4 Foundations oF smart Grid Foundations oF smart Grid 5

2 History of the Electric Grid

Learning SkillsTaking on other perspectives, Thinking skeptically, Challenging assumptions

Why?Our electric power system infrastructure is over 100 years old, has an interesting and rich history, with critical milestones throughout its development. The legacy of the electric grid gives us an understand-ing on how we proceed to make it a SMART GRID, in order to best address the challenges of climate change and market globalization of this century.

Learning ObjectivesThis learning activity will teach you to:

1. Recognize thesignificantsocio-political issueswhichhaveshapedourelectricalgrid infra-structure during the last century.

2. Realize the implications of the past history on the future developments of the electric grid.3. Compare and contrast the rebuilding of other infrastructure systems (telecommunications, in-

ternet, transportation system) to see the magnitude of the change in the electric grid

Performance CriteriaSuccessfully completion of this activity means that you will be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the interactions between technological innovations and market forces in the development of critical infrastructures

• Presentation of a critical event in the history of the electric grid

• Answer Critical Thinking Questions

• Summary of the father of the AC power system grid with explanation

Plan1. Read the Models & Information section before class.

2. Prepare a short presentation of a critical event in the history of electric grid, based on that reading. Be prepared to share it in class.

3. Answer the Critical Thinking Questions.

4. Write a one-page summary on who you think deserves to be recognized as the father of the AC power system grid and why.

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Models & InformationFoundations in Smart Grid-History of the Electric GridMohammedSafiuddin,ResearchProfessorEmeritusUB,safium@buffalo.edu

“ThreetitansofAmerica’sGildedAge—ThomasEdison,NikolaTesla,andGeorgeWestinghouse – dreamed of spreading the ethereal power of electricity throughout the world.

ButinthewakeofWaroftheElectricCurrents,onlyGeorgeWestinghouseamongthePromethean three truly stayed the electrical course”

EMPIRES of LIGHT –Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World [1]

Jill Jonnes; Random House Trade Paperbacks; 2003

Introduction

WithlightingoftheChicagoWorld‘sFairin1893,andcompletionofthefirstlong-distancetransmissionlinebringinghydro-electricpowerfromthemightyNiagaraFallstothecityofBuffaloinNovemberof1896, the Age of ElectricitybeganintheUSA.Electricity,powertools,andautomationinfactories,beganthe Industrial Age in early twentieth century. Industrial productivity, measured in terms of output per unit of labor, made major gains. This brought about the economic prosperity in the Western world, creating a largemiddleclassofconsumers,duringthefollowingdecadesofthefortiesandthefifties.AfterWorldWarII, we entered the Atomic Age which gave us the technology to build nuclear power plants for production of, thesocalled,cheapelectricityduringthedecadesofthefiftiesandthesixtiestokeepspinningthewheelsof the economy. Challenge to land a man on the moon, and bring him back safely, started the decades of the Space Age. It accelerated the developments in semi-conductor electronics from power devices to integrated circuits and microprocessors. Advancements in microelectronics, computers, and the Internet brought in the [IT] Information Age, which brought productivity gains in the white-collar workers of industry, and the dotcom revolution, during the last decade of the past century. Globalization of the economies, and simultaneous increase in standards of living through out the world, for an exponentially growing population, have started to increase pressures on energy demand for fossil fuels for transportation, and for production ofelectricity,asweembarkuponthisnewcenturyandthethirdmillennium.Now,wehaveenteredtheEnergy Age. Our challenge is to minimize the amount of energy consumed per unit of function performed by every piece of equipment or appliance we use, especially those operating on electricity. To facilitate this, an understanding of the SMART GRID is, therefore, essential.

Instant delivery of electrical power from multitudes of inter-connected power plants of all sizes and shapes atnumerouslocationstoamultitudeofgridconnectedloadsattheflipofaswitchisfigurativelyandliterallya “high wire balancing act”.WhenalightswitchisturnedON,thesetofelectronsrequiredtoflowthroughthefilamentofthebulbmustbeinstantaneouslybalancedbyanequalsetofelectronsproducedatoneofthegenerators somewhere within the grid system. Similarly, when a set of electrons are produced by a generator anywhereonthegridsystem,theymusteitherflowintoaloadcircuitorintoastoragesystemconnectedsomewhere to that grid. With a complex interconnected grid system, “The Interconnect”, supplying power tomillionsofpeopleattheflipofaswitchisindeedamarveloftechnology,ifnotamiracle.Unlikenaturalgas,petroleum,andnuclearmaterials,alternatingcurrent[AC]electricityisnotacommodity.Electricalenergy, except in the electrostatic form, neither exists in nature as other sources do nor can it be utilized directly.Itisameanstotransportenergyfoundinfossilfuels,nuclearmaterials,flowingwaters,blowingwinds, and solar rays to homes, commercial buildings and factories etc. where it is converted to light, heat, mechanical, and chemical forms of energy for utilization. That is, AC electrical energy is a transportation medium and not a commodity in itself. Over the last one hundred years, the world has adopted electrical conductorsasthemeanstoguidetheflowofelectronsfromthesourcetotheloadandvice-versa.Itisanalternative to trucks, trains, and hydraulic or pneumatic pipes. The transmission line infrastructure, to some extent, resembles the highway infrastructure with electrons resembling oil and petroleum tanker trucks or

