Professional Documents
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review
The corporate
technical journal
Smart grids
The city lights adorning the cover of
this edition of ABB Review illustrate
mankind’s dependence on electricity.
Electric light is probably even the
most visible sign of human activity
when our planet is seen from space.
Electricity is involved in almost every
aspect of economic activity. The
delivery chain of the future, ranging
from generation to consumption,
must meet the four challenges of
capacity, reliability, efficiency and
sustainability. These four aspects lie
at the heart of ABB’s vision of smart
grids.
Smart grids 6
10
Smart electricity
Efficient power for a sustainable world
The next level of evolution
Smart grid technologies are key to supplying the world
with high-quality, clean, reliable and sustainable power
and control 33
operators
Connected
The nervous system of the smart grid
38 Closing the loop
Smart distribution management systems are helping to
provide more efficient and reliable services
44 Smart teamwork
Collaborations with recognized research institutes are
helping ABB meet the challenges of the future electric
grid
Contents 3
Editorial
Smarter grids
Dear Reader,
A modern business paradigm advises us to will grow in their ubiquity, it is surprising how
“work smarter, not harder.” Time and energy much data is already available in existing
invested in analyzing the way we work often equipment. So besides adding further sensors,
yield greater gains than intensifying our efforts smart grids must address the communication
without changing our approach. What is true needed to share this data, and indeed the
for one’s personal situation is equally appli- control nodes that must act on it.
cable to larger systems. In the case of
transmission and distribution networks, Some of these topics were discussed in the
changes in the way the grid is being used are 3/2009 edition of ABB Review (Delivering
raising the question of how best to handle power). The present issue builds on this,
these changes. Is it acceptable to require taking a comprehensive look at all major
existing infrastructure to “work harder,” ie, aspects involved in smart grids. For the
closer to the limits of existing equipment, thus generation side, HVDC Light® technology
exposing customers to an increased risk of is used to connect wind farms, and at the
failures and blackouts? Or is a “smarter grid” same time improve the stability of the grid
the better solution? through its reactive-power control capability.
A pioneering storage technology is also
Overall consumption is rising, and the presented, offering short-term protection
combined effects of market liberalization and against variability.
the growing share of renewables are further
adding to the stress on the grid. The availabil- On the operations and control side, a series
ity of wind and solar energy is by nature of articles looks at improvements in network
intermittent and difficult to predict. Further- management software and technology.
more, renewable energy is often generated in The best of control systems is of little use,
remote locations where local grid infrastruc- however, if equipment does not perform as
ture is weak. The roles of consumers and of expected. We address service and mainte-
the distribution grid are being redefined: nance for transformers, and also improve-
Consumers with their own local generation ments in medium-voltage switchgear.
are evolving to become “pro-sumers.” The
former distribution grid is thus also becoming Moving on to the domestic perspective, smart
a collection grid for distributed generation. meters give residents immediate feedback on
their energy use and also facilitate the billing
The traditional “work harder” approach would models that incentivize a reduction of peak
imply meeting the growth in variability with an loads. Finally, an intuitive control system
increase in spinning reserves. This is not only helps home owners save energy.
costly but can partly negate the environmental
advantage of renewable generation. The “work I trust this issue of ABB Review will highlight
smarter” approach takes a more comprehen- ABB’s ability to support all stakeholders –
sive view of the transmission system. Whereas from transmission operators to home owners
the control system of a traditional grid assumes – in meeting the challenges of the smart grid.
the demand side to be a “given,” smart grids
will increasingly incentivize consumers to Enjoy your reading.
modify their consumption patterns to suit
availability.
A
sobering fact today is that coined by the term “smart grid”.
coal fuels more than 40 per- single largest and
cent of the world’s electric Smart grids
supply, making electricity gen- The future electrical system (or smart fastest growing
eration the single largest and fastest ris-
ing contributor to CO2 emissions. This
grid), must be designed to meet four
major requirements of the global society:
contributor to CO2
fact combined with the growing need for – Capacity emissions.
electricity is driving a fundamental and – Reliability
exciting change in the electrical industry. – Efficiency events such as massive rolling blackouts
– Sustainability that can cut a whole country from its
To successfully address the challenges electricity supply are only the small tip of
new solutions are needed along the Capacity a far larger iceberg. It is the large number
electrical value chain – generation must As long as societal will does not limit the of short disturbances that contribute to
increase but at the same time contribute growth of energy consumption, it is ex- significant economic disadvantages. A
less to greenhouse gas emissions. Trans- pected that the consumption of electrical recent study performed for the United
mission, distribution and consumption energy will grow substantially in the fu- States reported that unreliable electrical
of electrical energy must become more ture. If the forecast of the International systems cost $80 billion annually [1].
efficient. Energy Agency holds, it means that we
will need to add one 1 GW power plant A more reliable electrical supply not only
Today, the way electrical energy is gener- and related grid infrastructure every week helps the economy and improves the
ated, transported and used is not efficient for the next 20 years. The future electric quality of life, but it also has a positive in-
enough. Inefficiencies along the whole system must cope with this capacity in- fluence on climate change. If an electrical
value chain lead to around 80 percent of crease in an economic way. system can safely handle and stabilize
losses from the primary energy sources to grid disturbances, then that system will
the useful consumption of electricity. Reliability require fewer generating plants available
The larger the amount of electricity trans- in reserve. This means lower emissions.
Although the growth rate of renewable ported the closer the system will operate
energy generation is high, the contribu- to its stability limit. Yet blackouts or even Energy efficiency
tion of renewable energy in the overall smaller disturbances are becoming in- Projections by the International Energy
energy mix is still quite small. Renewable creasingly unacceptable. Agency show that using energy more ef-
energy, especially that originating from ficiently has a greater potential to curb
intermittent and variable sources (eg, Reliability of the electrical system has al- CO2 emissions over the next 20 years
wind and solar) pose additional challeng- ways been a priority to engineers and than all the other options put together [2].
es. Not least of these is availability, which has improved dramatically over the last
highlights the need for energy storage as few decades. Nevertheless, electricity in- Yet out of the financial sector’s $119 bil-
well as systems to coordinate available terruptions are still a real risk. Dramatic lion invested in clean energy around the
Smart electricity 7
Efficient generation, transport and better utilization of electricity
Commercial
Primary energy Transport Generation T&D Industry residential
30 % saving
Available energy
80 % losses
Improved well Improved More efficient Lower line losses,
efficiency pipeline flows fuel combustion higher substation Improved Building
efficiency productivity management
Energy efficiency along the value chain can reduce losses by 30 percent
world in 2008, just $1.8 billion was spent used in industrial applications. The move
A more reliable on improving energy efficiency, accord- was barely noticed, yet it is expected to
ing to a study by the UN Environment save 135 billion kilowatt-hours per year
electrical supply Program and New Energy Finance [3]. by 2020. That is three times more than
not only helps the The reluctance to invest in energy effi-
the savings expected from phasing out
incandescent light bulbs in the European
economy and im- ciency is surprising. Investments can region and equals more than Sweden’s
usually be recouped through lower ener- total electric power consumption (which
proves the quality gy costs in less than two years, and un- in 2007 amounted to 132 billion kWh).
of life, but it also der other circumstances, businesses
would normally leap at such prospects of Sustainability
has a positive influ- rapid returns. A major obstacle is a lack Generating electricity with solar, wind,
of knowledge in private households, wave or geothermal energy is without
ence on climate companies or public authorities concern- doubt a powerful way to avoid CO2 emis-
Smart electricity 9
The next level
of evolution
ENRIQUE SANTACANA, BAZMI HUSAIN, FRIEDRICH PINNEKAMP, PER
Smart grid technologies HALVARSSON, GARY RACKLIFFE, LE TANG, XIAOMING FENG – Electrical
are key to supplying the power grids are critical infrastructures in all modern societies. However,
many are aging and are stressed by operational scenarios and chal-
world with high quality, lenges never envisioned when the majority of the grids were developed
many decades ago. These grids now need to be transformed into smart
clean, reliable and sus- grids in order to meet the challenges facing developed and developing
tainable power countries alike, such as the growing demand for electric power, the need
to increase efficiency in energy conversion, delivery, consumption, the
provision of high quality power, and the integration of renewable
resources for sustainable development. The term smart grid has been
frequently used in the last few years in the electric power industry to
describe a digitized version of the present day power grid. Smart grids
can be achieved through the application of existing and emerging
technologies. However, it will take time and many technical and non
technical challenges, such as regulation, security, privacy and consumer
rights need to be overcome.
China
Europe and
North America
94% 177%
5.4% 26%
India
M. East and
Africa
89% 140%
South 116% 261%
America
48% 78%
Primary energy demand Source: Values calculated by ABB from IEA reference scenario
Electricity demand 2007–2030 data in World Energy Outlook 2009
A
t the National Governors As- network users should be possible. access to electrical energy and this fig-
sociation Convention in the In particular the smart grid should ure is set to increase. The level of electri-
United States in February be accessible to renewable power cal power consumption, reliability, and
2009, the CEO of a major sources and high efficiency local quality has been closely linked to the
utility started his speech with the con- generation with zero or low carbon level of economic development of a
fession that he didn’t really know what emissions. country or region. According to an Inter-
the term smart grid 1 meant [1] . Shock- – Reliable: This means the grid is secure national Energy Agency (IEA) forecast,
ing as it may seem, such a confession and the quality of the supply is the worldwide demand for electrical en-
may have absolved many in the engi- assured. It should be consistent with ergy is growing twice as fast as the de-
neering community who secretly felt the the demands of the digital age and mand for primary energy ➔ 1, and the
same way. resilient to hazards and uncertainties. growth rate is highest in Asia ➔ 2. Meet-
– Economical: The best possible value ing this rise in demand will mean adding
The definition of a smart grid may vary is provided through innovation, a 1 GW power plant and all related infra-
depending on where you are in the world. efficient energy management and a structure every week for the next 20
In the United States, for example, the level playing field in terms of competi- years!
following attributes are commonly cited tion and regulation.
as being necessary to define a smart grid At the same time, an increasingly digi-
[2–6]: China, one of the biggest power-hungry talized society demands high power
– It should be self-healing after power economies on the planet, is also devel- quality and reliability. Simply put, poor
disturbance events. oping the smart grid concept. According reliability can cause huge economic loss-
– It should enable active participation to a memo issued by the joint US-China es. To illustrate this point, a Berkley Na-
by consumers in demand response. cooperation on clean energy (JUCCCE) tional Laboratory report in 2005 stated
– It should operate resiliently against in December 2007, “the term smart grid that in the United States the annual cost
physical and cyber attacks. refers to an electricity transmission and of system disturbances is an estimated
– It should provide quality power to distribution system that incorporates ele- $80 billion, the bulk of which ($52 billion)
meet 21st century needs. ments of traditional and cutting-edge is due to short momentary interruptions.
– It should accommodate all generation power engineering, sophisticated sens- The reported number of system distur-
and storage options. ing and monitoring technology, informa- bances from 2002 to the middle of 2008
– It should enable new products, tion technology and communications to is shown in ➔ 3. In addition, the threat of
services and markets. provide better grid performance and to terrorist attacks on either the physical or
– It should optimize asset utilization and support a wide range of additional ser- cyber assets of the grids also heightens
operating efficiency. vices to consumers. A smart grid is not
defined by what technologies it incorpo-
Footnote
According to a European Commission rates, but rather by what it can do” [8].
