Improving T&D planning and operations

BY TAO HONG, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Running the most complicated man-made object in the world, utilities are keeping the lights on for 5.3 billion people globally. In such an engineering savvy industry, energy forecasting is a crucial but often underestimated element. Throughout North America’s electric power system, all segments, from generation, transmission to distribution and retail, need forecasts for planning and operations.

Across the utility industry, virtually all kinds of business entities, such as regulatory commissions, trading firms, financial institutions, factories and commercial companies, require energy forecasts.

Typical business needs of energy forecasting include economic dispatch, unit commitment, integrated resource planning, renewable integration, revenue management, and so forth.

This feature in Electricity Today Magazine offers a brief review of energy forecasting practices of the past century. Subsequently, I will discuss five challenges that exist in modern transmission and distribution planning and operations. Finally, I will discuss how electric utilities can overcome these challenges through an integrated energy forecasting approach.