Avista Chooses Smart Grid Technology for 'Smart Circuits' Project

Oct. 27, 2010
Efacec Advanced Control Systems will provide smart grid technology for Avista’s $42 million Spokane Smart Circuits project, and its $38 million Smart Grid Demonstration Project in Pullman, Washington.

Efacec Advanced Control Systems will provide smart grid technology for Avista’s $42 million Spokane Smart Circuits project, and its $38 million Smart Grid Demonstration Project in Pullman, Washington. Both projects are partially funded with matching grants, with the Pullman project part of the larger Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project being led by Battelle.

The projects include the deployment of a distribution management system, intelligent end devices, and a communications network along 72 distribution circuits and 17 substations, which will benefit more than 110,000 electric customers in Spokane and 14,000 electric and gas customers in Pullman. The systems efficiency aspect alone is expected to save roughly 48,200 MWh per year -– preventing 17,200 tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere from power generation.

Now that the distribution upgrade phase of the project is nearly complete, the Efacec ACS solutions to be installed as part of the project include:

  • PRISM DMS system with Fault Detection, Isolation & Restoration (FDIR) and Integrated Volt/VAR Control (IVVC)
  • Modeling/automating 72 feeders with FDIR & IVVC
  • XpertSim Distribution System Simulator for training & analysis
  • Distributed Generation modeling
  • PRISM Portal Enterprise Historian

The Efacec ACS DMS will implement this solution with a “real-time” network model, providing for all possible circuit configurations without manual reconfiguration or re-definition. An automated synchronization interface between the DMS and Avista’s OMS/GIS will ensure that the model is always up-to-date.

Another critical piece of the project is the Integrated Voltage/Var Control (IVVC) application from Efacec ACS. IVVC improves energy conservation by reducing load demand in both peak and non-peak periods of operation of the distribution system. Feeder losses will be minimized while maintaining as low a voltage as possible —without violating distribution voltage constraints.

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