1 The term smart grid is sometimes interchanged
report [7], a smart grid in Europe is de- with the terms intelligent grid, modern grid and
scribed as one that is: future grid.
30,000 50
Number of disturbance
40
25,000 Others
events in US
consumption in TWh
(9,917) 30
country/region in 2030
Global electricity
20,000 20
Contribution by
NAM
(5,679) 10
15,000
Europe 0
2008
10,000 (3,855) 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
(Jan–Jul)
India
Category 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
5,000 (1,966)
China Category 4 4 2 0 3 1 2 1
0 (7,513)
Category 3 22 20 19 12 11 13 10
2000 2006 2015 2030 Category 2 17 16 8 22 17 15 15
year
Source: NERC annual report 2008
Source: IEA reference scenario in World Energy Outlook 2009
7 Road transport
est single source of CO 2 emissions. The 6
in gigatons
Residential and
growth trend of annual CO 2 emissions (in 5 service sector
Decision intelligence
Communication
Sensor/Actuator
Power conversion/transport/
storage/consumption
L
iving standards and energy con- capability (ie, the ability to remain con- nominal voltage levels. Maintaining nomi-
sumption are growing from year nected, supplying power to the electrical nal voltage levels is important because
to year. According to a MAKE system immediately after a network fault). most electrical components only tolerate
Consulting market outlook, the In areas where wind generators comprise small deviations in voltage. If the voltage
worldwide demand for power will increase a large share of the generation capacity, is too low or too high the grid becomes
by 79.6 percent between 2006 and 2030. this can have a negative impact on the unstable and components can malfunc-
This demand must be met by clean and entire network’s stability. tion or become damaged.
renewable energy sources, since conven-
tional fossil fuel power generation plants For this reason grid operators are forced Besides affecting the voltage, reactive
contribute greatly to greenhouse gas to introduce technical standards, so- power flows also increase the load on
emissions and global warming. called “grid codes,” which must be ful- transmission lines and transformers,
filled so that permission can be granted thereby restricting their active power
In 2006, 18 percent of the power gener- for a wind park to join the grid. transmission capacity. By lowering the
ated was derived from renewable re- reactive current in transmission lines, ca-
sources, mainly hydroelectric generation. Reactive power and voltage control pacity is increased and losses are re-
The scale of future renewable power Contrary to electric power frequency, duced. This solution is faster and more
generation and its overall share of the which has to be the same at every point cost effective than building additional
energy mix are difficult to predict since of an interconnected grid, the voltage is transmission lines.
this depends largely on the political cli- a local parameter that varies depending
mate. However, if currently planned po- on the location and load flow in the grid. ABB offers a comprehensive range of re-
litical initiatives are implemented the total In a circuit where the load is purely ohm- active power compensation products
share of renewable power generation is ic, the voltage and current waveforms and customized solutions to meet these
expected to rise to 23 percent by 2030; are in phase and transmitted real power challenges.
more optimistic forecasts have even sug- is at a maximum. However, the inductive
gested a 62 percent share. nature of the grid means that the flow of One such solution is the Power Convert-
electric current is altered so that the volt- er System 6000 Static Synchronous
No matter the predicted size of the re- age and current waveforms are out of Compensator, better known as the PCS
newable power sector, wind power gen- phase. In a circuit powered by a DC 6000 STATCOM. The system meets the
eration will play a significant part in the source, the impedance equals the total most stringent dynamic response re-
future supply of power. In some coun- resistance of the circuit. In an AC pow- quirements and is able to deliver full re-
tries, wind turbines already play a signifi- ered circuit, however, the electric devices active current even during voltage dips,
cant role in energy production, and in in the circuit, ie, inductors (generators making it the perfect add-on solution for
some regions, there is still space for new and transformers), capacitors and even wind parks. It allows wind parks to meet
wind parks. Unfortunately, it is becoming the transmission cable itself, contribute highly demanding grid codes, stabilizes
increasingly difficult to find new areas in to the impedance (see Factbox 2 on both positive and negative sequence
which to economically harvest wind en- page 35 of ABB Review 3/2009). Induc- voltages in industrial plants and provides
110 kV
33 kV
STATCOM
ABB STATCOM
One of the first countries in which the grid
operator introduced a grid code specify-
ing the reactive power requirements for low voltages and is limited only by the ment, preventing dust, sand particles
wind parks was the United Kingdom. Here need for active power to cover its losses. and salt entering the converter. This in
several ABB STATCOMs are already in The reactive power output capability of turn results in lower maintenance re-
operation, statically and dynamically sup- the system decreases linearly with the quirements.
porting the grid. Recently, a 24 MVAr voltage, whereas for passive compo-
STATCOM was installed and operates nents, the reactive power output is pro- The ABB STATCOM can be installed ei-
successfully to ensure that the Little portional to the square of the voltage. ther in a building or in a cost-effective
Cheyne Court wind park, located near outdoor container ➔ 2. The container in-
Rye in Kent in the southeastern part of The PCS 6000 STATCOM consists of a cludes a cooling unit, a control system
the United Kingdom, fulfills the National voltage source converter, connected to with a human machine interface (HMI),
grid code. the grid through a transformer. The con- air conditioning for the control room and
verter contains so-called power elec- a heater for the converter room. It is fully
A typical wind park setup is shown in ➔ 1. tronic building blocks with integrated wired and tested prior to delivery to re-
The STATCOM in Little Cheyne Court is gate-commutated thyristors (IGCTs). De- duce installation and commissioning
connected to the secondary side of the veloped in the 1990’s, IGCT’s combine time.
110 kV / 33 kV wind park transformer. the advantages of insulated-gate bipolar
Here the STATCOM stabilizes the local transistors (IGBTs) and gate turn-off thy- STATCOM control
voltage in the wind park by creating a ristors (GTOs), ie, low switching and ABB’s STATCOM is controlled by an AC
voltage drop across the transformer. conduction losses, fast switching capa- 800PEC (power electronics controller)
bility and robust- high-performance control unit. This con-
ness. The same troller provides fast and precise closed-
ABB’s STATCOM is controlled IGCT platform is loop control and protection functions
STATCOM acts like a capacitor bank and cause a harmonic Max. STATCOM
capacitive operation point
injects reactive power into the grid to fault in the turbine
support the grid voltage. If the measured control and result
voltage is greater than the set point volt- in the immediate Grid
U0 voltage
age, the STATCOM acts as an inductor disconnection of
and suppresses the grid voltage. The turbines. ABB’s Measured
slope defines the proportionality between STATCOM allows voltage
superimposed with
acts like a capaci- the fundamental 4a without the STATCOM
20
age can no longer
is below the set be seen when the
0
-40
like an inductor 10 15 20 25 30
Time (ms)
35 40 45 50
A successful
when the mea- solution 4b with the STATCOM
Drivers Applications
Energy efficient bulk power long distance UHVDC, HVDC
distance transmission
H
VDC (High Voltage DC) tech- 93 percent, yet its land use is less than
nology can contribute toward
future grids in many ways.
40 percent of that needed by conven-
tional technology. At more than 99.5 per-
over a distance
These include: cent, availability is also very high. of more than
Flexibility: It is well suited for quick re-
sponses to both operational changes HVDC Light, on the other hand, is ideal 2,000 km.
and customer needs for integrating dispersed, renewable gen-
Accessibility: It is accessible for all power eration, eg, wind power, into existing AC
sources, including renewable and local grids. It is also used for smart transmis-
power generation sion and smart grids due to its great flex-
Reliability: It assures both quality of sup- ibility and adaptability.
ply and resilience toward uncertainties
and hazards affecting production of re- The first HVDC link in the world to connect
newable energy. an offshore wind farm with an AC grid is
Economy: It provides efficient operation the BorWin1 project. Based on HVDC Light
and energy management, and the flexi- technology, this 200 km link connects the
bility to adapt to new regulations. Bard Offshore 1 wind farm off Germany’s
North Sea coast to the HVAC grid on the
In technical terms, HVDC technology German mainland. This link transmits
supports: 400 MW at a DC voltage of ±150 kV and
– Load flow control was ready for service in late 2009.
– Reactive power support
– Voltage control When complete, the wind farm BARD
– Power oscillations control Offshore 1 will consist of 80 wind gener-
– Flicker compensation ators, each with a capacity of 5 MW.
– Voltage quality These will each feed their power into a
– Handling of asymmetrical loads 36 kV AC cable system. This voltage will
– Handling of volatile loads then be transformed to 155 kV AC before
reaching the HVDC Light converter sta-
HVDC – a tool kit for smart transmission tion, located on a dedicated platform ➔ 2.
ABB’s HVDC technologies have been Here the AC is converted to ±150 kV DC
selected for some of the most demand- and fed into two 125 km sea cables,
ing transmission schemes being realized which then continue into two 75 km land
today. These technologies, HVDC Clas- cables, transmitting 400 MW power to
sic and HVDC Light, are mainly differenti- the land-based converter station at Diele
ated according to their applications ➔ 1. in Germany.
Sustainable links 21
HVDC Light technology
2 BorWin alpha, the platform-based HVDC Light converter station
HVDC Light is based on voltage source
converter (VSC) technology. It uses IGBTs
(insulated-gate bipolar transistors) con-
nected in series to reach the desired
voltage level. This technology is used for
power transmission, reactive power
compensation and for harmonics and
flicker compensation.
Sustainable links 23
Storage
for stability
The next FACTS generation
A
s the prevalence of renewable infrastructure for PHEVs (plug-in hybrid
2 Basic scheme of SVC Light with
power grows, increasing de- electric vehicles). And its highly scalable Energy Storage
mand is being placed on ability to store energy is remarkable. At
maintaining grid stability and present, rated power and storage capac-
SVC Light #1 #2 #3 #n
fulfilling grid codes. ABB’s answer is SVC ity are typically in the range of 20 MW; ~
Light® with Energy Storage, a dynamic however, up to 50 MW for 60 minutes
energy storage system based on Li-ion and beyond is possible with this new PCC
battery storage, combined with SVC FACTS technology. And as the price of
Light ➔ 1. SVC Light is ABB’s STATCOM 1 batteries continues to drop, applications
concept, which is connected to the grid requiring larger battery storage will be-
at transmission as well as subtransmis- come viable, enabling for example multi- Battery storage
sion and distribution levels. State-of-the- hour storing of renewable power during
art IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transis- low demand for release into the grid dur-
tors) are utilized as switching devices in ing higher demand.
SVC Light.
Basic mechanisms The technology
ABB’s SVC Light with Energy Storage so- The energy storage system is connected
lution is designed for industry-, distribu- to the grid through a phase reactor and a
enables the
tion- and transmission-level dynamic en-
ergy storage applications, focusing on
power transformer ➔ 2. SVC Light with
Energy Storage can control both reactive
independent
those that require the combined use of power Q as an ordinary SVC Light, as and dynamic
continuous reactive power control and well as active power P. The grid voltage
short-time active power support. The and the VSC (voltage source converter) control of active
technology enables the independent and
dynamic control of active as well as reac-
current set the apparent power of the
VSC, while the energy storage require-
as well as reac-
tive power in a power system. The control ments determine the battery size. Con- tive power in a
of reactive power enables the subsequent sequently, the peak active power of the
control of grid voltage and stability with battery may be smaller than the apparent power system.
high dynamic response. With the control power of the VSC; for instance, 10 MW
of active power, new services based on battery power for an SVC Light of
dynamic energy storage are introduced. ± 30 MVAr.
