POWER-GRID.

COM : DECEMBER 2015

T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I CAT I O N O F

18

DistribuTECH
Preview

36 New Feature:

Parting Thoughts

YOUR POWER DELIVERY MEDIA SOURCE

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AUTOMATION

Go to pgi.hotims.com for more information.

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DECEMBER 2015 VOLUME 20.12

18 DistribuTECH 2016:

The Best and Brightest

Nations biggest annual T&D event coming to Orlando

in February. Be there. By Rod Walton, Senior Editor.

21 Moving Toward a

More Resilient Grid

Andrew Bennett of Schneider Electric recounts case

study on Austin Energys handling of storm challenges.

24 A New Era of Engagement

11

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / SOLARSEVEN

Taking cues from Amazon and Google

on managing customers expectations. By
Rodger Smith of Oracle Utilities.

27 Endless Possibilities

Cybersecurity:
How to Understand,
Manage and Maintain

Three best practices for keeping the

grid secure. By Dana Pasquali of GE
Measurement and Control.

From the Editor 2

Notes 3
Cybersecurity Experts: 14
Utilities Must be Ready
Senior Editor Rod Walton writes about
experts who warn that hackers are
getting closer to success.

PowerGrid International (ISSN 1547-6723).

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John Radgowski of Landis+Gyr

reveals how advanced meter
infrastructure opens up a
smarter future.

29 Substation Automation

Legacy RTU upgrade can be solution to a real problem.

By Miguel Bengla, Advanced Control Systems

32 Leading the

Worldwide Charge

Steven Bayne of Aggreko: Challenges of

rural electrification need global innovation.

34 Products
35 Calendar/Ad Index
36 Parting Thoughts
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FROM THE EDITOR

EDITOR IN CHIEF

TERESA HANSEN

Grids Must Adapt to Europes

Transitioning Electricity Industry

m sure youve heard lately that the electricity industry is transforming.

Certainly the electricity delivery industry, a.k.a. the grid, changed in 2015
not just in North America, but globally.
I learned about some of the happenings in Europes electricity delivery sector last month when I attended Siemens media event in Vienna.
There isnt enough space here to share everything I heard during my visit,
but I thought Id use this letter to provie some highlights from Siemens execs.
Thomas Zimmerman, CEO of Siemens Digital Grid, said his company is
serious about helping its utility partners around the world develop and create
the digital grid. He said that automation is the first step to the digital grid and
many utilities are on their way to grid digitalization, having already invested
heavily in grid automation.
He talked about how the industry is changing. No longer is it just about
electricity production, delivery and consumption. Distributed generation,
electricity storage, digital technology, the shift in generation profile, competition, customer choice and more are changing the industry, Zimmerman said.
Some 680 million smart meters installed worldwide are providing valuable
information that will allow distribution grid owners and operators to not only
develop more resilient networks, but expand services.
Michael Weinhold, chief technology officer of Siemens Energy Management,
talked specifically about Germanys electricity sector. He said Germanys
installed renewable energy capacity has reached about 80 GW. The countrys
load ranges from 35 GW to 75 GW each day, therefore, the grid can have a
substantial intake of renewable energy on any given day. On a cloudy, winter
day, however, it might receive no electricity from renewable sources.
While Germany has one of the largest shares of renewable energy in its
generation mix, most of Europes renewable energy mix has seen noteworthy
growth. Europe currently receives about 20 percent of its electricity from wind
and solar PV sources. Siemens forecasts that number to reach 40 percent by
2030, Weinhold said.
And, no matter what some say, the grid isnt going away. Weinhold firmly
believes it will be the glue that holds everything together.
Zimmerman and Weinhold both talked extensively about electric utilities
need to adapt to the many changes and challenges they face.
Agility is the key to success and is enabled through technology,
Weinhold said.
Both gentlemens presentations included this quote from Charles Darwin,
which they believe every utility executive should remember: It is not the
strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that
is the most adaptable to change.

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICAN

POWER GENERATION GROUP
Richard Baker

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Teresa Hansen
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Rod Walton
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Jeff Postelwait
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CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

TransmissionHub Senior Analyst Corina Rivera-Linares

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Deanna Taylor
918.832.9378 deannat@pennwell.com

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DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING
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NOTES
BY TOM TIERNAN, SENIOR ANALYST, TRANSMISSIONHUB

DOE APPROVES TDI NEW ENGLAND CLEAN POWER TRANSMISSION LINE

TDI New England received the final
environmental impact statement from the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for
its $1.2 billion Clean Power Link transmission project designed to move power
from renewable resources in Canada to
Vermont, TDI-NE said in a statement.
The final EIS said DOEs preferred alternative is the issuance of a
Presidential permit that would authorize
the construction, operation and maintenance of the project, which would
cross the U.S. border with Canada.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the
summer of 2016. The planned 154-mile
project will be a high-voltage, direct current line that capable of delivering 1,000
MW into the ISO New England system at a
substation in Cavendish, Vermont..
It includes a 97-mile underwater segment in Lake Champlain and a 57-mile
underground segment in Vermont to move
power from Quebec, Canada, to a converter station in Ludlow, Vermont.
The final EIS noted that TDI-NE

developed environmental mitigation measures to minimize environmental impacts

before, during and after construction.
Cable installation on the Lake Champlain
segment would occur between June 1 and
Nov. 1 to avoid icy conditions on the lake,
although installation in the southern portion of the lake could occur up to Dec. 31 if
needed, DOE
said.
Installation
in shallow water depths would result in
temporary, local effects on water quality
during construction, with cables buried
underwater at different depths using jet
plowing and shear plowing methods, with
shear plowing resulting in less sediment
suspension and dispersion, DOE said.
At water depths of more than 150 feet,
the cables would be laid on the lakebed
and allowed to self-bury, and the route
within Lake Champlain is designed to
avoid the possibility of anchor snags from
boats, the final EIS noted. Even so, it
directed TDI-NE to follow certain steps if

an anchor snag occurs, including notifying

the U.S. Coast Guard, repairing the cables
and recovering the snagged anchor, if
possible.
The final EIS marks another milestone
in the permitting of the project, TDI-NE
CEO Donald Jessome said in the Oct. 29
statement. We are confident that, once

built, the New England Clean Power Link

will deliver environmental and economic
benefits to the people of Vermont and New
England and do so in a way that minimizes
impacts to communities and helps meet
the regions growing energy and environmental challenges, Jessome said.
TDI-NE said it expects to have all major
federal and state permits for the project
secured by the end of the year.
In previous statements, TDI-NE has
said it anticipates completing a financial
close on the project by July 2016, with an
in-service date in mid-2019.

CENTRICA BUYS PANORAMIC POWER TO

PARTNER WITH U.S.-BASED DIRECT ENERGY
Retail electricity provider Direct
Energy and its parent company Centrica
have agreed to acquire Israeli energy
management firm Panoramic Power for
$60 million.
Houston-based Direct Energys acquisition builds on an existing and exclusive
partnership with Panoramic Power that
began in June 2014. The partners are
focused on expanding the U.S. energy services business.
Direct has 5 million residential and business customers in North America, while
Panoramic offers technology to help customers lower energy consumption, reduce

operating costs and increase overall operational efficiency.

The commercial industry trend is moving toward more centralized
energy management solutions
with a focus on automated
energy data collection and
reporting, which is why Direct
Energy aims to seamlessly
incorporate Panoramic Powers technology
and analytical expertise into what we offer
our growing customer base, John Schultz,
president of Direct Energy Business, said in
a statement. Customers will be able to see
energy insights, such as once unpredicted

device failures, energy-related infrastructure investment ROI and other valuable

information that can inform and affect
major business decisions in the
future.
Panoramic Power , which
has offices in New York, Israel
and the United Kingdom, was
founded in 2009. The firm has
deployed 25,000 sensors at 700 sites in 30
countries.
British-based Centrica has owned Direct
Energy since 2000. Centrica is focused on
oil and gas, power generation and smart
grid devices.

December 2015 | 3
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NOTES

PLAINS & EASTERN CLEAN LINE PROJECT MOVES

AHEAD WITH ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT
The U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) released its final environmental
impact statement (EIS) for the proposed
Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmission project, marking an important step
toward the construction of Americas
largest clean energy project.
The multi-billion dollar infrastructure project is a nearly 700-mile overhead direct current (DC) transmission
line that will create thousands of construction jobs in Oklahoma, Arkansas
and Tennessee, support hundreds of
manufacturing jobs
in those states,
and deliver 4,000
MW of low-cost
clean power from
the
Oklahoma
Panhandle region
to customers in
Arkansas, Tennessee
and other states in
the Mid-South and
Southeast.
DOEs release of
the Final EIS marks
a key milestone for
the Plains & Eastern
Clean Line. The Final EIS presents a
thorough analysis and comparison of
the potential environmental impacts of
the proposed project, responds to public comments DOE received regarding
the Draft EIS, and identifies DOEs
participation in the project through
Southwestern Power Administration
(Southwestern) as its preferred alternative.
Based on the analysis presented in the
Final EIS, DOE identified a preferred
route for the direct current transmission
line. DOE also identified its preferred

locations for a delivery converter station in Arkansas as well as a converter

station and associated project facilities
in Oklahoma. DOEs participation in
the project would be limited to states in
which Southwestern operates.
Southwestern does not operate in
Tennessee, therefore, in the Final EIS
DOE does not indicate a preference for
the location of the DC transmission line
or the converter station in Tennessee.
The Final EIS did not identify widespread significant impacts as a result

this important project milestone and

appreciate DOEs careful environmental review and analysis of the Plains &
Eastern project. We look forward to
DOEs Record of Decision.
We are very encouraged by the
release of todays Final EIS because it
brings us one step closer to expanding
our nations interstate electric transmission backbone and meeting the growing
demand for wind energy in the United
States, said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the
American Wind Energy Association.

of construction or operations and

maintenance of the Project. DOE also
concluded that implementation of the
environmental protection measures that
Clean Line included as an integral part
of the project would avoid or minimize
the potential for significant environmental effects.
The release of the Final EIS marks
the culmination of more than five years
of work and the consideration of thousands of stakeholder comments, said
Michael Skelly, Clean Line Energys president. We are pleased to have reached

The Plains & Eastern Clean Line

is a critical component of this needed
transmission expansion and will deliver
low-cost, reliable wind power from the
Oklahoma Panhandle, where an enormous amount of potential wind farm
capacity is waiting to be developed,
to Americans in the Mid-South and
Southeast United States, Kiernan said.
The line by itself will carry four
times more electricity than the Hoover
Dam generates, so this is a very big
development indeed in American clean
energy, he added.

