Operations#
Key Message - Operations
The use of open standards to achieve interoperability is key to optimizing utility operations as new devices, systems, equipment, and technologies are increasingly used within the context of an aging electric grid.
Customers will expand their participation in grid operations and control schemes, both obtaining additional value from and contributing new resources to the system.
The ongoing transition from analog to digital energy technologies alters the physical dynamics at the edge of the system and has implications for operations. This emerging physical context affects system observability requirements and operational schemes, meaning issues of physical interoperability require attention as a complement to the traditional concerns of informational interoperability.
Interoperability is a principal enabler of system control schemes that can manage and rely on the active participation of distributed resources while empowering customers to provide solutions across numerous scales. Operational trustworthiness emerges as a requirement for grid modernization.
Interoperability allows utilities, system operators, and other grid participants to select and implement high-priority capabilities from a menu of available operational strategies. Customer-focused and utility-centric control strategies are therefore no longer mutually
Evolving Control Schemes#
Utility-driven control schemes#
The modern electrical grid operates through a combination of physical actions and economic optimizations to maximize efficiency and minimize disruptions. These functions can be initiated automatically, by operator dispatch, or through economic signals. Interoperability requirements for each operation vary based on temporal, spatial, and topological constraints. Utilities must adapt their architecture and operations to accommodate both new and legacy devices in a rapidly evolving environment influenced by policy and market decisions. Below is a list of near- and medium-term grid functions grouped by implementation time-constant to address emerging uncertainties and operational challenges in the grid.
- >= 60 Hz (sub-cycle)
- Real and reactive power stabilization
- Power flow control
- Microgrid islanding
- Dynamic distribution reconfiguration
- < 5 min (sub-dispatch interval)
- Frequency regulation
- Local optimization
- Congestion management
- 5-15 min (linked to dispatch cycle)
- Dynamic line and transformer rating
- Dynamic topology management
- Flexibility ramping
- Forecast driven Security Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED)
- Bulk power real-time redispatch
- Real-time energy imbalance and settlement
- > 15 min (intra-day and day ahead)
- Upstream Volt/VAR control
- Security constrained unit commitment
Emerging Interoperability Requirements#
Trustworthiness#
Trustworthiness in the grid extends beyond cybersecurity concerns of preserving confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. The nested hierarchical architectures and control systems make it challenging for higher-layer grid systems to validate the activity of subordinate edge devices. As edge devices gain energy production and management capabilities and can communicate with sibling nodes, coordinated actions can amplify the impact on the superior system, necessitating a rigorous approach to operational trustworthiness. Thus, trustworthiness for a cyber-physical system in the electric grid encompasses physical security, reliability, and resilience, alongside informational trustworthiness concerns. Reliability and resilience are critical in developing interoperability requirements for lower-level systems and edge devices.
- Trustworthiness -> Reliability: Concerns related to the ability of the grid, or components within a grid, to deliver stable and predictable performance in expected conditions.
- Trustworthiness -> Resiliance: Concerns related to the grid, or components within a grid, to withstand instability, unexpected conditions, and gracefully return to predictable, but possibly degraded, performance.