6 Foundations oF smart Grid Foundations oF smart Grid 7

systemofpipesfornaturalgasandwatersupplyorsewagecollectionsystems.Justasfluidsandgasesflowfromahigherpressureatoneendofthepipetoalowerpressureattheother,electricityflowsfromahigherpotentialatoneendofthewiretoalowerpotentialattheotherend.However,unlikethepressuresinfluidandgaspipes,theelectricpotentialscanbereversedinstantaneouslycausingflowofelectricitytoreverse.Just as infrastructures of highways and rail lines, though permanent, need to be upgraded to keep up with ever changing population centers, electrical power grids should also be upgraded continually. As the world tries to address the environment challenge of our times through integration of wind and solar sources for the production of electricity, a decentralized power grid structure must be created through careful upgrade of the present system of centralized power generation, HV transmission, sub-transmission, and distribution. Starting with a brief look in the rear view mirror of the power grid, the road head for our journey forward is presented in this lesson.

A Look in the Rear View Mirror

John Cassazza, in his presentation titled “Forgotten Roots”[2]attheIEEEHistoryofthePowerEngineeringSociety [2007] reviews thehistoryof the ‘ElectricGrid’ from itsbeginning to thepresent in four timeperiods: The Young Industry [1885-1945]; The Golden Age [1945-1965]; The Changing World [1965-1990]; and The Turbulence [1990-2005].

TransmissionofACelectricitytoremotelylocatedloadswasfirstdemonstratedbyGeorgeWestinghouseand William Stanley on March 20, 1886 in Great Barrington, MA, with wires strung on elm trees along the town’s walks and transformers placed in the basements of a few buildings that were to be lighted. Latersameyear,GeorgeWestinghouseestablishedWestinghouseElectricCompanyandsuccessfullytesteda fourmile transmission line at Lawrenceville, PA.These successes resulted inWestinghouse Electricoperating some 300 central generating stations supplying AC electricity primarily to lighting loads by 1890.TheDC [ThomasEdison] -AC [GeorgeWestinghouse] controversywas resolved, once and forall,attheNiagaraPowerProject,NY.And,ACelectricpowerwasfirsttransmittedfromNiagaraFallstoBuffalo,NY,throughanoverhead,three-phase,11kVtransmissionlineonNovember15,1896.RobertBelfielddocumentsindetailthehistoricaldevelopmentsofthatperiodinhisarticle [3] The Niagara System: The Evolution of Electric Power Complex at Niagara Falls, 1883-1896”. TheInstituteofElectricalandElectronics Engineers [IEEE] recognized this event by designating Adams Hydroelectric GeneratingStationasan“ElectricalEngineeringMilestone”withaplaquededicatedonJune21,1990.RecognizingthesuccessofACelectricpower,ThomasEdisonboughtoutThomson-HoustonandmergeditwithhisEdisonGeneralElectrictoformtheGeneralElectricCompanyandbegandirectlycompetingagainstWestinghouseElectricCompanyforACpowerprojects.Anewindustrywasthusborn.Soontheelectricpowerindustrybecame recognized as a natural monopoly due to its ability to generate, transmit and distribute electricity to asetofcustomersinaspecificlocationbyasinglesourcesupplier.

System Control Centers [SCCs], in each of the utilities, were responsible for energy dispatch, economics of generation, and system security. Initially these SCCs were small and controlled only the bulk power system.Thenin1926,thefirsttwoutilities,DuquesneLightandWestPennPowerinterconnected.Thisledto the concept of Power Pools. These Power Pools served to improve reliability and reduce complexity by operating a single grid and pooling the resulting savings amongst the Pool members. The largest savings came from avoidance of new generating facilities required for enough spinning reserves for short-term transient loads and faults. The operation of the Power Pools led to the development of the Tie Line Bias Control, which allowed sharing of the frequency control amongst all generating station members. An interconnected power grid structure was thus created and soon became a global standard. Some of the key milestones of the development of the power grid can be summarized as follows.