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NOTES

ACLARA TECHNOLOGIES UNIT BUYING GES METER BUSINESS

A unit of Aclara Technologies, a supplier of smart infrastructure technologies
signed a definitive agreement to buy the
electricity meters business currently operating within GE Energy Managements
Grid Solutions (GE Meters) subdivision.
The transaction is expected to close
by the end of the year subject to standard conditions, regulatory approvals,
consultation processes with employees as applicable and completion of
business processes satisfactory to both
parties. Terms of the transaction were
not disclosed.
This acquisition significantly enhances Aclaras offering for electric utilities
across North America and around the

globe, creating a comprehensive portfolio of leading-edge products, said Allan

Connolly, Aclaras CEO and president.
The combination of Aclaras industry
leadership in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology with GE
Meters 130 years of operating experience, technology development and
commercial expertise will enable us to
accelerate development and delivery
of advanced smart infrastructure solutions.
Aclara will acquire more than 300
employees along with GE Meters global headquarters in Somersworth, New
Hampsire, a satellite manufacturing
facility in Chicago and a center of

excellence in Bilbao, Spain, focused

on the rapidly growing international
regions. Aclara also will acquire a significant intellectual property portfolio of
active patents and patent applications.
Aclara will greatly benefit from GE
Meters deep technology foundation and
its seasoned engineering group, said
Brian Urbanek, managing director of
Sun Capital and member of the Aclara
Board of Managers. This expertise will
support Aclaras focus on addressing key
technology trends including AMI integration, cyber security and standards,
design for cost and field upgradability,
all of which are important aspects of a
smart infrastructure environment.

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December 2015 | 5
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NOTES

EYE ON THE WORLD

BIGSTOCKPHOTO / CABINFEVER

Rampion Offshore Wind Project gains new investor in Enbridge

Canadian energy company Enbridge joined the Rampion
offshore wind power project by acquiring a 24.9 percent
interest. Enbridge will become one of three shareholders in
Rampion Offshore Wind.
E. On will remain the controlling shareholder at 50.1
percent, with the UK Green Investment Bank continuing to
hold a 25 percent interest.
Rampion is a 400 MW offshore wind farm project in the
English Channel, to be located off the Sussex coast south of
Brighton and remains set to become the first offshore wind
farm off the south coast of England.
E.On will manage construction and operation of the
Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. The project received the final
investment decision in May 2015, started construction in
September and is expected to be fully operational in 2018.
Offshore wind is a natural next step for Enbridges significant wind business, said Enbridge President and Chief
Executive Officer Al Monaco. We have a well-established
renewables business and growing expertise in wind power
technology, construction and operations and this project

Rampion provides a timely and effective entry point to

the European offshore wind business and it supports our
objective of developing new platforms that extend and
diversify our industry leading growth beyond 2019. The
European offshore wind business comes with strong market
fundamentals, sound commercial underpinnings and attractive returns. Once the project goes into service in 2018, we
expect it to be immediately accretive to available cash flow
from operations and earnings per share.
Under the terms of the agreement Enbridge will become
one of three shareholders in Rampion Offshore Wind
Limited which owns the project. The UK Green Investment
Bank plc holds a 25 percent interest, and E.ON will retain
the balance of 50.1 percent.
E.ON will manage construction of the project under a
construction management agreement. Rampion Offshore
Wind Project is E.ONs 10th offshore wind project worldwide and its sixth in the UK. It will be operated by E.ON
under a 25-year management and operations management
agreement.

provides an attractive opportunity to partner with E.ON, an

industry leading constructor and operator of offshore wind
projects, and Green Investment Bank with its experience of
supporting offshore wind ventures. Further developing our
expertise in this business will position Enbridge to participate in future offshore developments.
Our investment in Rampion Offshore Wind is a strong
fit with our investor value proposition and advances
a number of key corporate priorities, added Monaco.

E.ON currently operates a 4 GW wind portfolio across

the globe. Enbridge and E.ON are partners in the 200 MW
Magic Valley Wind Project in Texas and the 200 MW Wildcat
Wind Project located in Indiana. Enbridge holds an 80 percent interest in both projects; both are operated by E.ON.
E.On and Enbridge are already partners in the Magic
Valley wind farm located in Texas and the Wildcat wind
farm in Indiana. Enbridge holds an 80 percent interest in
both 200 MW onshore projects; both are operated by E.On.

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BY TOM TIERNAN, SENIOR ANALYST, TRANSMISSION HUB

Sempra sees transmission investment opportunities in Mexico

Sempra Energy officials highlighted transmission investment
opportunities in Mexico starting in 2016, including some
cross-border transmission lines in a plan from the Ministry of
Energy in Mexico, during the companys Nov. 3 conference call
on 3Q15 earnings.
Debra Reed, chairman and CEO, also mentioned that the new
50 percent renewable portfolio standard in California would
require both natural gas and power infrastructure investments
to meet the needs of a changing generation landscape.
We will have to make investments to integrate additional
renewables under the revised RPS, Reed said during the call.
The new RPS law calls for California to increase its use of
renewable resources from the current 33 percent level to 50
percent by the end of 2030. On Oct. 28, Tony Earley, chairman,
president and CEO of PG&E Corp. asserted that the higher RPS in
California should create transmission investment opportunities
in the state.
South of the border, Reed said we see a wealth of opportunities in Mexico that Sempras Mexican unit IEnova and other
businesses will seek to develop. Those include liquids pipelines in
association with Pemex and power transmission and generation
plans from the Comision Federal de Electricidad.
Market rules for transmission investment are being finalized
and are expected to be open for competing proposals within
the first half of 2016, Reed said, adding were very interested
in participating in that market.
The Ministry of Energys long-term plan for the development
of a national electric system includes where power plants and

transmission lines are being planned for different regions of

Mexico, Sempra said in its slide presentations accompanying its
3Q15 earnings report.
The plan lists nine transmission line projects, including three
along the U.S.-Mexico border, an interconnection of the Baja
grid to the Mexican National grid in the state of Sonora in 2019
and a high-voltage, direct-current line of 600 km that would
connect renewable energy projects in Oaxaca to central Mexico,
according to the presentation.

Addressing questions on Sempra and

IEnova competing with other firms to build such projects, Reed
said we have some outstanding experience building major
transmission projects in difficult areas. She also mentioned that
Sempra has worked with CFE on other projects, and it may be
able to use some shared rights-of-way on pipeline or infrastructure projects it already owns.
We should be in very good standing to be competitive in
that market, added Sempra President Mark Snell, who noted
that the company has experience developing transmission
projects in Chile and Peru, so working outside the U.S. is not
as daunting compared with other companies lacking such
experience.
Sempra officials and the 3Q15 earnings materials did not
include any dollar figures for the transmission investment projects in Mexico.

Siemens signs renewable energy transmission deal with Bolivia

Siemens has signed a far-reaching agreement with the
Hidrocarbon and Energy Ministry of Bolivia on energy cooperation and future collaboration in the field of products and services
for the oil & gas industry.
Furthermore, this includes a focus on renewable energy as
well as transmission and distribution.
With this major agreement we further strengthen the energy partnership between Bolivia and Siemens, said Willi Meixner,
CEO of Siemens Division Power and Gas. Our products and
solutions will help our partner ENDE to significantly increase the
efficiency in electricity production and support the future plans
of energy export. By cooperating in the fields of renewable energy as well as transmission and distribution, we are supporting
the countrys ongoing efforts to improve access to electricity of
its population.
The agreement was signed in the presence of the president
of Bolivia, Evo Morales, during his visit to Germany. Under the

terms of the exclusive agreement, Siemens intends to

supply gas turbine combined cycle equipment for a substantial expansion of three existing thermal power plants
of the state-owned utility ENDE ANDINA in Bolivia per
the governments 2025 Patriotic Agenda. The agreement
is covering a long-term volume worth over $1.07 billion.
ENDE owns and operates three thermal power plants
with a total capacity of about 460 MW: Entre Rios, Termoelectrica
del Sur and Termoelectrica de Warnes, all equipped with Siemens
gas turbines. According to the agreement, each of these power
plants will be expanded.
Over the course of the last few years, Bolivias GDP growth
was one of the biggest in South America. The country has the
second-largest reserves of natural gas in the region. Furthermore
it is situated in the center of the continent, offering promising
opportunities for power exports to its neighboring countries
such as Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay or Chile.

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NOTES

UC BERKELEY ECONOMIST SAYS NET METERING

CHANGES COULD IMPEDE SOLAR ADOPTION
evaluate different proposals does not
account for consumer behaviors specific
to an economic decision like going solar,
including: Discount rates and present

decision to install solar.

In fact, he warns that policy uncertainty can have an outsize impact on
such complex consumer decisions, and

Policy uncertainty
can have an
outsize impact
on such complex
consumer
decisions, and thus
the CPUC must
be cautious and
measured in its
decision.

orientation (consumers may undervalue

the long-term benefits of rooftop solar);
risk aversion given
uncertainty; and limited attention and
bounded rationality
(consumers have limited attention and
capacities to perform complex calculations and trade-offs).
Given the long-term nature of
the rooftop solar investment and
the dynamics of consumer demand,
McCrary recommends that the CPUC
consider how any changes to the net
metering tariff will affect the riskiness
and complexity of the homeowners

thus the CPUC must

be cautious and measured in its decision.
The study says that
the CPUC should
move deliberately
and incrementally in
order to avoid fully
and durably throttling consumer adoption of rooftop solar.
The report compared the California
utility proposals to new fees and rate
structures for new rooftop solar adopters in Arizonas second largest electric
utility territory, Salt River Project. The
changes adopted by that utility caused
rooftop solar applications to collapse in
its territory.

