Klickitat Public Utility District (Goldendale, Washington, U.S.) had a problem familiar to every utility: unhappy customers at the end of the line experiencing sporadic flicker and severe voltage drops.

Like most utilities, Klickitat lacked the resources to build a new substation to boost system capacity.

“It was a real dilemma,” said Ron Schultz, Klickitat's branch manager. “Much of our utility service is rural and built in the 1950s, when future growth was anticipated to be residential, not industrial or irrigation motor loads.” But a few years ago, a municipality sited two large motor loads near a substation to serve new water wells. No initial consideration was given to Klickitat's existing distribution system until after equipment was ordered and specified. The result was increasing flicker and severe voltage drops when the wells would start.

“One customer regularly experienced a voltage drop on a 120-V base, down to 108 V,” Schultz said. “We looked at line upgrades, but the distance from the existing substation being so great (11 miles [18 km]), this would only gain us a 1% to 2% decrease in voltage drop. The only solution seemed to be a new substation, which we couldn't afford.”

In sharing his problem within the regional utility community, Schultz learned about an alternative solution: MicroPlanet's Low-Voltage Regulator (LVR), which incorporates the company's innovative point of consumption voltage regulation technology. MicroPlanet's voltage regulation products provide an immediate, inexpensive solution to voltage problems by regulating input voltage to a preferred setpoint at the home or business. The result is that a home or commercial building only gets the voltage needed.

Because customers receive the exact amount of voltage they need, brownouts, voltage flicker, chronic low-voltage power surges and excess voltage are eliminated. This allows for a more efficient operation of the electrical grid and avoids costly infrastructure improvements necessitated by peak loads that strain a grid's capacity.

The LVR is a small metal device that attaches to the electrical meter found on every home or business. Essentially, it is a small transformer controlled by a computer motherboard. The motherboard measures the voltage coming into the meter and then directs the transformer to bring voltage back to a specified amount. The device can be installed in as little as 30 minutes.

MicroPlanet's new technology tackles a big problem: The majority of utility customers receives more or less voltage than required. For instance, approximately 8 million homes in the United States consistently receive voltage below the minimum standard of 114 V established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI standard C84.1). Conversely, as much as 90% of U.S. homes receive more voltage than they require.

In the 1950s, state PUCs, utilities and infrastructure providers struggled to define “quality” service delivery. Collectively, they determined that one of the best measurements of reliability was delivered “voltage” at the point of consumption. In 1954, the industry agreed to combine standards from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to create ANSI standard C84.1. This established nominal voltage ratings for utilities to regulate the service delivery and established permissible operating tolerances at the point of use within the range of 120 V ±5% (or 114 V to 126 V).

For the past 50 years, ANSI C84.1 has remained static despite unimaginable technological advances. Today's digital technology provide utilities with the solutions needed to update from the ANSI C84.1 at costs that are significantly cheaper than traditional approaches to increasing grid capacity.

Most electrical apparatus in homes, businesses and on the utility infrastructure operate most efficiently at 114V to 115 V. However, the majority of U.S. states allow electric utilities to deliver higher voltage to ensure that customers furthest away from the substation receive the minimum 114 V — a vestige of the 1950s standard. As a result, the vast majority of electric utility customers receive more voltage than necessary. This translates into wasted electricity, higher operating and capital costs for utilities, larger electricity bills, shorter lives for electrical apparatus and increased greenhouse gases.

Engineers have known for decades that they could save all this wasted energy if they could deliver electricity to all homes around the minimum voltage requirements. However, there was no simple way for them to do so without the houses farthest from a utility's substation receiving too little voltage.

MicroPlanet's technology solves both problems of too little or too much voltage. As a result of its flexibility, this technology will play a pivotal role in the future to maximize the reliability and efficiency of America's electrical grid.

“Our products allow precision voltage regulation by resolving typical utility operating problems at the point of consumption — the consumers' homes or businesses. This solution is easy, reliable and inexpensive,” said Brian Reidy, CEO of MicroPlanet. MicroPlanet also offers Enterprise Voltage Regulators (EVR) that reduce and regulate the voltage of the electricity that comes into large businesses. The EVR 3P is targeted toward convenience stores and fast food restaurants, to reduce electricity and capital expenditures.
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