• March 20, 1886:TransmissionofACelectricitytoremotelylocatedloadsfirstdemonstratedby George Westinghouse and William Stanley in Great Barrington, MA. In the same year a four-mile transmission line successfully tested at Lawrenceville, PA by Westinghouse ElectricCompany.

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• 1889: ThomasEdisonboughtoutThomson-HoustonandmergeditwithhisEdisonGeneralElectric to establish General Electric Company and began directly competing againstWestinghouseElectricCompanyforACpowerprojects

• By 1890:WestinghouseElectrichadsome300centralgeneratingstationssupplyingACelectricity to primarily lighting loads

• 1893: George Westinghouse won the contract for lighting the Columbian Expositionin Chicago and used the opportunity to display its two-phase system with 12-1000 HP alternators

• October 26, 1893: Niagara Cataract signed the contract withWestinghouse to supply3-5000HP[250rpm/2200V/2ϕ/25Hz]unitsafterseveralcompromisesandmodificationsto the initial proposal were agreed to

• 1894:CharlesF.Scott ofEngland invented the “T” connection for the transformers toconvert two-phase AC to three-phase AC

• August 26, 1895: First power from the 5000 HP units was delivered to the Pittsburgh ReductionCompany[Alcoa]inNiagaraFalls,NY

• November 15, 1896:ACelectricpowerwasfirsttransmittedfromNiagaraFallsthrough11KVthree-phasetransmissionline,overtwenty-sixmiles,toBuffalo,NY

Figure 1 North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Regions and Sub-regions

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/chg_str_fuel/html/fig02.html

AsfortheUSA,alongwiththeimplementationofemergingtechnologiesinthedevelopmentandexpansionofthepowergridovermostofthelastcentury,thesocio-politicalenvironmentalsohadmajorinfluenceinshaping the electrical power system infrastructure. Since the Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed monopolies inUS, foundation for strongFederal involvementwas established in the early 1900s for regulation of

8 Foundations oF smart Grid Foundations oF smart Grid 9

electric utilities. The Federal Power Commission became responsible for regulation of wholesale interstatetransmissionofpower.UndertheprovisionsoftheFederalPowerActof1935,FederalEnergyRegulatoryCommission[FERC]exercisesprincipalregulatoryauthorityoverthetransmissionsystem.Itregulates wholesale electricity rates, approves sale or leasing of transmission facilities, approves mergers andacquisitionsbetweenInvestorOwnedUtilities [IOUs],andexercises jurisdictionover the interstatecommerceofelectricity.Itsauthoritycoversover73percentofthetransmissionsystemsintheUS.Federallyowned utilities own 13%, while the remaining 14% are owned by public and cooperative utilities. The NorthAmericanElectricReliabilityCouncil[NERC]wasvoluntarilyformedin1963,justbeforethe1965majorblackoutintheNortheastUS.USandCanadianutilitieswereorganizedintonineregionalreliabilitycouncilstopromotethereliabilityoftheelectricalpowersystemsthroughoutNorthAmericabydefiningoperating guidelines for security in all nine geographical regions [Figure 1]. It is responsible for overall reliability,planning,andcoordinationofelectricityinNorthAmerica.NERCisanot-for-profitcorporationunder the ownership of the Regional Councils, which cover 48 contiguous States, part of Alaska, and portions of Canada and Mexico. These Councils are responsible for overall coordination of bulk power policies that affect the reliability and adequacy of service within their jurisdictions and regularly exchange operating and planning information among their member utilities.

Prior to 1978, the regulated utilities were responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of AC electricity to their customers under the rate structures approved by Public Service Commissions in their respectivegeographicalterritories.Non-utilityproducersofelectricityhadnoaccesstothepowertransmis-sionsystemsownedandoperatedbytheregulatedIOUs.ThentheUSCongresspassedthePublicUtilityRegulatoryPoliciesAct[PURPA]in1978toinitiatederegulationandcompetitioninthewholesalepowermarketsbyopeningittothenon-utilitygenerators[NUGs].Intheearlynineteeneighties,largeindustrialusers of steam were encouraged to install co-generation equipment so that waste steam could be converted to AC electricity and sold back to the utilities at a rate which guaranteed acceptable ROI [Return On Invest-ment].ThentheUSCongresspassedtheEnergyPolicyActin1992topromotegreatercompetitioninthebulk power generation market. This Act was implemented in 1996 with Orders 888 and 889 by the Federal EnergyRegulatoryCommission(FERC)to“remove impediments to competition in wholesale trade and to bring more efficient, lower cost power to the nation’s electric-ity customers.” According to the DOE web site, “The FERC orders required open and equal access to jurisdictional utilities’ transmission lines for all elec-tricity producers, thus facilitating the States’ restructuring of the electric power industry to allow customers direct access to retail power generation.” A number of states initiated major legislations during the decade of the nineties to deregulate and restructure the electric utility industry in their re-spectivestatesundertheseFERCorders. However, the establish-ment of “Standard Market Design [SMD]” had been very painful to a large number of consumers who weresupposedtohavebenefitedfrom this restructuring. Figure 2 shows the status of restructuring as of February 2003.

