Clean energy software firm Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) says it has developed five methods that could double the capacity available for solar panels and other distributed energy resources (DERs) to connect to individual electricity substations.
Everything starts with the company’s ANM Element software product. Utility companies can monitor the amount of power generated by solar PV, wind turbines and other renewable energy devices connected to their substations in real-time and react to spikes in output and network loading.
Monitoring at the edges of the grid in this way allows for a more nuanced approach to managing utility networks. Utilities can dial down output from renewables only when local output threatens to breach agreed operational limits — managing with a scalpel instead of a machete.
This flexible interconnection and dynamic hosting then opens up the possibility to tackle five major challenges when balancing supply and demand at substations:
Current: monitoring circuit loading means DER output is limited only at the moments when the current, power or output-to-demand ratio requires it.
Voltage: monitoring the point of connection or upstream voltage levels allows the re-dispatch of DER as required to maintain voltage within required thresholds.
Backfeed: managing the DER output to fit within substation backfeed limits to avoid or defer large capital expenditure on substations and speed new DER interconnections.
and ChoiceFlicker: using flicker measurement, the contributing DER is re-dispatched only when flicker is a live problem rather than inhibiting the interconnection completely, or over-curtailing generation export.
Ground fault limits: limiting DER output only at times when a risk is presented by specific fault conditions that can increase zero sequence voltage contributions and subsequent overvoltage.
Using grid edge control software to protect substations from ground fault overvoltage could cost a tenth of the price of expensive physical upgrades, while allowing a 100 percent increase in DER hosting capacity.
“Each of these solutions applies a dynamic, real-time export limit to specific DER, thereby providing a set of potential solutions to utility planners and DER developers by creating additional grid capacity and headroom to ease interconnection problems,” noted Pete Maltbaek, General Manager North America at SGS. “This, in turn, speeds up clean energy deployments and saves substantial amounts of money for all stakeholders.”
Maltbaek said field results show multiple MVA additional interconnection capacity requiring only up to 3% DER re-dispatch-curtailment and reduced capital cost for interconnection.
“We believe that the application of these solutions to specific interconnection challenges, identified by screening analysis, in combination with other smart grid and flexible operation solutions, provides utilities with a much-enhanced toolkit for DER integration,” he concluded.
— Solar Builder magazine
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