
Grid Professionals Group
The Grid Professionals Group covers electric current from its transmission step down to each customer's home.
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Substation as Power Island
This item is part of the Grid Modernization - Pushing Boundaries - Summer 2020 SPECIAL ISSUE, click here for more
We have these things called Substations.
Lets not actually worry what the heck a substation is right now, we will get back to that later. What is unique about any substation, we all have one near our homes. That is to say physically & mathematically, they are all spatially located and provide power to a dedicated number of loads typically.
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But that is not always true. (Think solar panels source power rather than a load when the house makes extra power, changing the average load seen by substation.)
If the appropriate amount of storage is added to substations so as to provide 1 to 2 hours of power to the average loads
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1) Load leveling on normal evenings. (Slaying the duck curve)
2) Ability to island a load center relative to any power feed in path during an emergency or abnormal condition for a short amount of time.
20 minutes of full load capacity and 2 to 4 hours more of 1/2 capacity. (Good if can partition-allocate as needed, but general goal above god starting point.)
Smart-shed houses that switch to there own storage on request from utility or local substation command. This allows substation storage to last longer. Fire avoidance and emergency power down for clearing can now be done without interrupting downstream power users. Portable storage that integrates with switch gear at substations can be added on demand.
Example:
A large clearing job will take all day that feeds a substation. A gen set and/or storage add could be deployed to the substation prior to work. After major deficiency in clearance of safe distances has been completed, then the basic storage can be used for periodic clearing of electrical right of ways from new growth into unwanted areas.
Use storage for power quality control to substations and 1st 1.5% to 3% will pay for storage.
Duck curve adds another doubling, but only need half that because your power quality and daily cycling do not coincide, or can co-exist to a large degree even when they are acting at the same instance in time.
Transmission line enhancement even when the local loads are not drawing large amounts of power. If the substation is on a transmission path, each substation can enhance the transmission line for large distance runs.
Think a rural location with the typical undersized power feeds. If the peak feed in can be supplanted along the path, with other substations storage, or at the rural substation itself with storage. Then the T&D becomes more efficient, has higher utilization, and can defer power draw when hot and high loads both cause T&D problems.
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