned professionals. Our conductor is the grid operator sitting in the control room, monitoring and controlling these assets.
Now, imagine audience members begin taking their seats. They’re energy consumers. But hang on, some have brought along instruments of their own. Some of these are so modern, our orchestra has never even seen them before–let alone performed alongside them. But in place of synthesizers or seven-string guitars, these new-fangled instruments are distributed energy resources (DERs) like photovoltaic panels and electric vehicles. Many owners are still figuring out how they work. A few have practiced alone at home, but they’ve never played in a group before. Compared to our experienced players, they’re amateurs–but they’re planning to join in with the performance anyway.
As the energy transition continues, the traditional energy system has been disrupted in this way. The division between orchestra and audience–producer and consumer–has been blurred as consumers plug in their own DERs. Instead of an orchestra broadcasting music to a silent audience, the market resembles a jam night where everyone can turn up and play, regardless of their experience or whether they know their part in the band. Whether professional or amateur, traditional or modern, acoustic or electric–our conductor has the challenge of getting all these instruments to harmonize. What’s more, the stakes are high.
What’s at stake?
In principle, sound and electricity are similar. They both operate using waves. The sound and electrical engineers both manage frequencies and amplitudes to avoid peaking or excessive load variations, respectively. However, our grid conductor risks more than just creating a hideous noise. If the energy assets in their ensemble place too much demand on the grid, transformers could overload and fail, assets could be damaged or destroyed, and communities could be cut off from their power supply. The consequences could be waste, disruption, and even loss of life. That’s why two-way communications between the conductor and everyone in the orchestra is vital.
Our conductor is responsible for letting everyone know how they can contribute and when to take a back seat. When do they come in? What part do they play? How long before they should stop? In the modern energy grid, operators need to make these calls for both utility-owned and consumer-owned devices, simultaneously. As they no longer have monopoly over supply, they need two-way communication in order to know when assets are available. They need to take a new approach. It’s a collaborative one, more like jazz.
Shifting styles of supply
The energy system of yesterday was highly deterministic. A grid operator knew how much energy they needed to produce and distribute, how much coal or gas to burn, and how many turbines to spin up. If this was music, it would be highly scored. Every instrument would have a regimented part to play. In comparison, today’s energy ecosystem would play by intuition.
Intermittent energy resources rely on sun, wind, or tide, so grid operators have to be more probabilistic. They forecast based on predictions of human behavior, weather patterns, temperature. Due to weather and behavioral variances, actual energy load may be different from the predicted amount, so a more responsive approach is required. Instead of following a score, our orchestra would have to improvise. The conductor would act as a band leader, steering the overall dynamics, but the individual players would be playing more or less, softly or loudly, based on what others are doing. We’ve shifted from classical to jazz.
In today’s energy landscape, operators need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each player and how each player can contribute. Meanwhile, the players need a way to work together. The conductor’s role is to facilitate this cohesion. However, in today’s decentralized energy ecosystem, assets are scattered near and far. What does our conductor do when the musicians they conduct are in completely different rooms and can’t necessarily hear anyone else playing?
A lesson from lockdown
When parts of the world were in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, many music groups went online. Musicians connected from their homes and performed together, while apart. Sometimes, these online jams attracted a motley cast–from classically-trained violinists to people banging 10-gallon drums. But despite their different locations and approaches, they made music. Similarly, today’s grid operators have to manage energy resources of all kinds, scattered all over the place. Their job is to connect them and help them perform in harmony.
Instead of sitting in the control room and having a monopoly over supply, the modern grid operator manages a diverse collection of distributed energy resources–including customer and grid-owned resources–up or down according to demand. These so-called “virtual power plants” are similar to those virtual performances. The grid operator acts as an aggregator, managing the load. Instead of a conductor leading a recital, they’re a band leader facilitating a virtual jazz band. But this shift in approach calls for new tools and techniques.
New rules, new tools
The traditional advanced distribution management system (ADMS) was designed to operate on a centralized distribution grid management model, where communication and power is pushed out to the field and customers. These systems rely on SCADA systems for monitoring and control that haven’t changed much since they were implemented nearly six decades ago. Yet many of today’s DERs are smart devices on the grid edge. They communicate in today’s protocols and integration methods for which yesterday’s SCADA systems were not designed. The newer communication capabilities provide rich sources of data that inform operators of the grid’s real-time state to the edge and allow them control over the devices. Optimal management of these consumer-owned assets requires new approaches to operational technology (OT) architectures that facilitate two-way communication with these devices in a variety of protocols. Just as the musicians must watch the conductor for instruction, the conductor must also listen to the music they’re making and give back individual cues and direction.
Fortunately, Oracle’s ADMS allows this bi-directional dialogue. It incorporates Oracle Utilities Flex SCADA and Live Energy Connect, which can communicate simultaneously with utility-owned assets and customer-owned devices. It can talk to modern internet-of-things devices, synchronize data from different sources, and orchestrate thousands of transactions per second. It leverages existing assets while future-proofing networks, as it is flexible, reduces integration costs, and can scale from thousands to millions of devices.
As the operational technology message bus (OTMB)—a special class of technology, purpose-built for the utility industry—for our DERMS, Live Energy Connect can even allow grid operators to directly control behind-the-meter assets, such as customer thermostats. In this way, Live Energy Connect can support flexibility and uptime reliability. However, managing devices is just one part of the story, communicating with the people who own and use them is essential.
Encouraging customers to take energy-saving actions has a powerful impact on shaping load. Like our conductor signalling pockets of performers to play more quietly, Oracle Opower uses artificial intelligence and behavioral science techniques that guide customers to adopt more energy-efficient behaviors. Leveraging AI and patented disaggregation technology, it helps identify the devices that are contributing to high energy consumption. If our orchestra’s tuba was in danger of drowning out our flutes, our conductor might signal them to ease off a little. Similarly, the Opower solutions allow grid operators and customer experience personnel to send personalized communications that share energy use insights and tips that help make the necessary adjustments and form better energy consumption habits. This small, yet very important, customer action can save the customer money on their energy bill, while helping the energy company shape load and save power. A win-win.
This combination of connecting to consumer-owned devices to gather insights and communicating with consumers to shape their energy use can, together, help grid operators ensure assets across the grid perform in perfect harmony.
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