The energy storage solution can be used As a contingency typically lasts for mere
Footnote
for load support as well as ancillary grid fractions of a second, the required back-
1 STATCOM: Static synchronous compensator, a
services, eg, regulating power frequency. up power must be made available for device similar in function to an SVC but based
Another promising use is as part of the only a short time. Similarly, an ancillary on voltage source converters.
service like area frequency control will has multiple semiconductor chips (ie, also bridge power until emergency gen-
generally be needed for only a few min- ABB’s StakPak TM semiconductors). eration is online and provide grid support
utes at a time. An energy storage system with an optimum mix of active and reac-
can then provide the necessary surplus Battery system tive power. This type of storage is an al-
of active power and later be recharged Since SVC Light is designed for high- ternative to transmission and distribution
from the grid during normal conditions. power applications, and series-connect- reinforcements for peak load support,
ed IGBTs are used to adapt the voltage and enables optimum pricing. It becomes
Main system components level, the pole-to-pole voltage is high. possible to reduce peak power to avoid
A complete SVC Light with Energy Stor- Therefore, a number of batteries must be high tariffs. Dynamic energy storage can
age system is comprised of the following: connected in series to build up the re- also provide power quality control in con-
– Power transformer quired voltage level in a battery string. To junction with railway electrification, and
– SVC Light obtain higher power and energy, several help balance power in wind and solar
– Battery system parallel battery strings may be added. generation, which have stochastic be-
– AC and DC high-voltage equipment havior.
– Control and protection system The battery system is made of rack-
– Auxiliary power equipment mounted Li-ion modules. An array of ABB’s dynamic energy storage system
battery modules provides the necessary will be available in 2010.
The modularized design of the new en- rated DC voltage as well as storage ca-
ergy storage technology makes it simple pacity for each given case. The Li-ion
to scale, in power rating as well as en- batteries have undergone thorough test-
ergy. Its batteries and VSC are integrat- ing for the application in question [1]. A
ed, with detailed supervision and status battery room is shown in ➔ 4.
checks of both within the same system.
It focuses on safety and ensures the The Li-ion battery technology selected
ability to respond to the consequences for SVC Light with Energy Storage has
of possible faults. In addition, the solu- many valuable features:
tion boasts low losses and very high – High-energy density
cycle efficiency. – Very short response time
– High power capability both in charge Rolf Grünbaum
The VSC is composed of IGBT and diode and discharge Per Halvarsson
semiconductors ➔ 3. To handle the re- – Excellent cycling capability ABB Power Systems, Grid Systems/FACTS
quired valve voltage, the semiconductors – Strongly evolving technology Västerås, Sweden
are connected in series. Water cooling is – High round-trip efficiency rolf.grunbaum@se.abb.com
utilized for the VSC, resulting in a com- – High charge retention per.halvarsson@se.abb.com
pact converter design and high current- – Maintenance-free design
handling capability.
Applications Reference
[1] Callavik, M., et al. (October 2009.) Flexible AC
Each IGBT and diode component is con- Dynamic energy storage is finding uses
transmission systems with dynamic energy
tained in a modular housing consisting of in a multitude of areas. Not only can it storage. EESAT 2009, Seattle, Washington,
a number of submodules, each of which support the black start of grids, it can USA.
Smartness in control 27
around the world, ABB is uniquely quali- based on a wall board displaying the
fied to understand both the big picture system’s status. Such a board would of-
and the nuts and bolts of the emerging ten be covered with sticky notes and
technologies and applications necessary pushpins concerning ad hoc changes.
for today’s utilities. This made the overall system difficult to
monitor and inflexible and also presented
A brief history of SCADA and DMS security challenges. The distribution cir-
Power control traces its origin to the
1920s when ABB’s predecessor compa-
nies, ASEA and BBC, supplied their first As distribution
remote control systems for power plants.
It was not until the 1960s, however, and systems continue
the advent of computerized process
control, that modern power network
to become ever
control systems became possible. “smarter” and
At that time, SCADA systems were usu- more secure, the
ally designed exclusively for a single cus-
tomer. They were proprietary and closed
operations cen-
off from one another. The resulting diffi- ters that control
culties in coordination meant networks
remained vulnerable. There was thus a them are also
need for strategies that could prevent
faults from developing into outages of
changing to take
the scale of the 1977 New York black- on new roles in
A
s a long-standing industry out.
leader and innovator in the managing the
power technology sector, ABB
is at the forefront of the devel-
The 1980s saw computing technology
advance further. Methods were developed
evolving grids.
opment of IT systems for power trans- to model large-scale distribution networks
mission and distribution. The 1970s saw in a standardized way. Similarly, SCADA cuit maps used for maintenance work
the introduction of Supervisory Control and EMS became more sophisticated, were paper based. They were often an-
and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and En- providing transmission operators with notated manually and risked being out of
ergy Management Systems (EMS), fol- better tools to control bulk power flows. In date. The orders used to plan, execute
lowed by Market Management Systems the business world, the 1980s were also and track scheduled switching on the
in the 1980s, and Outage Management an era of deregulation. With airline, tele- system were also paper based. Outage
Systems and Distribution Management communications and natural gas indus- calls from customers were received by
Systems (DMS) in the 1990s. All these tries all being liberalized, regulators and operators who did not always have direct
solutions have been developed and en- utilities both began to consider whether access to all the necessary information.
hanced over the years. A more recent the same could be achieved for electric These outages were also tracked with
direction of system development has power. paper-based tickets. Communication
been toward a higher degree of integra- with crews in the field was radio based.
tion in the form of a common platform. Such a move would have called for en- Crews had to inform the operating cen-
tirely new types of IT systems (mostly to ters of their location, and the communi-
This platform is ABB’s Network Man- serve the wholesale markets), as well as cation of switching, the placement of
agerTM. It fully integrates the above ap- enhancements to existing SCADA/EMS tags and other operations were coordi-
plications and also includes ABB’s Net- technology. Perhaps not coincidentally, nated verbally.
work Manager DMS – an operations the new generation of control systems
management system designed to help that had emerged by the early 1990s This should not imply that distribution
utilities reduce operating and mainte- was able to fulfill these demands. operations stood still over time. As tech-
nance costs while enhancing customer nology and business needs changed, so
service. DMS provides advanced net- Progress in computing also changed DMS too did many distribution operations
work modeling and management, inte- and OMS. DMSs had originally been dis- centers. Many SCADA systems were ex-
grated switching and tagging, trouble tribution-level extensions of SCADA/EMS tended from the transmission system to
call and outage management, crew man- systems or stand-alone systems, but the cover monitoring and control of distribu-
agement, and also handles the recording unique demands of distribution opera- tion-side medium-voltage (MV) feeder
and presentation of events. tions made them more clearly distinct. breakers. In some cases, the reach of
SCADA was even extended out beyond
As the fruit of many years of research, Classical monitoring and control systems the MV feeder circuit breaker to equip-
development and ample experience, as for distribution networks were relatively ment such as reclosers, switches and
well as close collaboration with utilities low-tech. Typically, such a system was capacitor switches.
DMS applications
– Balanced and unbalanced – Restoration switching – Trouble call management
load flow analysis – Outage management
– State estimation – Volt/var control – Operations management
– Fault location – Remote/automatic – Crew management
– Switch order management switching and restoration – Operator logs
– Overload reduction – Referral management
switching – Outage notifications
– Outage reporting
DMS adaptors
– GIS
– CIS SCADA
– AMI/MDM
– Substation/feeder
gateways
– Mobile workforce
management Infrastructure
– Interactive voice
response Process Historian
– Work management Graphical data External adaptors
communication and data
system engineering data exchange
front end warehouse
helping to improve support for operations, Another significant enabler of the devel-
maintenance and planning. Such integrat- opment of smart grids is technology:
ed operations centers are helping distri- Many of the required tools and capabili-
bution organizations meet their goals de- ties were simply not available some years
spite ever-increasing demands ➔ 1. ago. One such resource is communica-
tion. Distribution companies can now
Control center systems choose between many different means
Within the last few years, several inter- of communication: They can use a dedi-
connected but external factors have ac- cated network they themselves own (eg,
celerated the development and expan- SCADA radio networks), or use third-
sion of applications for smart grid party infrastructure (eg, cellular commu-
technology. These include society, gov- nications). Various factors may influence
ernment, the changing business environ- such a decision. One trend, however, is
ment and technology. definite: The importance of two-way
communication is set to increase.
The increasing role of renewable energy
and distributed generation and the asso- The number of distribution equipment
ciated demand-response issues are call- items on the feeder featuring sensing,
Smartness in control 29
3 The operation center system of the future integrates various IT systems as well as field devices and customer information.
WMS IVR
SCADA/EMS
integration
Fault location
automatic switching
Unbalanced and restoration
load flow
Plug-in hybrid
electric vehicles
Feeder
protection Line Switch
Backfed
Substation Voltage recloser
tie switch AMI integration and
computer/gateway regulator
Distributed demand response
Volt/var control Capacitor generation and Residential
control energy storage meter
data processing, control, and communi- sole with integrated single sign-on for
Many distribution cations capabilities is increasing. Smart users ➔ 2.
devices and appliances are even enter-
organizations ing home networks. The deployment of Utility grid operators are seeing tangible
are enhancing this technology will depend upon the de-
velopment and unification of interopera-
benefits from implementation of integrat-
ed SCADA/DMS systems. This includes
substation auto- bility standards. increased operator efficiency within one
system, thus eliminating the need to use
mation. This im- The benefits of systems integration multiple systems with potentially different
proves access to ABB is a global leader in the develop-
ment of the smart grid, and has invested
data. It also includes integrated security
analysis for substation and circuit opera-
information in the much time and resources in developing tions to check for tags in one area affect-
the operations-center systems that are a ing operations in the other, and stream-
intelligent elec- critical part of any smart grids solution. lined login and authority management
tronic devices. Three important areas of systems inte-
gration are DMS integration with SCADA,
within one system. Operators have also
noted improved, consolidated system
advance metering infrastructure (AMI) in- support for DMS, OMS and distribution
tegration with DMS, and the integration SCADA.
of data from substation gateways and in-
telligent electronic devices (IEDs). Much of the discussion about developing
the modern-day smart grid has, until
ABB has long been a leading advocate of now, revolved around the potential of
the integration of SCADA at the distribu- AMI and emerging advanced metering
tion level with DMS applications. With technologies. As a result, installations of
more distribution companies now install- AMI systems are rapidly growing in num-
ing additional SCADA on the distribution ber. ABB is now developing ways for dis-
system, ABB is continuing to improve tribution grid operators to improve the
the outreach of its integration solutions. leverage of AMI data. Interfaces between
Available functionality now includes the AMI, meter data management (MDM)
transfer of status/analog points from and SCADA/DMS have been created and
SCADA to the DMS; the sending of su- improved for outage notifications, meter
pervisory control and manual override status queries and restoration notifica-
commands from the DMS to the SCADA tions. Resulting benefits include: reduced
system; and an integrated user interface customer outage times and a more effi-
running on the same PC operator con- cient use of resources in the field. The
Smartness in control 31
The Volt/var Optimization (VVO) applica- toward smart grids and utilize better data
tion enables a distribution company to and more advanced technologies, ad-
minimize peak demand and reduce real vanced applications will increasingly be
power losses. This defers the need for run in automated modes, further improv-
additional generation, transmission, and ing reliability and efficiency of distribution
substation capacity, reduces fuel and operations.
