OG&E to Deploy Volt/Var Optimization for Switchable Capacitors, Tap Changers

May 18, 2010
ABB will deploy its Volt/Var Optimization (VVO) application at Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E).

ABB will deploy its advanced Volt/Var Optimization (VVO) application at Oklahoma Gas and Electric. The VVO application is one of the technologies that will be implemented as part of OG&E’s Positive Energy Smart Grid Program.

OG&E embarked on the Smart Grid program in 2008 to improve energy efficiency and reliability in a cost-effective manner in partnership with its customers. The first step was testing of a small scale deployment of smart meters in northwest Oklahoma City. The next step in 2010 is to study a larger deployment of smart meters, as well as VVO home area networks, and other technologies in Norman, Oklahoma.

“The smart grid infrastructure we are building includes an advanced Volt/Var Optimization designed to improve energy efficiency in our distribution system by reducing both energy losses and peak demand,” said Ken Grant, managing director of OG&E’s smart grid program.

The VVO application is part of the ABB Network Manager product for integrated SCADA, DMS and OMS. A true optimization engine based on a per-phase analysis of the detailed network model, VVO determines the optimal control settings for switchable capacitors and tap changers of voltage regulating transformers. The VVO application monitors the distribution network and computes the optimal control settings to minimize a weighted objective function of energy demand, energy loss, and voltage/current violations in three-phase, unbalanced and meshed distribution systems.

OG&E, which serves more than 777,000 customers in a service territory spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas, is a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based OGE Energy Corp., which also is the parent company of Enogex LLC, a midstream natural gas pipeline business with principal operations in Oklahoma.

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