In recent years, the cost to bury high-voltage power lines has decreased dramatically. The American Transmission Company reports that installation costs for underground transmission lines (over 100 kilovolts) are now only 2.5 to 10 times the cost of an equivalent overhead line. Consequently, the number of underground transmission line projects has exploded in recent years and the number of underground high-voltage power lines operating in the United States have dramatically increased.
To date, overhead...
Addressing the impacts and the drawbacks BY ELIZAVETA MALASHENKO, CHRIS VILLARREAL, & J. DAVID ERICKSON, California Public Utilities Commission With grid modernization or “Smart Grid” efforts underway, cyber security is being recognized as an increasingly important factor in ensuring...
Moving utilities toward a modern energy system BY RONNY SANDOVAL, Environmental Defense Fund The need to build a smarter energy infrastructure has never been greater. Storms and other extreme weather events such as Hurricane Sandy continue to test the limits of the existing, century-old electric...
Optimizing power flow using a distribution model BY TIM TAYLOR, Ventyx Today’s emphasis on implementing energy efficiency programs and limiting peak demand growth has driven renewed interest in the most effective method to implement Smart Grid volt-ampere reactive control, or Smart Grid volt/VAR...
INTRODUCTIONNatural and man-made disasters threaten the electric grid’s ability to deliver reliable, high-quality power. Routine voltage sags and momentary interruptions impact power quality and are costly to producers and consumers. As the U.S. economy becomes increasingly dependent on...
A coalition of large energy consumers and ratepayer advocates has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the agency to prohibit transmission owners from independently planning "local" transmission projects exceeding 100 kilovolts (kV). The coalition argues...
In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...
The evolving demands of modern power grids necessitate the adoption of advanced technologies that can provide enhanced efficiency, reliability, and flexibility. Smart transformers are at the forefront of this technological revolution, offering a range of capabilities that significantly improve the...
The electric power industry is increasingly having to evaluate the growing penetration of distributed energy resources (DER). New sets of challenges exist for planning and operating the grid, especially with the distribution systems in which these new resources must be integrated. Now electric...
Increasing the hosting capacity of distributed generation in power distribution systems is identified as key low-carbon solution to help meet the aggressive greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the energy sector. The deployment of distributed generation technologies is creating a paradigm...
NEURAL GRID TAKES SMART GRID INTO THE CLOUD The Neural Grid represents more than Smart Grid v2.0—much more. Today, the smart grid implies the legacy mechanical power transmission and distribution (T&D) networks enhanced by pockets of automation, connectivity, and centralized IT systems. The...