Figure 2 Electric Utility Restructuring as of February 2003

http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/restructuring/restructure_elect.html

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The single line diagram in Figure 3 shows the major subsystems of a typical electrical power grid. It comprises:

Power Generating Stations to produce electrical power from fossil, nuclear, or renewable energy sources

Step-up Transformers for connections to the high voltage [138 kV to 765 kV] transmission lines

High Voltage Transmission Lines to carry the AC current over long distances

Substations where voltage is stepped down to sub-transmission voltages [26 kV-69kV] and/or to lower voltages [13 kV- 4kV] for large industrial customers, and/or to utilization voltages [120/240/460] for residential and commercial customers.

Figure 3 Subsystems of an electrical power grid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission

The Road Ahead for the “Smart Grid”

As we go forward, we see that implementation of newer technologies to upgrade the existing power system infrastructure to a “Smart Grid” will not only be constrained by the routine ROI considerations but also by the challenges of the socio-political climate. Since the socio-political climate varies from country to country and region to region, this article focuses only on the technology road map. The upgrading of the legacy electricity grid to a “Smart Grid” infrastructure has to be based on the following functional requirements.

1. Integration of intermittent power sources, such as wind and solar, along with combined heat and power [CHP] units distributed throughout the system.

2. Bidirectionalflowofpowerfromthegridtotheconsumersandfromconsumerstothegridresultingfrom load side demand management and local generation.

3. Real-timebidirectionalinformationflowbetweentheproducersandconsumers’smartmeteringandappliances

4. Highestquality,efficiency,reliabilityandsecurity.5. Optimal cost for both producers and consumers.

In order to meet the above requirements of the Smart Grid, an “Intelligent Substation” with a “Micro-grid” communications network would be required. This substation would be the critical interface between the transmission and the utilization networks.

1. Jill Jonnes; EMPIRES OF LIGHT-Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the race to electrify the world; RandomHouseTradePaperbackEdition;NewYork;2003

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2. John Cassaza; Forgotten Roots;ElectricPower,2007IEEEConferenceontheHistoryofElectricPower.DigitalObjectIdentifier:10.1109/HEP.2007.4510257;PublicationYear:2007,Page(s):48-83

3. RobertBelfield;The Niagara System-The Evolution of Electric Power Complex at Niagara Falls- 1883-1896;ProceedingsoftheIEEE;Volume:64,Issue:9;DigitalObjectIdentifier:10.1109/PROC.1976.10325; Publication Year: 1976, Page(s): 1344 – 1350

4. Massoud Amin; Scanning the Technology- Energy Infrastructure Defense Systems; Proceedings of the IEEE;Volume:93,Issue:5;DigitalObjectIdentifier:10.1109/JPROC.2005.847257;PublicationYear:2005; Page(s): 861 - 875

9. A primer on Electric Utilities, Deregulation, and Restructuring of US Electricity Markets http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/primer.pdf

Critical Thinking Questions1. WhichfivehistoricaleventsarethemostimportantindeterminingthefutureofSMARTGRID?

2. What are the current key issues in SMART GRID implementation that are tied to the history of the electricgrid?

3. Describe the interdependence of historical policy decisions leading to our current state of affairs.

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4. What changes in the public/private relationships historically occurred that were most important in advancingorlimitingthetransformationoftheelectricgridintotheSMARTGRID?

5. Whatfuturechangesinthepublic/privaterelationshipsmustoccurtoadvancetheSMARTGRID?

6. WhatareadditionallegacyconstraintsthatimpactthefutureofSMARTGRID?

Skill Exercises1. Select a major policy decision regarding the electric grid. What would be the implications if that

policyweretobereversed?

2. What are two changes in existing policies that could dramatically speed up the implementation of SMARTGRID?