power purchase costs, and hence re-
duces greenhouse emissions. The VVO The future of smart distribution centers
application monitors the distribution net- The integrated operations center will be
work and computes the optimal distribu- a key to the smart distribution grid. ABB
tion control settings by minimizing a is continuing to increase the functionality
weighted function of demand, loss, and of operations centers to meet distribu-
voltage/current violations in three-phase, tion organizations’ technical and busi-
unbalanced and meshed distribution ness requirements.
systems. The VVO application computes
the optimal control settings for switch- The overall operation of distribution sys-
able capacitors and tap changers of volt- tems is certain to become more com-
age regulating transformers. plex. Growth of distributed generation
and energy storage will affect power flow
The Network Manager Fault Location on the system. Demand response,
(FL) application utilizes short-circuit anal- whether controlled by the electricity pro-
ysis and can help significantly reduce vider or the consumer, will also impact
CAIDI and SAIDI 2 values, by reducing power flow and voltage profiles. In addi-
tion, there is an increasing trend to de-
ploy additional intelligence in devices on
Demand response, the distribution system, such as intelli-
gent electronic devices (IEDs), substa-
whether controlled tion computers and gateways, sensors,
by the electricity and advanced meters. Some of these
will result in additional local control ac-
provider or the tions, further increasing the complexity
of distribution systems’ operation.
consumer, will
impact power In the presence of increasing amounts of
decentralized intelligence and control,
flow and voltage the integrated operations center will be a
centralized way of overseeing and coor-
profiles. dinating the entire system.
Connected 33
1 Overview of utility communications
Generation
Power plant control
Substation automation
Protection & control
Distribution
33 kV substation Network management
11 kV feeders 33 or 66 kV feeder Substation automation
(Distribution network) Feeder automation
Base station
computer
11 kV LBS 415V MCCB unit Customer automation
RTU Customer Automated meter reading
11 kV/415 V 415 V (3 phase) Tamper detection
Distribution Remote service
transformer on pole 240 V Load control
Customer
(1 phase)
Last mile
Transmission WAN Distribution WAN
Plant control communication
S
mart operation of the electric participants
Connected 35
systems fully satisfying these criteria will
4 Wireless communications: technologies and applications
be capable of supporting the DA, AD, and
AMR/AMI applications of a smart grid.
Operator /
Technology Standards Frequency band Data rate Applications
owner
The major communication technologies
that are currently available in the market Proprietary, 150 MHz / Voice;
VHF/UHF radio Utility Narrowband
PMR 400 MHz DA, SCADA
to support smart grid applications are
(Short range)
the following ➔ 7: WLAN, Customer,
2.4 GHz wireless 2.4 GHz Broadband AMR, Home
ZigBee utility
Automation
Wired utility communication networks Point-to- Proprietary, Utility or High speed data;
5 – 60 GHz Broadband
multipoint WiMAX 3rd party DA, SCADA
A utility may build ducts to its power-
GSM/GPRS
distribution nodes to carry communica- Public cellular
UMTS 3 rd party
900/1800 MHz (EU) Narrowband / Voice, data;
data services 800/1900 MHz (US) broadband DA, AMR
tion wires alongside the power cables. CDMA
dio PLC
P ra
PtM
MW SH
A & op erati onal & ad D
AD m ini
SC
so
str
em
at
lut
io
od
ion
io m
na
l
Fi
d
F ra
be
B ro a d b a
ra
nd
VHF/UH
nd
Ether net
P u re S C A D A
coppe
Distribution
r
communication
W i rel
C ellu
ar
N
ro
es
wba
s
nd
lar n
ion
et w
lut
ork
so
h
c
ee
H
sp
PD
&
DA
SCA
Sa
t el l
ite o
a di
PMR r
Connected 37
Closing the loop
Smart distribution management systems are helping to provide
more efficient and reliable services
WILLIAM PETERSON, XIAOMING FENG, ZHENYUAN WANG, capabilities that are deployed for substation automation,
SALMAN MOHAGHEGHI, ELIZABETH KIELCZEWSKI – Utilities are distribution automation, and advanced metering infrastruc-
always looking for ways of improving customer service while ture. Integrating these sensor data into DMS-advanced
optimizing overall performance and reducing operating costs. applications is essential to reaping the potential investment
At the distribution control center level, smart distribution benefits as well as justifying the cost of creating the sensing
management system (DMS) applications have the potential to and communication infrastructure. Through advanced
help utilities achieve this by providing fast, accurate and applications, the distribution system provides more efficient
detailed information about a distribution system so that and reliable services to customers and, at the same time,
strategic decisions can be made. Historically, the main DMS helps reduce the ecological footprint of energy production.
application data sources were SCADA telemetry, end-cus- The availability of real-time and near real-time system
tomer calls and maintenance/repair crew reports. With the information not only enhances the capabilities of existing
industry drive toward smart grids, these sources are being applications like outage analysis, but also enables advanced
augmented by a multitude of sensors with communication smart grid applications that were not possible before.
Demand
Asset Mgmt
CIS GIS OMS response
(AM) App
(DR) App
A
n advanced metering infra- transformers at end-customer premises) Advanced outage management
structure (AMI) refers to the and feeder sources (distribution substa- An outage is a sustained interruption of
information technology and tion transformers), as well as feeder volt- power and occurs when a fuse, recloser
infrastructure that collects, age profiles (voltages along the feeder or circuit breaker has cleared a fault and,
communicates, aggregates and dissemi- main and laterals). Conventional super- as a result, customers located down-
nates the power usage, quality and sta- visory control and data acquisition stream of the protective device lose
tus information from so-called smart me- (SCADA) telemetry can provide informa- power. During such a power outage and
ters.1 A smart meter is not simply a point tion about substation and feeder equip- without direct communication between
of instrumentation, but also a point of in- ment, but the cost of the infrastructure the customer’s meter and the DMS, the
teraction (POI), or in other words, an in- needed to gather information at the load most sensible and perhaps only ap-
telligent node in the smart grid. transformer level and beyond is simply proach is for the customer to call the lo-
too prohibitive. This can be overcome by cal utility company to report the outage
With the rapid deployment of AMI in using an existing AMI, which not only and then wait until power is restored.
many utilities, distribution management provides load transformer information at With AMI, this action is totally unneces-
system (DMS) applications are undergo- a much lower cost – only the DMS/AMI sary because the outage event will be
ing significant renovation so that they integration cost is incurred – but is also automatically reported to the DMS within
can make faster and smarter decisions, capable of reaching individual house- a matter of seconds. An outage analysis
and achieve network control objectives holds. (OA) program will then continuously pro-
quicker with less cost and greater reli- cess the incoming outage event mes-
ability. DMS/AMI integration is not with- System architecture sages to determine exactly where power
out its challenges but smart grid applica- The integration of smart meter data into a has been lost and infer the most likely lo-
tions, such as outage management DMS will enable a whole new breed of cation of the fault(s) before informing
systems (OMS), distribution state esti- smart grid applications at the control cen- customers of the estimated time to res-
mation (D-SE) and demand response ter level. However, the standardization of toration. AMI literally reduces the time
(DR) among others, set to benefit from this integration is not easy because of the needed for fault analysis from hours to
this integration, the utilities will have many types of AMI technologies that exist minutes, and most importantly, it short-
more efficient operation and customers and the varying requirements for each ens the outage duration for customers.
will have more reliable power. smart grid application. ABB is pursuing a
vision that the meter data management When an outage occurs in the distribu-
The benefits of energy-consumption system (MDMS) from any AMI vendor can tion network, an OMS, which typically
monitoring and control be easily integrated with ABB Network has two key components: outage notifi-
Advanced DMS applications require real- Manager DMS products. The core of this
time or near real-time network informa- vision is shown in ➔ 1 where the MDMS
Footnote
tion, including network connectivity adapters enable the transfer of AMI data
1 A smart meter can be described as a digital
(switching device on/off status), loading from any vendor’s MDMS via ABB’s smart incarnation of the traditional electro-mechanical
levels (current) at service points (load DMS enterprise service bus (ESB). electric meter.
ters that determine the number of calls will benefit from Multiple choices of an information set
required to infer the cause of an outage are possible. For example, if only the
event and the speed at which the system the integration of static behavior of an electric power sys-
rolls up the outage to the next electrically
connected protective device, ie, the sys-
smart meter and tem is of interest, a set composed of
complex voltages at every node in the
tem automatically groups several calls sensor data into system uniquely determines the operat-
into an outage at a higher level of the ing state of the system under consider-
electrical network. One such parameter DMS. ation. Knowing the complex voltages at
is called the outage freeze time, which is every node as well as the component
defined as the time an outage must stay out of service while those immediately model for transformers and distribution
at a device before it is allowed to roll up. upstream are in service. Another applica- lines allows the current and power flows
While a small freeze time is naturally de- tion is in cases where the outage is between any two adjacent nodes in the
sirable in order to identify multiple faults, caused by a broken conductor. The area system to be calculated. However, for
the variations in call behavior often mean in or around the broken conductor can many engineering systems, directly
this parameter may be as large as 6 to be narrowed to one bounded by the cus- measuring the state of the system is
10 minutes to allow for the accumulation tomers who are out of service and those not possible (or practical) because only
of the appropriate number of calls. who are in service. indirect measurements 3 are available.
These measurements are used in state
This is where AMI comes to the rescue Finally, the DMS system can communi-
– by treating AMI data as customer calls cate with the meter to confirm power
or in other words by creating an auto- restoration. Typically, this is accom- Footnotes
mated call system, the freeze time can plished using automated telephone call- 2 Both these functions require distributed
be significantly reduced, thereby en- backs to customers. Confirmation of ser- measurement points at customer sites.
3 Indirect measurements are functionally
abling the outage inference engine to vice by the metering network would
dependent on the state variables and therefore
quickly resolve multiple outages in a cir- eliminate the need to call back to confirm provide indirect information about the state
cuit. service. of the system.
