pwr_february-2025 - 36

OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
ties, enabling portions of the grid to be
restarted after a system-wide outage.
This makes it easier and faster to bring
renewable-powered microgrids and isolated
systems back online, improving
overall restoration times, " said Fadida.
He said his company's " ecosystem collects
data from multiple clean energy
sites and calculates nearby behavior to
detect anomalies. The goal is to identify
if a specific issue [such as an outage] is
related to a specific PV site or the larger
area. In addition to simply detecting outages,
by aggregating distributed storage
systems, our ecosystem can help
prevent or compensate for various grid
events, such as outages. "
5. This chart identifies projects designed to upgrade the power grid that are receiving federal
funding. Courtesy: Deloitte
ing areas from a second feeder. More
advanced applications the technology
enables include creating dynamic DER
microgrids to minimize the impact of
outages. Other basic distribution automation
projects include fault locators
and reclosers to detect and interrupt
faults, and supervisory control and data
acquisition systems to remotely monitor
and control the grid. "
Roy Fadida, co-founder and Chief
Product Officer of enSights, a group
that monitors solar energy systems,
said, " Software can forecast upcoming
outages based on electrical parameters
collection and by performing anomaly
detection to realize that the current load
on the grid might cause outage. " Fadida,
like the other executives who spoke with
POWER, said having real-time information-particularly
about renewable energy's
availability for the grid-is critical.
" By collecting and analyzing data from
a wide array of geographically dispersed
36
PV [solar photovoltaic] systems, a renewable
management platform can predict
potential power fluctuations before they
evolve into serious issues. For instance,
if the data and the forecasting analysis
based on this data indicates a pattern of
unexpected output drops across multiple
PV sites, the system can anticipate impending
grid imbalances or load swings. "
Fadida continued: " Equipped with this
foreknowledge, the platform can send
timely alerts to the utility's OMS. These
early warnings allow utilities to take
proactive measures, such as adjusting
dispatch schedules, coordinating energy
storage resources, or initiating demand
response programs, to stabilize the grid
and prevent widespread outages. In essence,
integrating PV and storage management
insights into OMS operations
ensures more effective and preemptive
outage mitigation.
" Moreover, storage systems can
also provide critical black-start capabiliwww.powermag.com
Smart
Meters, SCADA, and Mobile
Data
The use of smart meters (Figure 6) by
many utilities supports advanced automatic
meter reading (AMR) systems,
which can provide outage detection and
restoration capability. These systems can
serve as " virtual calls, " indicating customers
who are without power without the
need for those customers to alert the utility.
Such systems may be integrated with
SCADA systems, which can automatically
report the operation of monitored circuit
breakers, along with other intelligent devices
such as SCADA reclosers.
A mobile data system also can be integrated
with an OMS. This integration enables
outage predictions to automatically
be sent to crews in the field; the crews
also can update the OMS with information
such as estimated restoration times
without requiring radio communication
with the control center. Crews also can
transmit work reports about what actions
were taken during an outage restoration.
" Improving visibility, situational
awareness, and flexibility is critical for
managing the modern electric system,
especially with the rapid adoption of
customer-owned distributed energy resources
such as electric vehicles, solar
arrays, and local energy storage, " said
Eyford. " Although the industry buzz is
generally around virtual power plants
and flexible interconnections, these
technologies can create both operational
risks ['hidden' load that must be picked
up by the grid due to the local generation
previously serving it remaining temporarily
offline] and safety risks [many more
potential generation sources to be aware
of and secure]. At the same time, they
offer the potential to restore portions of
the network that may be isolated from
the grid due to damage and may even be
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