BIGSTOCKPHOTO / NOSNIBOR137

A study by Professor Justin McCrary

of the University of California, Berkeley,
an economist with Berkeley Law and the
National Bureau of Economic Research,
found that proposals at the
California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) on the
future of solar net metering
by the states monopoly utilities and the CPUCs Office of
Ratepayer Advocates (ORA)
would severely impede the
adoption of rooftop solar in
the state.
McCrarys report, titled
Impacts of Rooftop Solar
Adoption from Proposed
Changes to Californias Net
Metering Policy, evaluated
proposals from Pacific Gas
& Electric, San Diego Gas &
Electric, Southern California
Edison, as well as the ORA
according to economic principles of consumer decision-making.
One of the main characteristics of
the current (net metering) program is its
simplicity: it is easy to understand that
no matter how the energy produced by
the solar system is used, it will result in
a deduction on a consumers total bill,
the report said. The proposed changes
to Californias Californias (net metering) program by the (utilities) and ORA
will greatly increase the complexity of
the decision that consumers face when
considering rooftop solar adoption In
short, consumers will be discouraged
from adopting by the sheer complexity
of the choice they face.
According to McCrary, the methodology used by CPUC staff to help

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 BIGSTOCKPHOTO / NOSNIBOR137

RICE WINS $2.4 MILLION TO STUDY MANY-ANTENNA WIRELESS

Rice University researchers have won
$2.4 million from the National Science
Foundation (NSF) to conduct the most
extensive experimental research yet of
wireless technology that uses 100 or more
antennas per base station to send tightly
focused beams of data to each user, even
as they move.
The research at Rices campus in Houston
will help the wireless industry determine
whether and how to include the many-antenna technologyknown in industry parlance as massive multi-user, multi-input
multi-output, or massive MU-MIMOin
upcoming 5G wireless standards.
Early tests of many-antenna technology
at Rice and elsewhere suggest that wireless
carriers could use this technology to serve
many times more data than can be served
with todays 4G networks, said Lin Zhong,
associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and of computer science
at Rice and the principal investigator on the
new grant. But there are still many questions about how to scale this technology
for real-world implementation. Those are
the challenges well be tackling with the
new research.
The research will make use of ArgosNet,
a many-antenna experimental test bed
that Zhongs Efficient Computing Group is
building thanks to a 2014 NSF infrastructure grant. ArgosNet will eventually include
up to a half-dozen programmable base
stations, each with 100 or more antennas.
Zhongs team will be able to reconfigure
each to emulate cell-tower base stations or
other types of wireless network nodes. The
many-antenna technology being investigated leverages a large number of base
station antennas to serve many users at
the same time. When the number of base
station antennas is significantly larger than
the number of users, the technology is also
referred to as massive MIMO.

Large-scale multi-user MIMO technolo- same frequency. It does this by constantly

gy is a key enabler in meeting the 1,000x computing where each user is and alterdata challenge -- that of increasing spectrum ing the signal to each antenna to direct a
efficiency by a factor of 1,000 when com- focused beam directly to each user.
pared to current 4G data
networks,
said Thyaga
Nandagopal,
NSF
program director.
The National
S c i e n c e
Foundation
has funded
basic research
in this area for
several years
now, and this Rice professor Lin Zhong (standing) and graduate student Clayton Shepard with ArgosNet base station.
project will Photo by Jeff Fitlow, Rice University
Among the ArgosNet team members
advance this research to the next level by
addressing the system-level challenges that is Clayton Shepard, a Ph.D. student
can hinder the realization of this technolo- who is building the ArgosNet base
stations and mobile clients, and whos
gys full potential.
According to a 2014 study by Cisco, already worked with NASA to test maswireless carriers increased the average sive MIMO designs using specialized
mobile network downstream speed from facilities that were originally built to test
1,387 kilobits per second (kbps) in 2013 spacecraft communications systems.
ArgosNet is a very flexible platform,
to 1,683 kbps in 2014. Thats a notable improvement, but nowhere near the Shepard said. Weve designed it to
growth that is needed to meet demand. work like Lego blocks; we can add or
The same report found that smartphones subtract antennas and other compogenerated 22 times more demand for nents to construct any kind of node that
mobile data than did nonsmart devices, we want. The wireless test units also
and 88 percent of the 497 million new can be configured to act like everything
mobile devices added worldwide in 2014 from a laptop to a wireless handset.
Shepard said the team is explorwere smart.
Zhong said the new experimental ing how to make ArgosNet compatible
research with ArgosNet, which draws its with existing smartphones and wireless
name from the many-eyed giant of Greek devices, but the current base stations
mythology, could provide the answer that are not compatible with existing techwireless carriers need for the coming band- nology. For Rices tests, Shepard and
width crunch. ArgosNet uses its many other members of Zhongs team will
antennas to beam information directly to use reprogrammable, battery-powered
numerous users simultaneously on the test units.

December 2015 | 9
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12/4/15 1:36 PM

NOTES
ROD WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / YANC

REVENUES, DEBTS RISING IN TANDEM AT NATIONS IOUS, EEI REPORTS

The double-edged swords were raised
BIG STATS OF 2014:
high with the nations investor-owned
NATIONS INVESTOR-OWNED ELECTRIC UTILITIES
utilities last year. Revenues, dividends
FINANCIAL (IN $ MILLIONS)
2014
2013
Percent Change
and capital budgets were up, up, up,
Total
Revenues
376,885
351,509
7.2%
but so was long-term debt and pressure
Earnings
771,988
730,299
5.7%
to deliver more flexibility and choice to
Dividends Paid
21,080
20,492
2.9%
customers.
Interest Expense
23,029
24,307
-5.3%
The Edison Electric Institutes (EEIs)
2014 Financial Review annual report
Long-term Debt
486,961
456,734
6.6%
was released this fall, detailing the multitude of ways that publicly traded util- technologies and new innovations onto investor-owned utilities combined on
ities spent and earned their money last the electric power grid as they come projects hit a record high of $98.1
to market, Kuhn noted. billion in 2014 and is expected to top
year. Overall, total operThey want to be able to $108 billion this year, according to the
ating revenues rose 7.2
The industrys
plug in all of their new EEI.
percent to $376.9 billion
average
devices or access new serFortunately, interest expenses fell 5.3
nationwide, while those
credit rating
vices.
percent. The industrys average credit
utilities in the EEI index
improved to
They
expect
us
to
conrating improved to BBB+ from BBB, the
also increased dividends
BBB+ from BBB,
tinue to sustain a power first such change in 11 years, the report
by 3 percent to a comthe first such
grid that supports their reads.
bined $21 billion.
change in
needs, while
Those risk assessments and interest
11 years, the
report reads.
also giving rates could change in coming years,
them flexibil- even as utilities are under persistent
ity and choice pressure to meet stringent environment
in how they regulations. Rating agencies believe
use energy, expenditures focused on meeting the
he added.
EPAs Clean Power Plan final rules will
So far, so stress utilities in states which have to
good.
The make the biggest reductions in CO2
industrys net emissions.
income rose
S&P and Moodys both expect the
slightly
to eventual credit impact of the CPP to be
a collective significant but not uniform across the
$28.2 billion U.S. electricity sector, the report reads.
in 2014, but On June 3, Moodys described the
The pace of change is quickening in long-term debt nearly hit $500 billion, EPAs draft rule as credit-negative for
the 130-year-old electricity industry, an all-time high. Overall, the total long- coal-dependent utilities, power projects
EEI President Thomas Kuhn said in term debt has risen 39 percent, or near- and merchant power generators because
. . . the rule will likely result in reduced
his letter leading off the 2014 Financial ly $137 billion, since 2007.
Those debts are financing consistent- power volumes and higher costs for
Review.
Today, our industry is working at ly high levels of capital expenditures generation.
Visit www.eei.org to see the report.
a breakneck speed to integrate new by the utilities. The capital spent by

10 | December 2015
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BY DANA PASQUALI, GE MEASUREMENT & CONTROL

Three Ways Utilities

Can Deal with

CYBER THREATS
C

ybersecurity has become a critical

part of power grid operations as
infrastructure ages and industrial control
systems become more integrated and connected. Advanced sensors and automation
have ushered in the Industrial Internet
by connecting machines and maximizing
data.
Outdated legacy systems, however, were
not built to manage the potential pitfalls of
connected systems. As a result, industrial
control systems (ICSs) are exposed and
vulnerable to sophisticated cyber threats. A

recent report revealed hackers successfully

breached the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) 159 times between October 2010
and October 2014. Critical infrastructure
has become a primary target for cyber
attacks, and therefore must have a process in place for detection, response and
recovery.
Many utilities operators are challenged
with:
1. Inexperience in dealing with security
issues
2. Legacy equipment from various

vendors with no unified security measures

3. Difficulties managing remote connections.
Not only must power grid organizations keep operations online for customers
amidst equipment failures and extreme
weather challenges, they also need to manage security risks to reduce vulnerabilities. To do so, utility organizations should

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / DIZANNA

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART I

Dana Pasquali has worked in the oil and gas,

energy and chemical industries for the past
18 years within leadership product management, marketing and sales positions. She is
currently the product line manager at GE
responsible for cybersecurity solutions. Prior
to that, Pasquali spent the last eight years
leading product management teams at
software companies serving the oil and gas
and power industry. Pasquali has a bachelor
of science degree in chemical engineering
from Ohio State University.

December 2015 | 11
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12/4/15 1:36 PM

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART I

follow three industry best practices that
help maintain secure operations, including:
1. Understand current security
posture: develop a policy through
a site assessment, uncovering where
vulnerabilities exist in your site, as
well as your policies and procedures.
This can be according to a standard in
alignment with best practices.
2. Focus on centralized security
management: With one place to
be able to see and manage the protection of your industrial control system,
you have better visibility in order to
gain insight and take action at a site
level. By monitoring and mitigating
vulnerabilities centrally through multiple layers, you create a true defensein-depth approach.
3. Continue maintenance and
assessment: Because the cyber
landscape continually changes, maintenance and updates are an important
function of security. Like any asset,
a successful security program needs
ongoing attention, and updating
critical areas is key to making sure
your posture evolves with persistent
threats.
CYBER CHALLENGES
Cybersecurity challenges are not unique
to any single industry, and as a result our
country faces a shortage of qualified professionals to manage the daily threats and
keep business operations running smoothly. Utility organizations, in particular, are
confounded by both technical workforce
shortages and limited security experience.
The greatest threats to the network are
people, whether that stems from lack of
knowledge resulting in negligence, ineffective processes or inefficient solutions. If
there arent informative training guidelines
available and enforced within the organization, employees will not have a strong

foundation of security awareness to inform help operators develop a much stronger

security posture to ward off growing threats
their daily behaviors and job tasks.
Further, security requirements in the and assure business continuity.
power industry are more complex than in
Current posture assessment. As
many commercial sectors, because equipthe saying goes, you dont know
ment and computers operate across difwhat you dont know. The first step
ferent network layers to protect the most
of assessment is understanding your
critical equipment at the industrial control
gaps and being prepared to institute
level. Many SCADA
policies and proceIndustrial cybersecurity dures in the areas of
systems and ICSs
were also installed is no longer solely
people, process and
10 or more years the security of assets,
technologies. If you
before current techdont know where
networks and data.
nologies and cyber
to start, standards
security solutions Cybersecurity is
are available based
existed. This results integral to maintaining
on industry and/or
in vulnerabilities
operations, compliance region to help prothat cause loss of
vide best practices
and
safety.
view, control or
for companies to
operations. Additionally, most organizacreate a baseline security reference
tions have multiple pieces of equipment
architecture that meets their needs.
from various manufacturers and genera Centralized management and
tions, which make a unified security provisibility. All organizations should
gram difficult to implement and operate.
have centralized management sysEven the latest technology has been
tems set up to ensure network access
developed with a focus on operational
points are protected and continuefficiency rather than security. With a wide
ously monitored. By running regular
range of systems operating across legacy
tests and documenting updates and
hardware from remote locations, its very
configurations, operators are able to
challenging for operators to manage secure
better assess vulnerabilities and keep
connections and keep passwords updated.
track of threats entering their system.
Both power generation and distribution
Potential threats can also be logged
can be disrupted through a remote conand notifications sent to the proper
nection breach.
contacts through a centralized system.
Given the various challenges utility operIn addition, centralized management
ators confront when managing security, its
enables security experts to collect and
important that best practices are widely
store system components, indexing
shared and understood to limit the number
them for quick and easy retrieval. This
of vulnerabilities and risks for power grid
approach provides clear accountabiloperations.
ity for any security incidents, unlike
when information is fragmented.
BEST PRACTICES TO
Centralized management can
ADDRESS CYBER THREATS
also help support strong password
Knowing the specific industry risks and
management, as well as enforce
looking at the three best practice areas on
role-based access control, which
which to focus, the following ideas will
requires every user to have a

12 | December 2015
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12/4/15 1:36 PM

unique username and password.