Demand
Demand limit
Reserve margin
Capacity margin
Forecast load
Forecast load
Present load
Forecast demand
Actual demand
– The discrepancy, Δz, between the sponse to changes in the price of elec-
AMI data is valu- measurement function at the estimat- tricity over time or to incentive payments
ed state, z, and the actual measure- designed to induce lower electricity use
able in helping grid ment, zm is used to generate a at times of high wholesale market prices
correction, Δx, using a gain function
operators improve G( ).
or when system reliability is jeopardized
[1] . From a utility perspective, peak shav-
the reliability and ing 4 is the main objective of DR although
Traditionally, state estimation has not peripheral objectives, such as managing
efficiency of the been a viable technology for distribution the ancillary services and improving the
networks for two reasons: reliability of the overall system, can also
grid. – Very few real-time measurements are be defined. In addition to the environ-
available. For a distribution circuit with mental impact of reducing electricity
estimation to infer, as accurately as pos- several thousand nodes, only a consumption, implementing DR:
sible, the state of the system. couple of measurements, usually near – Helps utilities save money by post-
the head of the feeder, are available. poning the expansion of the distribu-
In theory, the estimation of a system state – Complex modeling of multiphase tion system
consisting of N variables needs only N in- unbalanced distribution networks – Provides financial benefits to
dependent measurements. In practice, poses a big challenge to the develop- customers
however, a certain degree of redundancy ment of efficient and robust estima- – Makes the overall electricity market
is required to counteract the inevitable tion algorithms that can use different less volatile in spot prices (ie, prices
random errors in the measurements. The types of measurements. for immediate payment and delivery)
measurement redundancy is the ratio of
the number of independent measure- The integration of meter data helps over- DR is often initiated at the utility where
ments to the number of state variables. come these drawbacks mainly because it data, based on a forecasted demand, is
Of course, the higher the measurement is capable of providing a huge amount of used to estimate the capacity margin for
redundancy, the better the quality of state near real-time measurements (including future time intervals ➔ 3. A decrease in
estimation; a redundancy value of one in- power, voltage and current) at every ser- this capacity margin or a negative margin
dicates that there are just about enough vice connection point. The availability of would cause the utility to trigger a DR
measurements to estimate the state. such information drastically improves the event. Various DR programs offered by
quality of state estimation. With a more utilities can be customized to fit varying
Typically, state estimation is formulated accurate real-time system model, other needs. These programs can be broadly
as an optimization problem in which the DMS functions, such as voltage and var classified into three categories:
decision variables are the state variables, optimization, service restoration, load – Rate-based (also referred to as
and the objective function to be mini- balancing and system configuration opti- price-responsive) programs where
mized is a measure of the deviation of mization can be performed more reliably. customers reduce their demands
the measurement function from the ac-
tual measurement. This process is illus- Demand response (DR)
Footnotes
trated in ➔ 2. In the diagram: Electrical demand response (DR) refers
4 Peak shaving describes the slow shedding of
– x represents the state estimate to the short-term changes in electrical loads during traditional peak energy-consump-
– h( ) is the measurement function consumption by end customers in re- tion periods in case of overload.
The DR engine communicates with the DR Efficiency AMI provides real-time two-way commu-
customer information system (CIS) in or- The efficiency of a DR program depends nication beyond the smart meter and into
der to obtain the details of customer on the accuracy of the telemetry system the intelligent devices in the house
contracts and other related data. The used to measure and validate customer through a home area network (HAN) ➔ 5.
terms and conditions of these contracts responses to a DR event. In the absence This way, HAN-based devices, such as
detail the constraints of each customer of accurate two-way metering systems, smart thermostats, displays, market con-
or group of customers regarding partici- the utility relies heavily on a combination trollable loads and load-control switches,
pation in a DR event. Constraints, such of bulk measurements available from are linked to the smart meters and there-
as the minimum notification time re- the main substations in the network and by to the utility and can receive data (eg,
quired; the maximum allowable number stochastic methods, such as load allo- updated prices for intelligent processors)
of interruptions in a day, week or season; cation and statistical estimation. How- and commands, such as curtailment sig-
the maximum allowable reduction; and ever, with the introduction of AMI, the nals for intelligent actuators.
the maximum allowable event duration prospect of accurate two-way metering
determine which customers can be con- is becoming more realistic. Precise real- The integration of meter data with DR
tacted during a certain DR event. time DR events (also known as preci- enables the adoption of real-time and
sion-dispatched demand response near real-time programs, which in turn
The DR engine also receives metering PDDR) [2] allow for refined granularity leads to faster response times, more ac-
data from the meter MDMS. When ap- down to individual customers, faster re- curate control, and hence improved reli-
CHERRY YUEN, ALEXANDER OUDALOV, ANDREW D. PAICE, technologies and standards that will be needed in the
KLAUS VON SENGBUSCH – The battle against climate change future. In fact many are already being used to enable
combined with the search for energy and process efficien- modern grid operation and provide greater efficiency,
cy has been slowly but surely pushing the topic of smart reliability and intelligence. Research efforts on smart power
grids up the agendas of many companies. In fact, since transmission and distribution have focused on implement-
European and US governments identified them as key to ing smart functionalities into both ABB products and
meeting their environmental goals and achieving energy customer installations. Some of the current efforts, carried
security, it has found its way into the popular media. While out in collaboration with external partners and partly
it may seem like a new concept to many, ABB has actually funded by public bodies such as the European Commis-
been active in this area for several years, developing the sion, are described in this article.
T
he traditional power grid is plants, small generators could be used Protection is another key challenge.
based on large centralized pow- to serve villages or towns or even facto- When a fault occurs on the grid, the mi-
er stations that supply end-us- ries. Known as active distribution grids, crogrid should be isolated from the main
ers via transmission and distri- they would ensure uninterrupted power
bution systems where power flows from to the critical communications infrastruc-
the top down. However, today’s conflict- ture and control systems that drive to- In ABB’s view a
ing demands for more reliable, higher-
volume power supplies from cleaner and
day‘s economy. In addition, because the
energy is created close to where it would
smart grid is an
more renewable energy sources mean be used the energy lost in electric trans- infrastructure that
this very same infrastructure must oper- mission and distribution would be re-
ate in ways for which it was not originally duced significantly. ABB has been work- puts the emphasis
intended. The solution lies in gradually ing in this area in close collaboration with
transforming the old system into a more external partners and their efforts have
firmly on active
intelligent, more effective and environ- led to the execution of several demon- rather than passive
mentally sensitive network that can re- stration projects, four of which (More Mi-
ceive power of all qualities from all sourc- crogrids, AuRA NMS, ADDRESS and control.
es – both centralized and distributed – and MEREGIO) are briefly discussed in this
deliver reliable supplies, on demand, to article ➔ 1. utility as quickly as possible to protect
consumers of all kinds. In other words, the microgrid loads. If the fault lies within
what is needed is a smart grid. Microgrids the microgrid, protection functions
Microgrids comprise medium- and/or should be able to detect the normally low
The term smart grid can mean many dif- low-voltage distribution systems with short-circuit currents provided by the
ferent things to different people. However, distributed energy sources, storage de- power-electronic based micro genera-
in ABB’s view a smart grid is an infrastruc- vices and controllable loads. They can tors in order to isolate only the most nec-
ture that puts the emphasis firmly on operate when connected to the main essary part of the microgrid. The unique
active rather than passive control. ABB’s power network or when isolated – or is- nature of microgrid design and operation
vision for the smart grid is of a self moni- landed – in a controlled and coordinated requires an investigation of the various
toring system based on industry-wide way. The microgrid concept is a logical aspects of low-voltage network protec-
standards that crosses international bor- evolution of simple distribution networks tion, such as new concepts of relaying.
ders and participates in wholesale energy and can accommodate a high density of
trading, and provides a stable, secure, various distributed generation sources More Microgrids
efficient and environmentally sustainable such as microturbines, fuel cells, solar To meet these challenges, a European
network. photovoltaic systems, and small diesel, Commission project known as Advanced
wind, hydro and energy storage devices Architectures and Control Concepts for
There has been a great deal of discus- such as batteries. Microgrids can offer More Microgrids – More Microgrids aims
sion in the media about smart grids. In supply reliability, power quality improve- at providing solutions to support the
Smart teamwork 45
1 Projects financed by the European Commission focus on 2 A low-voltage Gaidouromantra microgrid deployed in
integrating distributed generation and improving energy efficiency. Kythnos Island, Greece.
PV generator
Energy Markets
~
=
~
~ = ~
~ = =
=
~
~ ~ ~ =
= = =
~
More-MICROGRIDS Battery PV Diesel PV generator
PV generator
System house
Smart teamwork 47
project: 800 will be shared among house-
3 The grid of the future? Collaborations are working to transform the old “traditional” system
hold and industrial consumers, 150 for into an intelligent, more effective and environmentally sensitive network.
generation units and 50 for energy stor-
age systems. A certificate showing re-
gional energy efficiency will be used to
inform industrial and household consum- Generating companies
ers of the size of their CO2 footprint.
High-voltage TSO
transmission level,
110-380 kV,
Technically, the efficient use of an electric meshed grid
grid is achieved by optimally integrating
the many sources of distributed genera- Medium-voltage DNO
distribution level,
tion and the active management of elec- 6-35 kV, radial grid
trical demand. To achieve the latter, the More-
Microgrid
grid operator needs to be provided with Low-voltage DNO
distribution level,
real-time information about the entire 380 V, radial grid
power network in terms of supply and
consumer demand. The communication
Low-voltage Consumer
infrastructure employed in the pilot will distribution level,
give the operator the information needed 380 V, radial grid
ROLF GRÜNBAUM, PETER LUNDBERG, BJÖRN THORVALDSSON years has meant that grid companies can no longer rely on
– Recent blackouts in Europe as well as the United States generators for reactive power, ie, transmission suppliers may
have focused attention on the importance of a secure and have to provide their own var (volt-ampere reactive). The fast
reliable supply of power to homes, public institutions and and adequate supply of reactive power is required to main-
industry. It is now recognized that a significant number of tain stable voltages, especially when high percentages of
grids are plagued by underinvestment, exacerbated by the induction motor loads, such as those created by air condi-
uncertainty of roles and rules within the electricity supply tioners in urban areas, are dominant in the grid and during
industry brought about by deregulation. For instance, the system faults. SVCs (static var compensators) are a solution
unbundling of power generation and transmission in recent well adapted to meet the challenges in question.
Securing power 49
degree. If the reactive power supply is
1 Voltage variation at a load busbar as a
limited, the increased loading on the line function of loading with and without SVC
will cause a voltage drop over the sys-
tem. If reactive power is not provided at
this time, the voltage can fall precipitous-
ly. The transmission system can no lon-
ger transfer electrical energy and a sys-
Voltage
tem blackout will follow.
ment and at the right locations provides With SVC of infinite rating
A
vital characteristic of the SVC uations where there are no particular re-
3 Load torque and machine torques as
is its ability to provide reactive quirements on dynamic response or fre- functions of speed and machine currents
power in grids for a variety of quent operation, such as steady-state
situations, thereby helping to voltage support to follow 24-hour load
maintain, or, in the most difficult cases, patterns. For more demanding applica- 1
restore stable operating conditions to tions, MSCs fall short, and SVCs (or in-
0.8
deed STATCOMs 1 will be needed.
Torque/current
transmission systems) family of devices the load point of a certain grid configura- Current
that are applied to power systems for a tion is dependent on the SVC rating and Machine torque
Load torque
variety of tasks, with the aim of improv- the size of the load. This relationship is
ing grid performance. shown in ➔ 1.
losses as well as voltage gradients. Reac- induction motors (IM), which are sensi- Grid Line Load
ing the fault. Undervoltage situations are harmonic distortion. ΔV Cmax Vref
Securing power 51
7 Simplified grid of SEC Western region
Umm Lajj
Al Madinah (Medina)
Yanbu‘al
G Bahr SVC
SAUDI ARABIA
Rābigh
Red Sea G
G Al Khurmah
SVC Jiddah (Jeddah)
Makkah (Mecca)
SVC
SUDAN G
Al Lith
Operating conditions in the Saudi power – Voltage collapse situations at peak phase sequence voltage initially drops to
grid are special due to the hot climate, load conditions 0.7 to 0.8 per unit (p.u.). Air-conditioner
with up to 80 percent of the total load induction-motor flux decays and the mo-
consisting of air conditioners. From a grid A comprehensive reactive power plan- tors lose electrical torque. Almost instan-
point of view, air conditioning is a particu- ning study encompassing 380 kV, 110 kV taneously the motors lose speed as the
larly demanding kind of load, with slow and 13.8 kV levels was performed. The transient electrical torque becomes neg-
voltage recovery, motor stalling or even most important conclusions affecting the ative. During the rest of the fault time the
voltage collapse in conjunction with short system planning and operation were: electrical torque oscillates due to the im-
circuits in the transmission or subtrans- – Faster fault clearing, where possible, balance, but with an average value be-
mission network. In the Western region, reduces the dynamic reactive power low the load torque due to the reduced
especially near the Red Sea, and with the requirement. voltage. The loss of speed continues but
major city of Jiddah and the cities of Mak- – AC motor stalling for SLG faults can with a smaller rate of change. At fault
kah and Al Madinah as dominant load be avoided by installing dynamic
centers, grid stability is strained, particu- reactive power support.
larly in summer and during the Hajj pilgrim- – Dynamic reactive power support is SVCs provide a
age. Simulations have shown that the needed only for a short period: during
power system may not survive even SLG the fault and for about 1 s following fast and adequate
faults close to the load center during peak
load conditions. To stabilize the situation,
fault clearing.
