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Designing Energy Services for Commercial and Industrial Customers

Over the past year, technology advances and high energy prices have stimulated interest in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Discussions are wide-ranging. Some focus globally: Australian and Canadian “smart metering”, new European Union requirements, the results of time-of-use pilots that arose in the wake of California’s deregulation debacle.

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York Region Finishes Tasks Faster

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Read how the Public Works Department of the City of Tacoma (Tacoma), Washington, uses its geospatial data to do everything from issuing building permits and managing waste water to maintaining streetlights


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KCPL Hosts Distribution Automation Exposition When it comes to utility automation, Kansas City Power & Light Co. (KCPL), Kansas City, Missouri, U.S., has made a name for itself. The utility, which received the 1997 Utility Automation Award for Best Utility Project at the DA/DSM Distribu-TECH Conference in January 1997, has received so many inquiries about its Distribution Facilities Management System that it recently hosted two one-day Distribution Automation (DA) Expositions. S&C Electric Co., Chicago, Illinois, U.S., and EnergyLiner Systems, Berkeley, California, U.S., sponsored the expositions, held in Kansas City on June 17-18. The event drew 170 participants, including more than 50 representatives from 20 utilities.

The expositions consisted of indoor and outdoor presentations. At the indoor presentations, S&C Electric explained the fundamentals of distribution automation and how to implement an effective DA project. This was followed by a review of several successful DA case studies implemented at various electric utilities. EnergyLine featured its Intelli-TEAM system, which is a modular auto-reconfiguration system for automatic switch controls. The IntelliTEAM system uses multiple switch controls to work as a team to transfer loads automatically and quickly restore power. KCPL provided an overview of its capacitor automation project. The presentation included an on-line demonstration of WinMon, EnergyLines's graphic user interface. WinMon allows users to use a PC to remotely operate DA devices, read analog history and diagnostics, and reprogram set points at the control.

After the indoor presentations, the group adjourned to KCPL's outdoor test site to view several demonstrations. KCPL described the installation of an IntelliTEAM system consisting of three S&C Scada-Mate switches and three EnergyLine controls. S&C discussed the features of its Scada-Mate switch and Remote Supervisory Pad-Mounted Gear. EnergyLine explained its IntelliTEAM switch control.

Leakmobile Locates Dielectric Fluid Leak Con Edison, New York, New York, U.S., and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto, California, U.S., have successfully field-tested a new leakmobile. It used PFT (perfluorcarbon tracer) technology to pinpoint small leaks of the mineral-oil-like dielectric fluid used to cool and insulate high-voltage cable that run inside pipes.

The leakmobile used an on-board PFT detection instrument connected to a laptop computer with location identification software. Minute amounts of PFT were mixed with dielectric fluid and injected into the two feeders prior to leakmobile deployment.

Con Edison, the licensee of the technology from EPRI, will provide services to other utilities for the isolation and location of transmission cable leaks.

Con Edison, with 640 miles (1030 km) of cable, was a prime candidate for using and demonstrating an improved method of locating underground leaks.

The PFT technology was developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Sentex Systems Inc., Rolotech Inc., Entertech Consultants Inc. and BNL worked together to provide the hardware and software and develop the leakmobile instruments.

AVC Offers Partnering Opportunities Managing reactive power demand has traditionally meant installating mechanically switched or static capacitors at the substation level, penalties for the customer and sometimes expensive dedicated lines for "problem" loads. With advances in solid state switching and power electronics, utilities now have a more customer-friendly partnering option: on-site adaptive VAR compensation (AVC). Particularly cost-effective for dynamic loading, the technology's greatest strength is its speed of response.

Combinations of compensating capacitors are switched into the circuit just one-quarter cycle following measurement of the reactive load at the phase-to-neutral voltage zero crossing. Compensation therefore follows the loading extremely closely on a cycle-by-cycle basis.

A recent partnering of AVC technology between Baltimore Gas & Electric, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., (BGE) and its customer, Maryland Port Administration, benefits both companies. Two 2.400 kVAR units installed in January 1997 at the Port Administration's Seagirt marine terminal have boosted the power factor from an average of 40% to 96%, saving roughly US$220,000 annually in reduced demand. The units also free up capacity on BGE's transmission and distribution system.

Technique Removes Jammed Cables A technique involving specialized lubrication, tuned vibration and controlled hydraulic pulling allowed the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto, California, U.S., to help American Electric Power (AEP), Columbus, Ohio, U.S., successfully remove jammed underground electrical cables. AEP gained space for new cables and deferred in-stalling costly new ducts.

"Over the years we have removed primary circuit cables from underground ducts via a winch and pulley mounted on a truck. However, some sections of primary cable became jammed within the duct, were tagged and retired in place," said Harry Vollkommer, AEP's distribution staff engineer, technology delivery.

The new technique was completely successful with seven sections of cable extracted from AEP's conduit systems, composed of fiber duct and encased in concrete. A record amount of cable was removed in Columbus, Ohio: 4550 ft (1387 m) in 12 working days.

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Hurricane Ike Coverage

Hurricane Ike Coverage
On September 12th, Hurricane Ike tore through the Gulf Coast, wreaking havoc on lives and property. Transmission & Distribution World’s Rick Bush is headed to the region to provide a first-hand account of the damage including an insider view of utility emergency-response efforts. His reports and subsequent feature coverage will highlight how utilities, contractors and suppliers work as a team to restore power as quickly as possible.
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Briefing Room

At the Briefing Room you will be able to stay up-to-date on the latest technology announcements where we will provide daily postings from our industry sources.

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ACSS and HS285 Extend Grid Capacity

Sponsored by Southwire

There are capacity bottleneck situations, where new overhead transmission line construction is not a practical reality. In some of these situations overhead lines are in place and they are not able to provide the transfer capacity needed.

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Supercondutor Cable Systems

Sponsored by American Superconductor

Transmission & Distribution World presents Superconductor Cable Systems, A Part of the Increasing Bulk Power Transfer Series.

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Evolution of Next Generation Wireless Communications in Power Delivery

Sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent

Evolution of Next Generation Wireless Communications in Power Delivery - seeing wireless communications solutions emerge to enable more efficient operations.

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T&D World University 2008

Get expanded education, practical experience and unprecedented networking in 3 days at T&D World University, the Continuing Education Program for Utility Management, Engineers and Technical Professionals. October 27-29, 2008, Dallas, TX. With CEU-Earning Seminars, Specialized Tracks, 59+ Courses, T&D allows you to maximize your time, with minimal work interruptions. Bring your team to this productive learning environment.

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