Restricting remote access to a small
number of security expert operators dramatically reduces the risk of
privileged user threats and remote
access breaches.
Maintenance and validated
patch management. Due to the
high frequency of attacks against the
system, organizations must maintain regular maintenance intervals to
keep systems up-to-date. First and
foremost, updates to the firewall and
IDS/IPS devices can help monitor or
protect the control system network
for known attack signatures and
unusual network activity.
In addition to updating the firewall,
utility organizations should have a validated patch management program to
prevent unnecessary disruptions in

both transmission and distribution.

Invalidated patches can have operational
and financial consequences, validation a
crucial part of patching updates. With
validated patch management, the patch
is run in a virtual environment on-site
or in a lab environment that mimics the
plant environment to identify any incompatibilities that may exist before the
patch is applied. This allows operators
to determine what alterations need to be
made to ensure uptime and protection
against cyber security threats. Testing
also demonstrates that the functional
operation of the control and related
interfaces, as well as the system communication, is not adversely impacted by the
updates.
CONCLUSION
Industrial cybersecurity is no longer

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maintaining operations, compliance and
safety. Many U.S. utilities are mandated to
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Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards that dictate industrial security and
remediation technology.
It would seem that everybody knows
about cybersecurity, but few people
know how to apply it successfully. A
successful approach involves implementation and maintenance of up-to-date
solutions, following the recommended
best practices, and ensuring people are
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will also help utilities increase the reliability, availability, integrity and maintainability of their plants critical control
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12/4/15 1:36 PM

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART II

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / BALEFIRE9

credit card information or even notoriety. Sometimes their motivation is terror, chaos and infrastructural damage,
such as trying to bring down part of the
power grid within a city or even blacking out giant swathes of the U.S.
The knowledge is out there, the
intent is out there, and the capacity is
out there, said Jonathan Pollet, founder of Houston-based firm Red Tiger
Security. Now were just waiting for
someone motivated enough, by money
or political events, to take advantage.
This hasnt happened yet, but the
potential is getting closer as bad actors
compile knowledge of the grids cyber
weaknesses and gather illicit financial
support for their efforts. A USA Today
report earlier this year indicated that
the U.S. Department of Energy was
under constant siege in recent years,
with 1,131 attempted cyberattacks from
2010-2014. The hackers were successful about 14 percent of the time, or in
159 of the attempts, according to the
article.

BY ROD WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

ackers are not the kind of secret

agents who need to sneak over
borders to attack U.S. energy infrastructure. They are already here (virtually
speaking) and getting closer to their
objectives all the time.

Using the parallel of wartime, these

hackers are online enemy patrols which
have invisibly probed into the front
lines, looking for weaknesses and attack
points that present the best possible
chance of success. They may want

I think its very likely an attack on

a utility company could be successful someday soon, maybe within three
years, Pollet added.
Another report, this one released
in September by cybersecurity ratings
BitSight, indicates that the energy industry only ranks fair to middling when
it comes to cybersecurity efforts. The
energy-utility sector was ranked fourth
among sectors, slightly above health
care and behind finance, government
and retail. Education was categorized,

14 | December 2015
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1512pg_14 14

12/4/15 1:36 PM

far and away, as the most vulnerable to

cyberattack by BitSight.
BitSight researchers noted a dip in
the energy-utility sector, finding it most
vulnerable to malevolent bugs such as
Poodle and Freak. The report indicated
a growing concern about the cybersecurity posture of these companies even as
more control systems are being brought
online.
Cybersecurity is kind of like the
offensive line in football. The casual
fan only notices them when something
goes wrong. Its a thankless task but one
which has to be done.
This is going on inside companies every day, said Stephen Boyer,
co-founder and chief technology officer
of BitSight. There is a battle going on
between attackers and defenders. Its

very, very hard to be perfect.

Hacker attacks against Target, Sony
and Ashley Madison certainly gained
much attention, embarrassed many and
have alarmed consumers, but Boyer said
the scary parts of cybersecurity for
utilities are the things we dont know
about.
Hackers glean inside knowledge, trick
users into giving up passwords and protocols and leave footprints that take precious time to track down. Cybersecurity
experts in the U.S. are well aware of the
threats coming from China, Russia and
Iran, among many other places, but the
attacks could originate from anywhere,
even on American soil.
Attribution is very hard, Boyer said.
The power goes off and no one knows
who it is.

One saving grace, surprisingly, is that

the U.S. power grid is not one seamless
piece, but rather numerous systems. For
that reason, many experts do not think
that cyber terrorists could pull off a continental-wide blackout. But they could
be a threat to turn off power within a
city or region.
Del Rodillas, solution lead for SCADA
and industrial control systems at Palo
Alto Networks, said he cannot rank
the energy-utility sectors preparedness
compared to other industries. But what
he worries most about is a perceived
disconnect between two distinct, yet
connected parts of the power companies.
What I can say is within the energy-utility organization, there is a stark
contrast in the level of security between

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1512pg_15 15

12/4/15 1:36 PM

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART II

power infrastructure, so putting utility defenders on higher

alert is a good idea.
720
The awareness is probably
Finance
at an all-time high, Boyer said.
700
Federal Government
They are very much aware
Retail
680
and asking these sort of ques660
Energy/Utilities
tions.
640
Healthcare
The federal government is
620
getting on board. A new cyber600
security framework, direct580
ed by the White House and
560
Education
540
supported by industry, was
announced last year by the
520
National Institute of Standards
500
August
October
December February
April
June
August
and Technology. The NERC
CIP and ICS-specific standards
2014
2015
like NIST SP800-82 certainly
Source: September 2015 report
have helped increase awarethe IT (information technology) envi- the desktop that both masks the softwares ness, Palo Alto Networks Rodillas noted.
It helps with raising the bar for
ronment and operational technology existence and intent and also allows the
(OT) environment, Rodillas said. Keep hacker remote access to the computer, successful cyberattacks, Rodillas said.
in mind, though,
Pollet pointed out. For However there is still a ways to go to
that the staff securthe past two years, his have these personnel understand how
Many
OT
ing IT environments
company has iden- targeted attacks work.
personnel dont
Forget about deploying tools for
in energy and utility
tified kits moving
even
know
these
companies are typicalthrough the corporate detecting and stopping (attacks), he
tools
exist.
Getting
ly separate from the
networks, looking for added. Many OT personnel dont even
ones organization
staff in OT responsiopen platform com- know these tools exist. Getting ones
educated is an
ble for security and
munications (OPC) organization educated is an important
important first step.
not always working in
servers and gaining first step.
unison. The IT enviRed Tiger Security is advising its
more database inforronment in the energy-utility may be mation about SCADA systems.
clients to isolate their control systems
cutting edge, but the OT environment is
I know they have access to the system, from corporate networks. The industry
typically lagging.
and theyre able to read information off also needs to do a more work securing
For instance, through various and rela- the system, Pollet said. We have not the growing smart meter infrastructure,
tively easy means the world-class hacker seen an adversary remotely command a given the bi-directional nature of that
can find the name of a SCADA engineer SCADA systemthats the last piece they communication.
working for a utility. They try to get that are missing. I think they are close.
Harden the perimeter, Pollet added.
engineers email address and, once theyve
What to do about the barbarians at the Sounds like war. And it sounds immigone that far, they send the engineer an gate? BitSights Boyer said he was actually nent.
email that entices the prey to click on encouraged about the USA Today report
I think its very likely, he said. I
something that might be of personal or on the hacks into the U.S. Department think its above 60 to 70 percent likely
professional interest.
of Energy. Once every four days there is that it could happen in the next five
Once clicked, a rootkit is released into a physical or virtual attack on the U.S. years.

Security rating

BITSIGHT SECURITY RATINGS BY INDUSTRY

16 | December 2015
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1512pg_16 16

12/4/15 1:37 PM

Call for Abstracts

august 23-25, 2016

greater columbus convention center
Columbus, Ohio, USA

Dont miss this opportunity to present

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Flexibility and Integration

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Site Preparation
Requirements
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12/4/15 1:37 PM

BY ROD WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

he nations biggest
annual gathering for
the electricity transmission
and distribution (T&D) sector
or is just
around the corner.
The 26th annual DistribuTECH
Conference and Exhibition will be Feb.
9-11 at the Orange County Convention
Center in Orlando. This years event features close to a hundred offerings with
Utility University courses, conference
sessions, panel discussions, breakfast
roundtables, networking receptions, a
utility women networking event, awards
ceremony and a keynote featuring a
NOVA television host, two of Orlandos
brightest leaders and one of the industrys best-known entrepreneurs and
energy financial analysts.
POWERGRID International is the official
publication of DistribuTECH. The Orlando
Utility Commission is the host utility.
DistribuTECH 2016 will once again
bring together the best and the brightest that this industry has to offer,
MaryBeth DeWitt, senior vice president
of DistribuTECH said. Our industry
experts speak with hard-won insights
about dealing with the changes facing
all the utilities, their service partners
and customers. We are pleased to offer
many networking opportunities during

the week including breakfast roundtables, our networking party and spontaneous one-on-one and small group
discussions.
The T&D-focused week actually kicks
off Monday, Feb. 8, with the Electric
Light & Power Executive Conference
at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. The
Executive Conference program features
sessions on dealing with the world of
change utilities face, vying for the energy
dollar, innovative approaches to growth
and how financiers view the future of
the industry. Public Service Enterprise
Group Chairman, President and CEO

Ralph Izzo and Tucson Electric Power

CEO David Hutchens will lead an afternoon panel discussion on The View
From the Top.
This first day is crowned by the
DistribuTECH Awards Reception and
Dinner presented Monday evening by
Electric Light & Power and POWERGRID
International magazines. These awards
will honor the Utility of the Year,
Projects of the Year and CEOs of the
Year for both large and small utilities.
DistribuTECH offers a host of other
events spread out through Thursday,
Feb. 11, including:

18 | December 2015
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12/4/15 1:37 PM

Attendees at DistribuTECH 2015 packed the Exhibit Hall to learn

more about the products and services offered by more than 445
exhibiting companies.