– Reactive power support is needed to
supply of reactive
three large SVCs have been installed, with counteract voltage fluctuations due to power to maintain
the explicit purpose of keeping the grid daily load variations.
voltage stable as air conditioners all stable voltages,
around the region are running at full
speed ➔ 7 [1].
The total dynamic reactive power de-
mand was calculated at 3,000 MVAr
especially when
(Megavolt-ampere reactive). Installing large induction
The power system has a few specific five SVCs with a rating – 60 MVAr /
characteristics: + 600 MVAr each (ie, 60 MVAr inductive motor loads, such
– A large difference between minimum
and maximum (annual and daily) load
to 600 MVAr capacitive) at five different
110 kV buses would solve the AC motor-
as those created
– Extremely high concentration of load stalling problem and satisfy the daily by air conditioners,
air-conditioning load load voltage control.
– High impedance 380 kV / 110 kV and are dominant in
110 kV / 13.8 kV power transformers, The first three SVCs at the Al Madinah
to limit short circuit currents South, Faisaliyah and Jamia substations
the grid.
– Somewhat remote generation were taken into service in 2008 and
2009. The remaining two SVCs are still to clearing the motors need to both remag-
These characteristics affect the operation be purchased. Site views of the Faisali- netize and reaccelerate. The resulting
of the system. System performance yah ➔ 8 and Jamia SVCs are shown large active and reactive components in
and operational problems experienced in ➔ 9. the load current give a big voltage drop
were: in the source impedances. A large part of
– Voltage control between peak load Problem definition the impedance is in the 110 kV / 13.8 kV
and off-peak load conditions At an SLG fault in the vicinity of the city power transformers. In case of peak load
– Unacceptable voltage recovery after of Jiddah, on the 380 kV system or di- conditions, the motors will have lost too
faults at medium-load conditions rectly in the 110 kV system, the positive much speed to be able to reaccelerate
10 Motor speed, torque and 110 kV / 13.8 kV without SVC: 11 Motor speed, torque and 110 kV / 13.8 kV with SVCs: successful
unsuccessful voltage recovery voltage recovery
1.00 1.00
Motor speed
Motor speed
0.99 0.99
(p.u.)
(p.u.)
0.98 0.98
0.97 0.97
TE TM TE TM
1.75 1.75
Torque
Torque
(p.u.)
(p.u.)
-0.50 -0.50
1.05 1.05
Voltage
Voltage
0.95 0.95
(p.u.)
(p.u.)
0.85 0.85
0.75 0.75
0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40
Time (s) Time (s)
TE = Electrical torque TE = Electrical torque
TM = Mechanical torque TM = Mechanical torque
V pos110 = Positive phase sequence voltage at 110 kV Vpos110 = Positive phase sequence voltage at 110 kV
V pos14 = Positive phase sequence voltage at 13.8 kV V pos14 = Positive phase sequence voltage at 13.8 kV
following fault clearing, and voltage re- The initial drop in speed for the induction after fault clearing in cases where the SVCs
covery is unsuccessful ➔ 10. motors cannot be avoided by SVCs. It will were not operating during the fault.
take 1.5 cycles before the SVCs are fully
Countering motor stalling with SVCs compensating the voltage drop. With suf- Directly at fault clearing, the voltage
The way to prevent the motors from stall- ficiently large SVCs the voltage can be jumps upwards in a step. The reactive
ing is obviously to reduce the voltage supported to such an extent that the mo- current to the motors increases instanta-
drop during the fault and to restore the tors do not continue to lose speed follow- neously. In addition, a large active cur-
voltage as quickly as possible after fault ing the initial drop ➔ 11. A new “stable” rent is needed for reacceleration. In cas-
clearing. Such a task requires a lot of re- operating point is reached. During the fault, es where the voltage at the motors
active power support during a short pe- it is very difficult to increase the voltage to remains severely depressed, the active
riod of time. Voltage support applied the point at which the motors accelerate. It current needed cannot flow and the volt-
close to the motors gives the best re- is important to stop or slow down the age recovery in the system will be slow.
sults. The most efficient locations are in speed drop as quickly as possible. The In the worst case the motors will get
each 110 kV / 13.8 kV distribution sub- sooner it stops the easier it becomes to stuck. By supporting the voltage, a more
station on the 13.8 kV level. This would reaccelerate the system following fault rapid recovery is made.
require installing a very large number of clearing. A shorter response time for the
rather small SVCs. The practical solution SVC means that fewer Mvars are needed. SVC performance
is to install a limited number of large It has been shown in studies that the mo- The three SVCs each have a rating of
SVCs on the 110 kV level. tors are almost impossible to reaccelerate 60 MVAr inductive to 600 MVAr capaci-
Securing power 53
stant of about reaches its limit. This time is essentially
12 SVC single-line diagram
10 ms; the slope is the same irrespective of regulator gain.
the positive phase The TSC valves will switch on at the ap-
Bus 1 110 kV
sequence current propriate point on wave 2 and the TCRs
Bus 2
multiplied by a will cease conducting. The SVC will be
constant. Control fully conducting in 1.5 cycles. The TSC
action is by a PI switch-on time may be longer depending
600 MVA (proportional and on its precondition (charged or dis-
integrating) regula- charged). The most common condition is
tor (in many cases discharged capacitors.
just an I regulator).
It works on the dif- New control for faster voltage recovery
ference between a During a short circuit in the power grid
set voltage and the the positive phase sequence voltage is
actual voltage depressed. The SVC runs fully capaci-
TCR TSC 1 TSC 2
230 MVAr 215 MVAr 215 MVAr modified by the tive. In case of a lightly loaded system, a
3rd, 5th 7th, 11th 3rd, 5th 7th, 11th
61 MVAr 24 MVAr 61 MVAr 24 MVAr slope. The output temporary overvoltage may occur at fault
is a signal that can clearing. The primary reason for the over-
be seen directly as voltage is that the power system cannot
tive power. They are connected to gas- a susceptance order to the main circuit. absorb the reactive power generation
insulated switchgear (GIS) substations Thyristor valves can switch only once per from the SVC. A standard control system
on 110 kV. The nominal voltage on the half cycle and phase. A three-phase has to wait until the voltage has exceed-
SVC medium-voltage bus is 22.5 kV. valve assembly can be modeled by an ed its set voltage before the regulator
There are two TSCs rated at 215 MVAr average time delay. can start reducing the susceptance or-
each, and one TCR rated at der to the main circuit. This inevitably re-
230 MVAr ➔ 12. The harmonic filters rat- Typically, a response in the range of two sults in an overvoltage with a duration of
ed at a total of 170 MVAr are divided into cycles is achievable. This fulfills the re- at least one cycle. In the studied system,
two separate branches. The branches quirement by the
are connected to the MV bus by circuit utility that the re-
breakers. Each filter branch consists of sponse time be no Motors are almost impossible
two double-tuned filters covering the longer than 40 ms
3rd, 5th, 7th and 11th harmonics. in a strong net- to reaccelerate after fault clear-
Speed of response
work. (In Saudi
Arabia, the grid
ing in cases where SVCs were
When it comes to the speed of response frequency is 60 not operating and in those
for an SVC it is important to differentiate cycles, ie, two cy-
between “large signal” and “small signal” cles correspond to cases where they were, fewer
behavior. The large signal response is 33.3 ms.)
when the SVC responds to network faults
Mvars were needed when the
causing a large system voltage change. The stability of the SVC response time was short.
This is typically a line-to-ground fault in control must be
the vicinity of an SVC, or a more distant maintained at varying network strengths. voltages in excess of 1.5 p.u. may occur.
three-phase fault. The small signal re- Typically the short-circuit capacity varies Many SVCs around the world do not run
sponse is for minor changes in the system by a factor of two between the strong in capacitive mode until after fault clear-
voltage such as the effect from tap chang- and weak conditions. The regulator is ing because there were no efficient ways
er action or connection/disconnection of trimmed to give a fast response at the to solve this problem at the time when
a line reactor or a capacitor bank. For the weakest network condition. It is accept- they were installed.
utility-type of SVC, it is mainly the large ed that the SVC will be slower at the
signal speed that is of interest. strongest network. In case the system A simulation of the temporary overvolt-
becomes even weaker, automatic gain- age is shown in ➔ 13. The need to switch
A utility SVC primarily controls the posi- reduction algorithms are activated. the TSC out faster is evident. To improve
tive phase sequence voltage and in some the situation, a new control function was
special cases the negative phase se- The major task for a utility SVC is to developed and implemented in the three
quence voltage. For control, the instan- quickly supply Mvar at severe voltage Saudi SVCs where the TSCs are blocked
taneous voltage measurements have to drops at network faults. The most fre- at the first current-zero crossing follow-
be separated into sequence values and quent fault is a line-to-ground fault. The ing fault clearing. This approach has
the harmonic components in the voltage positive sequence voltage typically drops been shown to be efficient in simulations,
must be removed. Both these actions re- to 0.7 p.u. for a nearby fault and to grad- however real data is still to come. The re-
quire time. As a first approximation, the ually higher values for more remote faults. sults obtained with the new control func-
voltage processing can be seen as a At such a large voltage deviation the SVC tion are shown in ➔ 14.
first-order low-pass filter with a time con- regulator very quickly (in about one cycle)
1.50 1.50
System voltage
System voltage
(110 kV)
(110 kV)
(p.u.)
(p.u.)
0.70 0.70
7.00 7.00
(p.u.)
(p.u.)
B REF
B REF
0 0
Current TSC1 I ab Current TSC1 Ibc Current TSC1 Iab Current TSC1 I bc
Current TSC1 I ca Current TSC1 Ica
12.5 12.5
TSC 1 phase
TSC 1 phase
currents
currents
(kA)
(kA)
0 0
-12.5 -12.5
0 0.100 0.125 0.150 0.175 0.200 0.225 0 0.100 0.125 0.150 0.175 0.200 0.225
Time (s) Time (s)
Ua Ub Ua Ub
Uc Uc
1.5 1.5
(phase voltages) (p.u.)
System voltage
1.0 1.0
(110 kV)
(110 kV)
0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0
-0.5 -0.5
-1.0 -1.0
-1.5 -1.5
0.1 0.1
(pos. phase seq.) (p.u.)