DistribuTECH isnt all work and no fun. In celebration of its 25th

anniversary, some special guests showed up at DistribuTECH
2015, providing attendees with great selfie opportunities. The
2016 event also will include the opportunity to have a little fun
in sunny Orlando.

UTILITY UNIVERSITY COURSES

These Monday sessions cover a tremendous amount of ground, from AMI best
practices to analytics, capital project justification, demand response markets, distributed generation and integration planning,
to name a few. Actually, Utility University
offers 22 courses total, featuring experts

from across the industry and the globe.

The instructors include industry leaders from many companies, including GE
Digital Energy, Britton Consulting, Electric
Power Research Institute, Oracle Utilities,
Pepco Holdings, Converge, Oncor, Pacific
Gas & Electric, Navigant, Quanta, IBM and
many others.
DISTRIBUTECH 2016
KEYNOTE AND SESSIONS
Tuesday, Feb. 9s events start off with

a morning keynote address open to all

attendees and exhibitors. Keynote speakers are Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer,
Orlando Utilities Commission President
Linda Ferrone, Bloomberg New Energy
Finance founder and advisory board
chairman Michael Liebreich and David
Pogue, host of NOVA ScienceNow and
Yahoo tech columnist.
Following
Tuesdays
lunch,
DistribuTECH offers sessions which run
over the next two days. Panels include
in-depth discussions on issues such
asset management (including one sessions on drones), big data and analytics,
communications solutions, defending
the grid against cyberattacks, demand
response, distribution automation,
microgrids, emerging distributed energy resources, geospatial and mobile
solutions.
One area gaining renewed interest is
customer service with several great sessions catering to this important factor.
These segments look at how to respond
to new customer expectations, engagement, social media, big data and home
technologies beyond the meter. Panels
in these sessions are peppered with
experts from CS Week, National Grid,
Dominion, Duke Energy, DTE, Exelon
and other prominent utilities.
BREAKFAST OPTIONS, MEGA
SESSIONS AND SOCIAL FUN
Wednesday, Feb. 10, gets interesting early with a concurrent breakfast
roundtable and utility women networking breakfast. Both events are separate
and have tickets available for purchase.
The popular breakfast roundtables
each offer 90 minutes focused on hot
topics from the Internet of Things to
outage management, smart metering
and international projects. Attendees are

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DistribuTECH 2015 Keynote featured some of the industrys

brightest leaders, as well as physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku.
The standing room only crowd loved it.
The 2016 Keynote promises to be the same high quality
DistribuTECHs attendees have come to expect.

2016 Highlight of Events*

MONDAY, FEB. 8
8:00A.M.-5:00P.M.
Utility University Courses
8:30A.M.-5:00P.M.
ELP Executive Conference,
Hyatt Regency Orlando
6:00P.M.-8:30P.M.
DistribuTECH Awards Reception and
Dinner, Hyatt Regency Orlando
TUESDAY, FEB. 9
9:00A.M.-11:00A.M.
Keynote Address
1:00P.M.-4:30P.M.
DistribuTECH Conference Sessions
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10
8:00A.M.-9:30A.M
Breakfast Roundtable
8:00A.M.-9:30A.M
Utility Women Networking Breakfast
10:00A.M.-11:30A.M.
Conference Sessions

encouraged to speak up and discuss challenges they face and share best practices in
an informally moderated setting.
The utility women networking breakfast, as the DistribuTECH official program notes, brings together women in
the energy market to build relationships,
share stories and, most importantly,
provide real insights to help in your
career and professional development.
Some of the most powerful women in
the industry will talk about how they
got their voices heard and helped influence change in their business.
DistribuTECHs Mega Sessions top
Wednesday afternoon with a host
of multi-expert takes on New Yorks
Reforming the Energy Vision, IoT

strategies to drive utility value, new

revenue streams and a utility approach
to building smart cities, among others. The days hard work lightens up
considerably with two 4 p.m. receptionsthe Its 5 Oclock Somewhere!
Reception on the exhibit floor and the
Water Reception, hosted by WaterWorld
magazine.
The conference sessions extend into
Thursday with speakers leading discussions on operational transitions, reliability
improvement and customer analytics.
The numbers behind DistribuTECH
speak for themselves: Last years event
had more than 11,000 attendees from
67 countries, 447 exhibitors, 81 conference sessions and hundreds of utility

2:00P.M.-3:30P.M.
Mega Sessions
5:00P.M.-6:30P.M.
Networking Party
THURSDAY, FEB. 11
8:30A.M.-10:00A.M.
Conference Sessions
10:30A.M.-12:00P.M.
Conference Sessions
* all events at Orange County Convention
Center unless otherwise noted

and industry leaders as speakers.

Visit www.distributech.com for more
information on how to register and see a
complete conference lineup.

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BY ANDREW BENNETT, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Moving Toward a More Resilient Grid:

Austin Energy Case Study

S

Andrew Bennett

demand response capabilities and greater

visibility into operations from the transmission system to customer meters.
By integrating millions of data points
into a single, simplified user experience,
utilities have the opportunity to drive
greater visibility and ultimately make
better decisions.
In its mission to turn data into useful information, provide more reliable
service and improve energy efficiency,
Austin Energy decided to work with
Schneider Electric to implement an
advanced distribution management system (ADMS).
PROJECT
Prior to rolling out the ADMS, Austin
Energy conducted a pilot to assess the
technical feasibility, as well as the costs
and benefits of installing such a system.
The pilot consisted of monitoring and

control of various distribution automation devices over a Landis + Gyr mesh

radio network. Simultaneously, Austin
Energy modeled a two-substation area
to assess the validity of the geographic
information system (GIS) model, as
well as the models ability to effectively communicate the data needed to
calculate and solve load flow and fault
current. The pilot found that the mesh
radio network was able to handle the
last mile of communication between
the substation and various distribution automation devices. The pilot also
demonstrated that Austin Energys GIS
model could sufficiently provide the
data needed to successfully run the
advanced components of an ADMS.
In 2012, Austin Energy and Schneider

BIGSTOCK / THEYOK

evere weather is the No. 1 cause of

power outages, which costs the U.S.
economy billions of dollars a year in lost
output and wages, spoiled inventory,
delayed production, inconvenience and
damage to grid infrastructure.
Creating a resilient electric grid is critical to reducing our nations vulnerability
to severe weather. Furthermore smart
grid technology designed to increase
resilience can improve the overall effectiveness of grid operations, leading to
greater efficiencies in energy use, reduced
carbon emissions, and the ability to support the integration of a growing number
of distributed energy resources.
To move towards a modern, more
resilient grid, utilities need to replace
aging infrastructure and deploy smart
grid technologies that enable improved
communication with end users, greater
visibility across operations and more
intelligent energy management.
Austin Energy, the eighth largest community-owned utility in the nation, owns
and operates transmission and distribution and generation for the Greater
Austin area. In Austin, as anywhere,
providing a safer, stronger, more resilient
power grid is a priority.
The key is making big data actionable, which leads to enhanced customer
engagement, improved crew safety, new

Andrew Bennett is senior vice president of

energy at Schneider Electric

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Electric officially began rolling out the

ADMS system. Austin Energys ADMS system combines distribution management
system (DMS), outage management system (OMS) and distribution supervisory
control and data acquisition (DSCADA)
system functionality into one system.
By fully integrating both demand
response and distribution resources into
the operations of the distribution system,
Austin Energy can provide enhanced
customer communications on the status
of outages to improve customer satisfaction. In addition, Austin Energys
ADMS offers the system dispatch team
better tools for responding to system
disturbances, thus increasing situational awareness and improving reliability.
Finally, the ADMS is designed to enable
Austin Energy to decrease peak demand
and lower system losses through conservation voltage reduction and Volt/VAR

optimization programs.
RESULTS TO DATE
In June 2014, less than two years from
the start of the project, Austin Energy
and Schneider Electric successfully completed the rollout of the comprehensive
ADMS platform, including DMS, OMS,
and SCADA. The deployment proved
effective right away by successfully managing Austin Energys network through
its summer storm season.
The ADMS deployment included
advanced applications including integrated Volt/VAR control (IVVC) to optimize the system, reduce power losses
and apply conservation voltage reduction
to reduce demand. It also included fault
location, isolation and service restoration
(FLISR) to assist locating faulted equipment, automatically isolating and expediting power restoration by re-routing

power and sending crews directly to

areas needing repair.
As a result, the platform provides
heightened operator situational awareness, increased crew safety and productivity, optimization of distribution system
including loss reduction, enhanced reliability while maximizing grid economics
and exceptional customer service.
The biggest impact Austin Energys
implementation has had so far is the
change it has made in the control room.
Operators now have a fast, highly reliable system they can depend on. They
have access and awareness to more realtime information such as load flow information, locations of crew vehicles and
access to SCADA and OMS information
on the same system. The system assists
Austin Energy in validating any changes
made to the topology of the system. In
addition, access to load flow information
provides operators with better insight
into what load they are actually moving.
In addition, Austin Energy now has
access to a dispatcher training simulator for its ADMS, which it leverages to
provide its operators with OMS training.
Previously, Austin Energy only had a dispatcher training simulator for its SCADA
system, which operators spent only a
fraction of their time using in their daily
duties. The ability for operators to now
train in the system where they spend
most of their time is a real benefit. With
this training simulator, new operators
have the opportunity to really learn the
system and be put through important
scenarios they must know how to handle, rather than being expected to learn
with no formal training.
Austin Energys entire distribution
engineering team including system
engineering, distribution planning and
control engineering can now access one

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data model, which has increased their effects of Austin Energys secondary
communication and collaboration with distribution model, as well as on a coneach other. Together they can now work sumer level.
to improve their ADMS model and are
Austin Energys ADMS is the ideal
aligned by looking at one common platform to support integrating control
system, which they were never able and monitoring of intelligent electronic
to do in the past. This collaboration is distribution devices, along with its AMI
bringing a new synergy to these teams infrastructure. ADMS allows the utilthat will allow Austin Energy to better ity to perform AMI functions such as
troubleshoot distribution issues in the pinging meters or receiving notification
future in a more
of last gaps or power
cohesive manner.
restoration messages.
Austin
Energys
Giving
Austin
This functionality is
ADMS
is
the
ideal
Energys teams access
not only better visuplatform to support alized in the system,
to one data model is
integrating control
increasing awareness,
but it is better taken
not just from an operadvantage of because
and monitoring
ator perspective, but
the system acts as
of intelligent
company wide. Other
Austin Energys outelectronic
teams and departdistribution devices, age management
ments
can now
system. In addition,
along with its AMI
access information
the advanced AMI
infrastructure.
that they never had
infrastructure allows
before. Distribution
personnel to validate
construction crew leaders, engineers and be notified of outages or restoand SCADA personnel have access to rations prior to customer notification.
information on crew locations, outages, The system provides Austin Energy with
real time load flow information and control center capabilities and support
more.
it previously didnt have.
While some of this information is
This ADMS system is the platform of
not pertinent for all these work groups Austin Energys future. The utility now
to perform their daily tasks, giving has the ability to better leverage inforthem more access to Austin Energys mation from intelligent electronic distrioperations information is creating more bution devices for applications such as
well-rounded utility personnel, who load flow. More importantly, it can use
are more aware and knowledgeable of the information and the new capabilities
the companys operations. For example, to perform advanced applications (such
SCADA database analysts who used to as VVO and FLISR), giving it complete
only be concerned with building dis- control over its distribution system and
plays and point names are now exposed the ability to respond to changes in an
to catalog information for utility equip- intelligent way. Having the flexibility to
ment and electrical characteristics of control system voltages, optimize the
devices. Planning engineers whose pre- system or self-heal the network is the
vious data models modeled only to the ultimate goal of all electric utilities, and
service transformers are now exposed the ADMS is the platform that makes
to a system that lets them analyze the this goal achievable for Austin Energy.

WHATS NEXT?
As Austin Energy enters the final
stages of determining how its business
processes will change to allow it to
extend controls from the ADMS system
to its Ranger energy management system (EMS), it plans to use additional
advanced system applications to enable
its control room and distribution engineering groups.
Through this deployment, Austin
Energy aims to achieve a number of
energy-efficiency, profitability and customer-service goals, including:
Reaching 55 percent renewable
energy in its energy mix by 2025
Deploying 950 MW of solar power,
with 200 MW being local solar, by
2025
Adding 100 MW of demand side
management to bring its total to
900 MW of demand side management by 2025
Achieving overall customer satisfaction of 82 percent as measured
by a variety of surveys
Maintaining reliability goals
for System Average Interruption
Duration Index (SAIDI) of 60
minutes and System Average
Interruption Frequency Index
(SAIFI) of 0.8 interruptions
Achieving all of these goals while
meeting affordability measures of
no more than an average 2 percent
rate increase per year and ensuring
that the average residential bill is in
the bottom 50 percent of all residential bills in Texas.
Austin Energys ADMS deployment
represents a significant step toward the
development of a smarter grid and
stands as an example for utilities across
the country as they work to create a
more sustainable, resilient, energy efficient country.
Body copy

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BY RODGER SMITH, ORACLE UTILITIES

odays consumers have grown to expect

the personalization they receive from
Amazon, Netflix, Google and others within
every aspect of their liveseven from their
utility providers. It is this high level of
engagement that creates each customers
experience, unique to his or her tastes and
needs, designed to deliver the maximum
impact for his or her life and the greatest
benefit from the services rendered.
It has been proven that personalization and higher engagement works. This
translates into major gains for businesses across many industries. Oracle Corp.s
2011 Customer Experience Impact Report
revealed that 86 percent of customers say
they would pay more for a better customer
service experience.
But what are the best ways for utilities
to do this?
DEALING WITH THE DATA
To better engage the modern consumer,
utilities need to deliver a positive customer
experience in ways that resonate with the
people they serve. The wealth of customer
data available to utilitiesincluding usage
patterns, billing and payment preferences,
communication preferences and more
is key to managing changing customer
expectations and keeping satisfaction high.
But while data is key, better engagement

24 | December 2015

goes well beyond simply having the data on tap.

A fully integrated approach to customer data and
program management provides the utility with numerous
advantages, including the ability to:
Engage with customers through multiple channels.
Drive more effective, successful customer programs.
Tailor customer communications to fit their preferences.
Provide utility customer service representatives with the tools
and information they need to resolve customer questions
quickly in order to improve customer experience.
A multi-faced approach that crosses traditional industry silos,
incorporating all data connected to the customer and sharing appropriate segments of that data across other areas of the business (from
billing to customer service to outage management and so forth) will
go a long way toward creating a seamless customer experience.
To do so, however, utilities must consider a number of available
tools within the modern customer engagement toolkit.
ENABLING THE MOBILE CUSTOMER
The always-on, 24/7 customer of today generally prefers lowtouch, mobile channels rather than high-touch telephone calls
to customer service. The ability to pay bills online and manage
services and issues (including outages) quickly and at any time
of day or night is a growing imperative.
It sounds simple, but J.D. Powers 2015 Utility Website
Evaluation Study, released in March of this year, found that
while the number of U.S. utilities deploying a mobile-enabled
website or app is increasing year-over-year, customers who
access their utilitys website via mobile have more difficulty
than those using a desktop computer.
Rodger Smith is Oracle Utilities senior vice president and general manager,

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / HYPNOCREATIVE

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The tasks examined by the study

(depending upon the type of utility
being surveyed) included: set up an
online account; account log in; view
consumption history; review account
information; make a payment; research
energy saving information; update service; report outages; view outages; locate
contact information; perform account
and profile maintenance; and locate
gas leak information. Underperforming
mobile sites and apps, according to the
J.D. Power study, lead to lower customer service satisfaction and, ultimately,
lower overall satisfaction.
At best, a utilitys mobile-ready services provide useful information and
services on demand, while engaging
with customers through the channels
they prefer. Beyond the benefits of
increased customer satisfaction, there
are other business benefits to this
multi-channeled approach. Most significantly, by delivering more customer-centric communication and services,
a utility can reduce call center operating
costs by diverting calls to self-service
options. In addition, it can proactively
manage service disruption events.
THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is one particular mobile
communications tool that is seeing a
dramatic increase in consumer use and
by utilities, as well. In fact, social media is
fundamentally changing the way utilities
approach customer interaction.
A multi-faceted communications tool,
social media channels offer utilities many
new ways in which to engage customers.
They can monitor whats being said about
them, disseminate messages (whether
broadly or to identified segments of their
customer base), better connect one-onone with individual customers and even

identify online influencers who will

champion utilities messages.
Electric, gas and water utilities are
engaging Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,
LinkedIn, Instagram and other online
channels in their efforts to open new lines
of communication in the places where
their customers and other interested parties are communicating and to adopt a
more informed customer service role.
Each communications channel a utility
uses has its own strength. Choosing the
right communications channel for each
customer and each communication is key,
and it is important when switching from
one channel to another to keep the experience seamless for the customer.
Experts expect more and more service-driven interactions to come through
social media channels in the future, where
consumers see greater possibilities for
24/7, near real-time discussions and problem resolution. The ability to connect
these vital interactions with the rest of a
utility customers information is crucial.
In turn, social data, when collected,
filtered and integrated with transactional and structured data within customer
relationship management and other key
utility operational and business systems,
can be an incredibly powerful, near realtime tool within the utilitys customer
management and engagement toolset.
UNLOCKING NEW DOORS
WITH DATA ANALYTICS
In concert with analytics, all of this
new data can provide the utility with
a 360-degree view of each customer,
allowing for the better delivery of service excellence.
For many utilities, data analytics
remains a largely untapped resource. The
industry continues to be hindered by
information silos, static business processes

and skills gaps that make utility adoption

of data analytics challenging.
The rewards are many, however. By
integrating and analyzing data from all
customer touch points (i.e., meter data,
billing data, outage data, customer communications and more), utilities can
derive even greater insight into customer usage trends. Utilities then can apply
this information to:
Provide usage-driven insights to
customers
Drive customer program participation
Monitor customer program and
service performance
Identify top energy users for targeted, proactive approach and educate
them on the value of an energy
audit or consultation
Resolve meter or billing issues
before they impact the customer
More effectively operate and maintain your distribution system
Track your utilitys customer
engagement progress over time,
making ongoing improvements to
programs and services
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Managing and nurturing positive customer engagement is an ongoing, fluid
process, not a set-and-forget, one-time
automated effort. With respect to new
customer programs, for instance, its
important to track progress, recognize
which messages and programs are capturing customers attention, and understand how those programs are impacting their overall customer experience.
The lessons you learn with each effort,
each program and each new communications channel can be iteratively directed into the planning for future efforts
and programs.

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BY JOHN RADGOWSKI, LANDIS+GYR

Leveraging AMI Communications

Networks to Build Smart Communities

mart grid technologys ability to

improve quality of life for consumers
and their communities is no longer an
abstract concept. Utilities have the tools
to implement smart energy projects today
and many have already begun leveraging
advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)
communications networks for these innovative projects.
The global push toward development
of smart energy communities rests on
the same foundation utilities already
use to modernize daily operations.
Reaching this goal involves a systematic
examination of the component parts
and resources already in use, along with
a dedicated process by which new technologies are added to the grid.
On Sept. 14, 2015, the White House
announced the formation of a new national nonprofit, Envision America, aimed at
bringing together stakeholders to tackle the
nations challenges in energy, water, waste
and air quality. A key component to this
initiative is developing best practices for
utilities and communities to share, communicate and secure distribution grid and
consumer energy usage data to improve
efficiency and reduce overall consumption.
The launch of Envision America provides utilities with the opportunity to assert
a leadership position in this effort. By
using their multi-purpose AMI networks
to improve reliability, secure communications and facilitate interoperability, utilities
can demonstrate immediate value for their
customers and help all players take action
on the intelligence and automation these
networks provide.