System voltage
0.0 0.0
(110 kV)
(110 kV)
-0.1 -0.1
-0.2 -0.2
-0.3 -0.3
-0.4 -0.4
8 8
6 6
4 4
(p.u.)
(p.u.)
B REF
B REF
2 2
0 0
-2 -2
0 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40
Time (s) Time (s)
Securing power 55
Operational experience Operational experience shows that the
17 Saudi SVC project
Three line-to-ground faults were experi- SVCs are efficient in supporting the posi-
Several important conclusions can be drawn enced in the grid system in the summer tive phase sequence voltage during and
from the Saudi SVC project: of 2008, ie, during the peak load season. following SLG faults. The SVC reaction
– Motor stalling or voltage collapse
Two of the faults were in the Jiddah area time is short and the TSCs behave cor-
problems are evident in power systems
with large induction motor loads such as (Faisaliyah) ➔ 15 and one in Al Madi- rectly during the disturbances. Support-
those produced by the frequent use of air nah ➔ 16. ing the positive phase sequence voltage
conditioners. most efficiently means running all SVC
– SVCs provide efficient support for the
The SVC responded quickly to the fault, phases fully capacitive. The disadvan-
positive phase sequence voltage during
faults. The speed of induction motors can and became fully capacitive in 1.5 cycles. tage is that also the fault-free phases
then be maintained at reasonable levels. During the fault, the system voltage was may be raised above the maximum con-
– SVCs must run at a high capacity during constant or even increased slightly. It tinuous voltage. Such a rise could satu-
faults. The quicker the SVC response, the
was noted that the fault-free phase volt- rate the SVC power transformer; howev-
smaller the ratings needed. Very large
ratings are required when the SVCs ages did not drop much after the initial er, this problem did not develop as a
become active only after fault clearing. dip. At fault clearing the faulted phase result of the fault ➔ 17.
– A short time rating is sufficient, ie, only a recovered instantaneously. The SVC re-
few seconds of operation is required.
duced its output somewhat (about Grid stability with fast SVC response
– SVCs are robust and can run during faults
and during fault clearing. 100 MVAr) and ran at 500 MVAr for about Power systems with large induction mo-
– The SVCs must be able to block TSCs four cycles; thereafter it gradually re- tor loads, such as air conditioners, pres-
immediately after fault clearing to prevent duced its output to about 200 MVAr dur- ent a high risk of voltage collapse or mo-
temporary overvoltages during light load
ing the next five cycles. It remained at tor stalling, particularly in conjunction
situations.
– The typical SVC large-signal response this output throughout the recorded pe- with faults. They tend to consume large
time (from zero to full output) is 1.5 cycles riod of 30 s. It is interesting to note that amounts of reactive power, which should
with discharged capacitors. the faulted phase did not fully recover to not be transmitted over large distances,
– The typical SVC small-signal response
its prefault value within the 30 s time pe- since this increases the risk of voltage
time is 2.5 cycles for a strong power
system, resulting in two cycles in the weak riod. drops and causes active power losses.
system without retuning. To maintain voltage stability in such cir-
At the time of the fault, the phase B to cumstances SVCs can be used. To pro-
neutral voltage instantaneously dropped. vide voltage stability in the grid, particu-
The measured positive phase sequence larly in conjunction with fault situations, a
Operational voltage in the SVC dropped with a time fast dynamic response from the SVC is
constant of about 10 ms. This is the time essential. There is typically a trade-off
experience shows needed for phase sequence separation between dynamic response and the Mvar
b
b
c
c
f d
e
g
f
i g
j
h
A
circuit breaker must fulfill three
functional criteria: It has to
handle nominal current, break years ago, ABB pioneered embedded poles on the vacuum circuit breakers.
short-circuit current, and block pole technology. The present portfolio of Embedded poles are suitable for differ-
voltages exceeding the rated voltage ABB embedded poles covers the typical ent climatic conditions and are mainte-
level. requirements of medium-voltage sys- nance free for life. This means the vacu-
tems up to nominal voltages of 40.5 kV, um within the interrupter and the
As the contacts move apart to interrupt currents up to 3.150 A and short-circuit insulation capability of the pole are re-
a current, an electric arc is initiated be- currents up to 50 kA. tained for more than 30 years.
tween them. In an AC system, this arc
extinguishes at the next zero crossing The vacuum interrupter and its terminals ABB is the inventor of this technology.
of the current. The contact mechanism are completely embedded in epoxy resin. With close to 1,000,000 units in field ser-
is enclosed in a chamber ➔ 1 containing The upper ➔ 2a and lower ➔ 2d terminals vice, and an annual production of more
(in today’s medium voltage systems) a are connected to the contact arm or the than 200,000 pieces, the company is
vacuum. bus bar of the switchgear. As the lower also the leading manufacturer of embed-
contact must connect to a moveable ded poles ➔ 3.
ABB has been supplying medium voltage part, a flexible connection is needed to
vacuum interrupters (VIs) for over 30 conduct the current ➔ 2e. Despite the successful implementation
years. While, in the late 1990s the mar- of this technology and its huge advan-
ket was divided more or less equally be- The moveable part is driven by an insu- tages, ABB is continuously striving to im-
tween vacuum and SF 6 technologies, lating push rod ➔ 2f connecting to the prove it further. The newest member of
vacuum has become the most dominant breaker’s drive ➔ 2h. This rod is made of the embedded pole family is the PT1. In
technology today. ABB currently produc- a polyamide material and contains a contrast to its predecessors, the embed-
es approximately 350,000 vacuum inter- spring package. The lower part of the ded pole is not based on epoxy resin but
rupters annually and is a leading manu- pole ➔ 2g is fixed to the housing of the on a high-tech thermoplastic material.
facturer in this area. Today, ABB’s VIs circuit breaker by means of four screws.
handle nominal voltages of up to 40.5 kV Properties of thermoplastic poles
and short circuit currents of up to 63 kA. The main advantages of this technology Function, form and process are among
(compared to an assembled or open- the decisive factors in introducing a new
Besides managing the electric field in- pole system) are its high dielectric material (or class of material). The selec-
side the VI, the insulation must addition- strength as well as better protection
ally withstand external power-frequency against environmental influences, humid-
and BIL 1 voltages (up to 95/200 kV). This ity and mechanical forces. The design is Footnote
1 The BIL (basic impulse level) voltage is an
performance can be significantly reduced compact, robust and modular. Another
expression of the equipment’s ability to
by environmental conditions (eg, dust). important advantage is the fast and easy withstand overvoltages caused, for example, by
This is one of the reasons why, several assembly of the pretested and adjusted lightning and switching surges.
Selection of materials
The systematic selection process for a
material must verify the material’s rele-
vant characteristics as precisely as pos-
sible, taking into account the compo-
nent’s long lifetime (minimum 30 years).
The investigation considers both physi-
cal and chemical properties and also
considers material consumption aspects
and production technology.
0.4
0.3
Injection
Pretreatment
molding
0.2
0.1
Difference below measuring accuracy
0.0 Final
Preassembly
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 assembly
Duration (days)
These were performed with the embedded pole type PT1 at 5000 N and 85 °C, and show that no mea-
Testing
surable deformation occurred. The jump at the beginning and end of the test period reflect
heating from room temperature and the return to it.
duction of the base material 4. This cal- The PT pole, as the newest member of
9 Examples of application areas
of PT1 embedded poles culation shows that the production of the successful embedded pole family of
PT-type thermoplastic poles reduces ABB, is the latest step in the development
– Power plants CO 2 emissions by more than 50 percent of this successful technology. They match
– Transformer substations with respect to their predecessors, cor- or surpass all performance aspects of
– Chemicals industry
– Steel industry
responding to a reduction of approxi- their predecessors while being totally
– Automobile industry mately 3,000 tons of CO 2 per year con- compatible and making an important con-
– Airport power supply sidering the ABB production numbers. tribution toward climate protection.
– Shipbuilding (Marine applications)
– Power supply to buildings
Another advantage of thermoplastic ma-
terials is that the production process it-
self can be controlled very accurately,
reducing variation of the properties of the
The production material as well as the pole itself. Due to
the mature technology of injection mold-
of PT-type ing machines, a fully automatic produc-
Fit at 50 63
1 A nearly catastrophic failure damaged a transformer
P
ower transformers, which are anywhere from $2
often the most valuable asset million to $4 mil-
in a substation or plant, are in- lion, and on the
dispensable components of rare occasions they
high-voltage equipment for power gen- do fail, the financial
eration plants, transmission systems and impact can be even
large industrial plants. Unexpected fail- more significant –
ures cause major disturbances to oper- in extreme cases,
ating systems, resulting in unscheduled they can leave a
outages and power delivery problems. company facing fi-
Such failures can be the result of poor nancial ruin ➔ 3. In
maintenance, poor operation, poor pro- addition, as most
tection, undetected faults, or even se- countries have
3 Cost estimates of an unplanned replacement of a typical generator
vere lightning or short circuits ➔ 1,2. Out- strict laws in place step-up transformer
ages affect revenue, incur penalties and that control and
can cost a company its reputation and regulate power Environmental cleanup $500,000
its customers. supply, non-deliv- Lost revenue ($500,000/day) $10 million
ery penalties can Installation labor and processing $100,000 – $300,000
The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations be as high as 100 Additional modifications and site work $300,000
stated in 2002 that more than 70 events times the price of New transformer unit $2 million – $4 million
had been associated with large, main the energy itself.
auxiliary or step-up power transformers Transformer failures can cost up to $15 million, in addition to an
operator’s reputation. Source: Doble Life of a Transformer Seminar.
(since 1996) [1]. Significant station impact An aging fleet
Clearwater, FL, United States
occurred during several events and in ad- Although trans-
dition over 30 reactor scrams (ie, emer- formers are regard-
gency reactor shutdowns) as well as plant ed as highly dependable equipment, the orange), generation plants (light orange)
shutdowns and reductions in power deliv- world’s current transformer fleet is quite and transmission networks (gray). The
ery were associated with transformer old. The average age for those in indus- risk development curves are steeper for
events. The result: in many cases, lost trial plants is 30 years, and 40 years for industrial and power generation plants as
production and expensive repairs. those used by utilities. While aging trans- the transformers in these installations
formers are generally not “ticking time tend to be used more intensively. While
The enormous costs of power transform- bombs,” their failure rates as well as their age alone does not increase the risk of
er failures provide ample incentive for replacement and repair costs are steadily unexpected failures, it generally is an indi-
electric companies to ensure reliability – albeit slowly – increasing. ➔ 4 shows the cation of this risk. Risk of failure is height-
and availability throughout the life cycle development of the failure rate of trans- ened by other factors, including type of
of these key assets. Transformers cost formers installed in industrial plants (dark application and the tendency to load
50
Industrial
Industrialtransformer
transformer Analysis
45 Design analysis
Generatortransformer
Generator transformer Historical review of installed base
40
Networktransformer
Network transformer Transformer monitoring
35 Condition assessment
Failure rate (%)
30
25 Risk assessment
Variables: importance of transformer and risk of failure
20
15
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
Years Regular Early-life Midlife End of life or
Source: CIGRE WG 12-05. (1983). An international survey on failures in large power asset services inspection refurbishment remanufacturing
transformers. ELECTRA, 88, 21-48.