As smart meters, distribution automation sensors, electric vehicles, smart

thermostats and other technologies are
deployed, utilities and consumers will be
able to control energy usage at unparalleled
levels. This increase in information and
control requires both a focus on security
and a greater reliance on analytics engines
to meet the goals ahead.
With tens of millions of smart meters
and advanced sensing devices already
operating on advanced communications
networks the opportunity becomes clear:
we can leverage AMI network investments
to provide new insights into energy usage
and improve the quality of life for both the
customers and communities within the
utilitys service territory.
AMI NETWORKS: THE ENABLER
OF SMART ENERGY COMMUNITIES
Utilities need to think critically about the
types of communication technologies that
can provide immediate benefits, as well as
the type of communications platform that
will be flexible, secure and resilient enough
to incorporate new technologies. In addition, strategic planning is required around
the integration and interoperability of communication layers to enable better visibility,
management and data sharing, as well as
determine how and where the different
communication layers can be consolidated
and integrated.
Multi-purpose AMI networks meet and
exceed the requirements for future-ready
smart energy projects. As enabling platforms for new grid technologies, multipurpose AMI networks offer more advantages

than other networking technologies. AMI

networks provide the ability to prioritize
messages over other traffic, which is not
permissible with cellular or broadband
Internet. In fact, data traffic on cellular
networks has the lowest priority. And,
with broadband Internet, utility traffic is
treated the same as any other packets in
the network.
As the true enabler of the smart grid,
multi-purpose AMI networks provide
two-way communication capabilities for
moving data from the utility head-end
system to endpoints, while managing
how that data is used and secured.
Some key attributes distinguish AMI
networks as the most versatile, secure
and interoperable platform for implementing smart energy projects:
Regional
distribution
of
assetsRF mesh technology can
be regionally distributed, so the
operator can target specific areas
without needing to deploy infrastructure in areas not being serve.
Self-healing architectureAMI
networks communicate through
self-healing mesh architecture for
built-in reliability. If one module
loses communication with the network, the network automatically
finds another path to bring communications back to the head-end system. The network operator, therefore, never needs to worry about
network performance hinging on a

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / SCANRAIL

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES:

John Radgowski is vice president of Solutions

Product Management at Landis+Gyr.

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single communication node.

Self-forming operationThe networks intelligence enables communication signals to find the optimal
route back to the head-end system.
This is particularly important in
areas where obstructions, such as
mountains or high-rise buildings,
can impede transmissions.
Interoperable standardsAMI
networks incorporate standards-based
communications solutions that will
assure interoperability, enabling a
broad ecosystem of endpoints, communicating grid devices and software
applications that can all leverage the
data and connectivity of the network.
Advanced securityAMI networks can be enabled for advanced
end-to-end security, meeting and
exceeding even the strictest encryption requirements.
Low risk investmentAs the smart
grid evolves, additional standards
will be defined, new applications
will emerge and data requirements
will expand. To protect the long-term
interest of both utilities and customers, AMI networks are designed with
ample memory, processing power and
platform flexibility for both hardware
and software.
Cost-effective operationThe
versatility of modern AMI networks
makes them more cost-effective
than the piecemeal communications approaches of the past. And,
unlike cellular, additional devices
can be added without incurring
new monthly data fees, or external
troubleshooting costs, as with consumer Wi-Fi networks.
UTILITIES ARE BUILDING
SMART ENERGY COMMUNITIES
Utilities, on their own initiative or in

collaboration with their communities, are

already using their AMI networks to implement smart energy projects. A smart grid
and a smart energy community doesnt
require massive investments or complete
integration of every possible component
onto the network. It requires the strategic
utilization of AMI networks to implement
targeted technologies, which can result in
immediate benefits to both the community
and the utility. The gradual, systematic and
collaborative addition of these technologies
supports each objective for a smart energy
community. There are numerous examples
of how this implementation works:
Smart thermostatsAdvances in
load management technology enable
utilities to use demand response as
a virtual peaking plant, while consumers receive more control to manage their participation in these programs. Utilities such as Baldwin EMC
and Colorado Springs Utilities have
deployed network-enabled programmable communicating thermostats.
Consumers can actively participate
in load control programs and take
advantage of price incentives to dramatically shave peak energy use. Not
only does this technology provide
the utility with immediate insights
into the amount of load being shed,
but consumers can remotely monitor
and control their participation using a
mobile application.
Electric vehiclesCon Edison is
using intelligent switches to prepare
for more electric vehicles. With this
technology, Con Ed is able to monitor,
control and respond to signals from
charging stations, while using the
information to implement a variety
of tariffs to support its programs. The
network provides a reliable communication path with these load management devices with the data and

control necessary to make timely

decisions that help reduce peak load
and protect distribution infrastructure from overload.
Securing critical infrastructureIn conjunction with New
York State Energy Research and
Development
Authority
and
National Grid, the Buffalo Niagara
Medical Campus (BNMC) is using
AMI network technology to improve
electric power for end-users by
managing the interaction of the grid
with distributed energy resources.
As microgrid management increasingly becomes critical for maintaining reliability and power quality for
the distribution grid, utility partnerships with microgrid operators are
becoming more common. Intelligent
networks provide oversight of
capacity and load requirements to
balance energy needs and monitor
distributed energy resources.
A look into the future sees endless
possibilities for building on the foundation AMI networks already provide.
They interoperate with technologies
that go beyond the grid to assist with
managing city infrastructure and water
resources. They help automate home
energy management and smart appliance operation. In addition, this technology is already proven worldwide to
offer a secure and reliable data hub to
drive operational and energy efficiency
down to the consumer level.
When it comes to building smart communities, recent experience with AMI
and intelligent sensor networks demonstrates what can be done. Going forward,
utilities have the knowledge to lead this
effort. In fact, they already are doing so
by implementing the technology that will
make interconnected and interoperable
communities a reality.

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BY MIGUEL BENGLA, ADVANCED CONTROL SYSTEMS

hen you, the substation expert at your utility,

enter an aging installation and see a 40-year
old transformer, 30-year old circuit breaker or the
50-year old fence that is falling apart, the old remote
terminal unit (RTU) sitting in a corner might not be
your first concern.
Some of the thoughts that run through your head
might be: I know the original vendor is no longer in
business, so there is no one to call for support; There
is no way I can get parts for it; I cant do any IED
integration or open communication protocols; or, But
it still works and I certainly dont have the time, budget
or people to replace that old thing.
This is not an isolated engineer in an isolated substation at an isolated utility. As Figures 1 and 2 (provided
from 2014 Newton-Evans Research) illustrate, the
number of transmission and distribution substations in
operation with little or no automation in the U.S. is by far
larger than the number of fully automated substations.
With all the available technology, one might ask how can
it be that we still have non-automated substations? Isnt
this supposed to be the smart grid era?
To answer this question, technology leaders must
realize that if it was simple to do, it would already be
Miguel Bengla is substation automation product manager
at Advanced Control Systems (ACS). He has been working in
substation management for 10 years.
Leagacy substation remote terminal
unit (RTU) installation.

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LEVEL OF AUTOMATION FOR TRANSMISSION

SUBSTATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA

1,600
Now in operation

Number of Substations

1,400

To be retrofitted by year end 2016

1,200

New, to be built by year end 2016

1,000
800
600
400
200
0
With No Automation

Some Automation

Full Automation

Source: 2014 Newton-Evans Research

LEVEL OF AUTOMATION FOR DISTRIBUTION

SUBSTATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA

4,000
Now in operation

Number of Substations

3,500

To be retrofitted by year end 2016

substation automation industry know

what it takes to replace an old RTU. It
is much more than budgeting for a new
substation controller. Most time is spent
on field installation and rewiring (with
all the associated testing), substation
wiring diagram revisions and, in some
cases, making changes to the existing
SCADA master databases and displays.
This often makes it prohibitive for a
utility to upgrade to existing modern
technology and all the possibilities it
unleashes, or simply prevent the utility from losing a substation and living
through all the consequences that loss
brings to it, as well as the community
it serves.
Industry leaders, therefore, must
explore different solutions for these
problems. If the solutions being offered
dont address utilities needs, a new
solution other than replacing the legacy
RTU must be found.

New, to be built by year end 2016

3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
With No Automation

Some Automation

Full Automation

Source: 2014 Newton-Evans Research

done. In addition, they must understand

that while there might be hundreds of
items to consider when contemplating
substation control center modernization,
that list of items can usually be reduced
to just three: cost, people and time.
Is it possible to address these three
items and optimize a substation? A
state-of-the-art substation controller can
be installed in an old substation at a

reasonable cost, while reducing the number of people involved in the change. In
addition, open TCP/IP communications,
IED integration, real automation and
NERC CIP compliance can be integrated
into the old substation in just one day.
LEGACY RTU REPLACEMENT
MIGHT NOT BE THE ANSWER
Most people who work in the

THE POWER OF UPGRADING

Upgrading is a solution. An upgrade
delivers superior modern technology
by replacing only the legacy RTU logic,
control cards and processor, along with
the old power supply. Existing control
relays and wiring, digital and analog
input termination modules, field wiring, and SCADA master database and
displays, if working properly, all can be
retained and left untouched. This solution results in real and significant time
and cost savings and brings smart grid
to the substation. It is an opportunity
for todays technology to work in last
centurys installations.
This upgrade solution exists today
and many utilities have already implemented it and seen proven results.
Cleco Corp. is one of those utilities.
It is a public utility holding company

30 | December 2015
www.power-grid.com

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12/4/15 1:37 PM

Substation remote terminal unit

(RTU) installation after upgrade.

The legacy RTU

upgrade is a
solution to a real
problem. It can, in
many cases, be a
better choice than
RTU replacement
when modernizing
the substation
control center.

based in Pineville, Louisiana, that has

been in business since 1935. It employs
approximately 1,200 people, serves
approximately 286,000 retail customers

in Louisiana and
supplies wholesale
power in Louisiana
and Mississippi. Its
legacy RTU upgrade
has become routine
for Miles Dupuis, a
principal engineer
at Cleco with 20
years of experience
in SCADA equipment
and 33 years total at
the utility.
There is no comparison (with a full RTU replacement).
Using a vendor that allows us to retrofit
RTUs in one day while using only one
person in the field is far less costly

than what other vendors offer, Dupuis

said. Some solutions offer the option
to replace old, outdated RTUs with
replacements to modernize your substations; however, it usually takes three
people and two to three days to complete the task, at a much more significant cost.
Xcel Energy is also discovering how
simple, fast and cost-effective an RTU
upgrade can be when compared with a
full replacement.
We now have the ability to modify
aged RTU designs that have little to
no replacement parts into a modern
RTU, said Mitchel Wilkinson, an Xcel
Energy engineer in Minneapolis with
seven years of substation engineering
and design experience. This solution
leaves all existing wiring in place while
upgrading CPUs so that data can be
gathered and sent, using modern communication protocols. These modifications can be done for a fraction of
the engineering and construction time
required for a complete replacement.
This is a great option as we upgrade our
aging system.
THE FUTURE IS TODAY
Technology constantly evolves and
infinitely more possibilities will exist
tomorrow than exist today. New features and products should never exist,
however, only for the sake of creating something new. They must provide
answers to real concerns, challenges
and problems.
The legacy RTU upgrade is a solution
to a real problem. It can, in many cases,
be a better choice than RTU replacement when modernizing the substation
control center. It addresses the three
major constraints utilities face: budget,
time and people.

December 2015 | 31
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12/4/15 1:37 PM

aintaining and updating aging power

distribution infrastructure can create
a huge strain on utility resources, with
maintenance of transmission lines often
running into hundreds of thousands of
dollars per kilometer.
Rural power distribution brings with it
a specific set of challenges. The length of
distribution lines and their susceptibility to
the elements create maintenance problems
across large sections of the grid, and the
cost of higher-voltage lines means replacing
them is an expensive operation.

32 | December 2015
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1512pg_32 32

Rural electrification is not a niche issue

globally. It is estimated that seven out of
eight rural Sub-Saharan Africans do not
have access to electricity at all, alongside
as many as 300 million people in India.
Of course, many more face poor quality
electric power across the globeit is not
just a developing nation issue.
Utilities that distribute power to
rural customers need to find a balance
between the cost of supplying electricity
and the value of maintaining permanent
infrastructure.

CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / TWINDESIGNER

BY STEVEN BAYNE, AGGREKO

Preventing widespread
power failure and protecting reliability, is the No. 1 concern of most
electric utilities. The power
industry plays a vital role
in determining quality of
life, generating jobs and
developing growth.
The weather plays a
crucial role, too. Line
failures, disruptions and
critical equipment damage
caused by storms and extreme
weather conditions all play a part in
rural power infrastructure management.
Add to this decreasing voltage levels along
distribution lines and reduced reliability as
they wear out, and utilities face huge costs
simply to maintain the status quo, let alone
to overcome issues that can cause havoc for
end users in remote locations.
Not addressing these concerns can lead
to a collapse of power infrastructure in
rural communitiesand often investment
is at the heart of the matter.
For example, Nigeria has lost around
50 percent of its aging power generation,
transmission and distribution infrastructure because it has not been maintained,
upgraded or replaced. This is according to

12/4/15 1:37 PM

 CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / TWINDESIGNER

a Nov. 3, 2015, Vangard (a Nigeria-based

media company) report.
About half of Nigerias population lives
in rural communities and the lack of
electricity in these rural areas is a major
problem. A poster paper titled Rural
Electrification Infrastructure Development
in Nigeria Using 0n-Grid and Off-Grid
Sources presented by Kelechi Eke at the
2014 World Engineering Conference on
Sustainable Infrastructure held in AbujaNigeria, covered Nigerias rural electrification problems.
Eke said experts believed providing electricity in rural areas would catalyze the growth of agricultural industries, which would help curb some of the
wider socio-economic issues Nigeria faces.
The lack of investment in that infrastructure, however, has instead contributed to
Nigerias problems.
To deal with these concerns, utility companies are starting to look at the bigger picture. Whats the economic impact of rural
power distribution? Where are the pinch
points both to the cost of maintaining the
line and to the end user in losing the line?
What are the alternative solutions to laboriously maintaining extremely expensive,
lengthy and aging distribution lines into
rural areas?
Reducing both the cost of supply and
consequently the cost of electricity consumption is the end game. But looking
at the wider implications can also lead
to the establishment of entirely new
energy markets.
Peru is a good example. It has one of
the worlds fastest growing economies and
is rich in energy resources. With vast rural
forestlands, Amazonian plains and enormous mountain ranges, however, poverty
is deepest and most common among people living in these remote rural areas.
Since 2006, Peru has increased access to

electrical power to more than 100,000 low

income rural households through a combination of extending its national grid and
using distributed generation in the form of
solar power systems. This is according to
Energy Case Study: Peru, published on
Oct. 13, 2015, by CFI.co.
At a cost of $145 million, schools, health
clinics and community centers benefited,
as did households and small businesses.
In addition, the project was instrumental
in establishing a national tariff for offgrid photovoltaic systems, leading some
distribution companies to improve rural
electrification as part of their commercial
investment.
Another example is Australia, which
despite being a highly urbanized nation,
faces significant challenges in reaching its
rural communities. Investment in power
transmission infrastructure can cost billions
of dollars, which may not be recovered.
Aggreko was involved in one project that
illustrates the issue in microcosm.
Rural regions in Western, Northern and
North Queensland face costly maintenance
and replacement of single wire earth return
(SWER) lines to small communities and
even to single farms. Entirely reliant on
one, sometimes up to 280-km SWER line,
the cost of energy to the farm was increasing each year due to the huge maintenance
and repair expenses required to keep the
link in place.
Each distribution company involved
received government subsidies to provide
energy distribution in the region. In addition, they owned the transmission line to
the community or farm. An audit of the
maintenance requirements for these lines
put the cost of long-term repairs around
$10 to $15 million Australian dollars ($7.3
to $11 million U.S. dollars) per line. This
made the cost of providing electricity to
these farms extremely high.

That cost-benefit analysis led to wider

thinking about more cost-effective solutions. Aggreko was asked to assess the cost
and rewards of on-site energy production
using a generator. While this would render
the distribution line redundant, the cost of
energy, while higher than its current level,
could represent a huge saving for the farm,
utility and government.
The solution was for Aggreko to install
a mix of small scale batteries, diesel generation and solar at the farms, resulting in
a more reliable supply. Aggreko estimated,
based on the projections from upgrading
the lines, that even after 20 years of use, the
government would still be saving money.
Regulatory changes were required to
implement this solution because customer had to be disconnected. This meant
that the distribution company no longer
received subsidies for those disconnected
customers and, therefore, faced a potential
loss of annual revenue, but the long-term
overall savings couldnt be ignored.
WHATS NEXT FOR RURAL
ENERGY DISTRIBUTION?
Utility businesses are right to look at
varied and less obvious solutions. Rural
communities play a vital role in societies
around the world. In many nations, lack of
power is affecting millions of people. It is
important, therefore, for distribution utilities and regulators to look at the most effective way to counteract aging infrastructure.
Whether that means creating new
energy markets through investment or
being prepared to say no to repairing old transmission lines, innovative
thinking will only become more important as time moves on.
Steven Bayne is an Aggreko sector manager
for IPP/utilities in Australia-Pacific. Aggreko PLC
is a provider of modular, mobile power and
adjacent product solutions.

December 2015 | 33
www.power-grid.com

1512pg_33 33

12/4/15 1:37 PM

PRODUCTS

Portable voltagetransformer tester

At only 15 kg/33 pounds and compact in size Omicrons
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Additionally, the software offers tools to diagnose voltage

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34 | December 2015
www.power-grid.com

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12/4/15 1:37 PM

DistribuTECH 2016: The industrys most

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December 2015 | 35
www.power-grid.com

1512pg_35 35

12/4/15 1:37 PM

PARTING THOUGHTS

TA L K

The threat is ever

changingWe know
weve always got to
anticipate the threat
environment is changing
and therefore adapt
our own strategies
skating to where the
puck will be.
Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning, speaking about
GridEx III exercise on grid security

Aerial systems have the potential

to provide significant benefits and savings
for the electric utility industry, and some
utilities are beginning to explore the
use of the technology.
Tom Alley, vice president of EPRIs Generation
research, on drone technology

T R EN D S

Forty-two percent of energy CEOs are more confident about their

prospects for growth over the next three years than they were last year,
while 76 percent expect their headcount to rise over the next three years.
KPMG Global Energy Institute: Global CEO Outlook

The shift to an efficient and low-carbon energy system could create

hundreds of billions in euros or dollars in new annual value for the
global electricity utilities industry by 2030.
Accenture and CDP: Low Carbon, High Stakes

As the winter season approaches, all signs

are that the current El Nino is maintaining its
strength as sea-surface temperatures remain
warmer than average across much of the
Equatorial Pacific Ocean.
www.elp.com: ELP Executive Digest monthly weather report

U.S. electric utilities reliability is on the rise over the

past decade, according to study by PA Consulting. The
study found that system average interruption duration
index (SAIDI) has improved over the 2009 to 2014
period by about 6 percent.
http://www.paconsulting.com/industries/energy/sr3-report/

Basically we want drive

units that just never wear out;
thats our goal. And I think weve
made really good progress
in that direction.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk

We are advancing the theme that

energy technology innovation and the
resultant continued cost reductions
of clean energy technologies are
ultimately key to meeting our
challenges in climate change. Lower
cost clean energy solutions enable
policy to move forward more quickly.
U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

T W EE T S

Unusual question: Are you spending too much on #cybersecurity?

@leidosengineers

How has #MooresLaw disrupted

the #utility industry?
http://intel.ly/1WYS8if

Maintaining reliable electric service is

the top priority of electric co-ops member-owners.
New nationwide survey: http://ow.ly/URdxN
@NRECAnews

If U.S. is committed to curbing climate change, we must

prevent #nuclear plant shutdowns http://mycj.co/1WUaP16
#ActOnClimate #FactsNotFear
@ AREVAus

December 2015 | 36
www.power-grid.com

1512pg_36 36

12/4/15 1:37 PM

FOCUSED
ON WATER
FEBRUARY 911, 2016 + DISTRIBUTECH.COM
ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER - WEST HALLS A & B + ORLANDO, FL
Kelly Saye @WHOLEISTICSafar

@DistribuTECH San Diego was a

huge success! Looking forward to
engaging new talent in #cleantech
#energyefficiency with
@EnertechSearch

SmartUtilitySystems @SmartUtilitySys

We had a very successful time

@DistribuTECH. Thanks to all who
stopped by our booth. See you next
year in Orlando.

Owned & Produced By:

Access WDS @AccessWDS

Great #DTECH2015 thank you

@DistribuTECH! This year was
even better than last. We are
looking forward to 2016.

Official Publication
of DistribuTECH:

Supporting Publication:

Host Utility:

McDonnell Group @mcdonnellgroup

Were sad #DTECH2015 is over

it was such a great conference.
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ur
Co
fM

yo

s
te
ta
iet
ar
nd

ra
we
Po
u

tiv
Ac

K.Kringle
Founder and CEO,
North Pole Enterprises

Youre good, for goodnesssake!

With ACSyour customers
know when and
what to expect! Ho Ho Ho!

every line pole, customers trust ACS to execute their vision while we work as
a team to deliver innovative automation solutions worldwide. Since 1975,
our systems & services have enabled improved grid reliability, resiliency
and eciency for utilities of all sizes. Let us help you realize your goals with
proven technology, turnkey services and industry-leading support.

Contact us: 800.831.7223 | Extension 4

Outage Management
Mobile
Energy Management

All Rights Reserved.

Our customer-relationship secret is trust. From the North Pole to

Advanced DMS

Substation Automation
Feeder Automation
SCADA

Customer Infrastructure Solutions

acspower.com

2015 Advanced Control Systems, Inc.

Our Control Center serves as the heartbeat of our operations. As a key

partner since 1977, ACS provides the tools to successfully achieve two
priority goals in our daily service delivery. First and foremost the ability to
keep our Power Crews safe in a potentially dangerous environment and
secondly, to consistently deliver reliable services to our customers in a timely
manner, says Jim Culpepper, Power Control Supervisor, Marietta Power.

Go to pgi.hotims.com for more information.

1512pg_C4 4

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