200
150
100
1930-1939
1940-1949
1950-1959
1960-1969
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1999
1980-1989
1990-1999
2000-2009
2010-2019
2020-2029
2030-2039
2040-2049
2050-2059
many companies
Year of manufacture Year of replacement
Fit at 50 65
maintenance to implementing condition-
7 Structure of a transformer monitoring system
based maintenance, where decisions are
no longer driven by an average timeframe Ambient temperature
(sun/shade) IDD or equivalent TEC
to SCADA system
Auxiliary contacts
defined by past experience and observa-
Design analysis
ABB has access to original designs for
more than 30 legacy brands and design
knowledge of nearly 75 percent of the in-
stalled base of large power transformers
in North America – including those from
Westinghouse, GE, ASEA and BBC –
and other predecessor technologies. All
new ABB transformers are built using the
same design concept, which incorpo-
rates standardized, service-proven com-
ponents and modules, ensuring flexible,
dependable and adaptable transformer
designs.
Historical review
ABB’s installed data system monitors a
wide range of the company’s products. A Source: ABB TEC Monitor. Retrieved January 2010 from http://tec2.vbelnat.se/.
plethora of data on transformers is avail-
able and is continuously updated, eg,
current owner details and history. The contacted proactively and the systems tions ➔ 7. Sensors measuring dissolved
system provides an important basis for could then be checked regularly. gases, moisture in oil, oil temperature,
the proactive detection of problems. For load current for each unit, and ambient
example, an analysis revealed about 700 Transformer monitoring
potential cooler problems in the installed Transformer monitoring is becoming an
base of transformers. The search focused essential component of transformer Footnotes
on 10 to 600 MVA transformers that were management. It serves as an early warn- 2 The risk of catastrophic failures can be reduced
statistically from 0.07 percent to 0.03 percent
over 20 years old and had oil- and water- ing system for any fault developing in the
through transformer monitoring [2].
type coolers. Many failed completely due main tank and in the accessories, allow- 3 First-level maintenance is the first line of
to leakages in these cooling systems, and ing an operator to evaluate the severity problem management where information is
one such failure resulted in a three-month of the situation. Multiple transformers are gathered and symptoms analyzed to determine
the underlying causes. Clear-cut problems are
production shutdown and lost revenue for connected to the operator’s network and
typically handled with first-level maintenance by
the operator. Using the information in the can be monitored from a local control personnel who have a general understanding of
installed base system, operators were room or from remote working sta- the products.
9a Step 1: Transformer fleet screening (of the 9b Step 2: Transformer design and condition assessment (of a subset of high-risk transformers)
whole transformer fleet) provides a risk suggests concrete actions for each transformer.
assessment.
Fit at 50 67
agnostic tests are performed to assess and a large operator co-developed an ing, connection retightening and installa-
each of the principal properties of the economical model that evaluates the life- tion of new parts, is often an aspect of a
transformer in a structured way. These cycle costs of a transformer fleet over a midlife refurbishment.
include mechanical status, thermal status given period ➔ 6. The model takes into
(aging of the insulation), electrical status account four categories of costs related The benefits
of the active part and the condition of the to the cost of ownership over the lifetime: Not knowing the risk structure of its
accessories, such as tap changers, bush- investment, maintenance, operational fleet, a company tends to overspend on
ings, overpressure valves, air-dryer sys- and consequential costs. Comparative the maintenance of its low-risk trans-
tem, pumps and relays. The number of investment scenarios and sensitivity formers and underspend on the high-
studies can be run by varying the re- risk transformer ➔ 10. Overspending on
placement year or maintenance of the low-risk transformers is a “high-risk ac-
Early detection of unit. For each scenario, the process tivity,” as approximately 30 to 50 percent
shows the associated net present value. of maintenance actions are unnecessary
problems can re- An optimization routine can also be used [6] . But needless maintenance work can
70 low-risk transformers $700,000 (54% of budget) $294,500 (30% of budget) ABB Power Products
Total: 128 transformers $1.28 million maintenance budget $974,000 maintenance budget Baden, Switzerland
paul.a.ammann@ch.abb.com
Distribution of maintenance budget before and after ABB fleet assessment. The result of the
optimized maintenance solution is a savings of 24 percent of the customer’s maintenance budget
($306,000 annually) as well as having better maintained high-risk transformers.
References
ditions. By performing proactive mainte- [1] Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO).
ABB’s asset- nance based on the TrafoAsset Man- (2002, September 18). Significant Operating
Experience Report, Ref. SOER02-3.
agement method, operators benefit
management from a lower risk of unexpected failures
[2] CIGRE Technical Brochure 248. (2004, June).
Economics of transformer management.
Fit at 50 69
Hidden treasure
Drive data are a treasure trove of hidden information that can
help industries solve problems before they even happen
MICHAL ORKISZ, MACIEJ WNEK, PIEDER JOERG – As processes interpreting the large quantities of data available in the most
become ever more complicated and margins thinner, mini- effective way seems daunting as well as costly. ABB has
mizing downtime by ensuring that industrial machinery devised a way to easily access and process important data
operates correctly is as important as ever. Proper condition without the burden of additional equipment, costs and
monitoring of critical equipment can act as an early warning downtime. By extracting and processing data from existing
system against impending problems. However, condition devices traditionally used in process industries, such as
monitoring is not used everywhere, often because of the drives, customers can prevent otherwise unforeseen prob-
expense of installing proper sensors and cabling, especially lems from occurring and hence maximize the availability of
if the monitoring system needs to retrofitted to existing their machines.
equipment. Another reason is that the task of selecting and
I
ndustries are constantly under pres- eration, the newest data overwrites the from the ACS drive are used primarily for
sure to reduce costs while increasing oldest until the loggers are triggered by control purposes. Therefore some of the
service and productivity. The most ef- certain events, such as the occurrence preprocessing needed for condition
fective way of fulfilling these aims is for of a fault or an alarm, a selected variable monitoring signals is missing. One such
managers to know the state of their equip- signal crossing a specified threshold or a process is anti-aliasing filtering. Data
ment – in particular the critical compo- software command. As the buffers are points are sampled or computed at rates
nents – at all times and to use this infor- circular, some data
mation to quickly identify and rectify faults prior to and after
before they spread to other parts of the the trigger can be Most processes use devices
process [1]. A good condition monitoring retained. ABB’s
system helps predict the reliability of DriveMonitor TM sys- that are capable of collecting
equipment and the risk of failure. With so
much to gain, why is it that condition
tem ➔ 1 can read
the contents of a
and producing relevant sig-
monitoring is not used everywhere? One drive’s hardware nals which can be used for
reason is that existing equipment is often data logger. It con-
already retrofitted with a monitoring sys- sists of a hardware diagnostic purposes.
tem and the installation of additional sen- module in the form
sors and cabling could prove both com- of an industrial PC and a software layer up to 40 kHz, but can only be accessed
plicated and expensive. Another reason that automatically collects and analyzes at lower rates (eg, by keeping every 40th
concerns the interpretation of results. In drive signals and parameters [2]. data point). In signal processing it is typ-
many cases it may not be clear how to ical that frequencies above the so-called
use a set of data that gives information Data enhancement Nyquist frequency – defined as half the
about one aspect of a process to provide Because the resolution has already been sampling rate – should be filtered out
information about another. For example, determined and preprocessing has been prior to signal sampling. Skipping this
determining the fractal dimension of a performed, drive signals are generally step means the peaks from the higher
certain phenomenon may be fairly straight- available in a form not easily applicable frequencies will appear in the lower part
forward but relating it to the condition of a to diagnostic evaluation. It is therefore of the spectrum, making it very hard to
machine may not be so obvious. necessary to employ a suite of “tricks” to interpret. For example, signals contain-
transform the data so that it becomes ing frequencies of 400 Hz, 600 Hz,
Most processes use devices that are ca- useful for diagnostics.
pable of collecting and producing rele-
vant signals, which, if harvested and pro- True to their name, variable-speed drives Footnote
cessed correctly, can also be used for dynamically change the frequency of the 1 OPC stands for object linking and embedding
(OLE) for process control and represents an
diagnostic purposes. Among others, one current supplied to the motor. The direct
industry standard that specifies the communica-
such example is ABB’s family of ACS torque control (DTC) method employed tion of real-time data between devices from
variable-speed drives, which are often in the drive produces a non-deterministic different manufacturers.
Hidden treasure 71
1.4 kHz and 1.6 kHz that are sampled at tion is to convert
2 An individual electric-torque spectrum
1 kHz all produce the same aliased spec- the data domain
trum with a peak at 400 Hz. from time to anoth- 1.5
er quantity, such
When it comes to monitoring drive-in- as the electric field
duced changes in the output frequency, angle. 2 To aid in 1.0
Torque (kNm)
the high frequencies are important. Be- this transforma-
cause they were not filtered out by the tion, various mea-
anti-aliasing filter combined with the fact surements can be 0.5
Torque (kNm)
(alternating between reversed and tegrated to yield
straight) along multiples of the Nyquist the angle of the
frequency. A number of unfolded spectra stator electric field, 0.5
for varying output frequencies are then which then replac-
averaged so that previously aliased es the original x-
peaks are returned to their original value of each data 0
place ➔ 2b. point. Further nor- 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Frequency (orders)
malization can be
Variable-speed drives are generally used applied to the y-
2b With an averaged “unfolded” spectrum
in applications where a process param- values.
eter needs to be controlled. The drive
changes the output frequency in re- This transformation results in an x-axis
sponse to an external request (eg, to that is no longer equispaced and there- The frequency
pump more water) or because of process fore the fast fourier transform (FFT) spec-
changes (eg, more load on a conveyor tral approach cannot be used. Instead, variations associ-
belt increases the slip of an asynchro-
nous motor) or perhaps because of a
the Lomb periodogram method is em-
ployed [3]. This process, as applied to
ated with vari-
combination of both. While traditional one of the phase currents of a hoist ma- able-speed drives
spectral analysis methods assume con- chine, is illustrated in ➔ 3. The original sig-
stant frequency, frequency variations can nal with pronounced frequency and am- can be handled
be handled using one of two approach-
es: selecting constant frequency mo-
plitude variability is shown in ➔ 3a. The
RMS current value reported by the invert-
by either select-
ments or rescaling the time axis. er is given in ➔ 3b and the measured in- ing constant fre-
stantaneous frequency is plotted in ➔ 3c.
The first approach takes advantage of The stator electric field angle is shown quency moments
the fact that data is available in large
quantities at any time. Most of it can ac-
in ➔ 3d and its shape follows the trend
that the higher the frequency, the faster
or rescaling the
tually be ignored in favor of keeping only the rate the angle increases. The regular time axis.
a few “good” data sets. The trick, how- sinusoid shown by the solid mustard-col-
ever, is knowing what to keep and what ored waveform line in ➔ 3e results when
to throw away. A good criterion for se- the original current signal is normalized
lecting a suitable data set is that the out- (using point-by-point averaging) by the
put frequency should not change appre- RMS current value and its x-axis respaced
ciably during the measurement, and only to reflect the angle. This in turn leads to a
a set of conditions that occur regularly in spectrum that is represented by a single-
the process should be considered for se- frequency peak (solid line in ➔ 3f), while
lection. the raw data spectrum, shown by the
dotted line, is not represented by a single-
Sometimes the operating-point varia- frequency peak.
tions are so frequent that it is impossible
to find such a stretch of data for any Different transformations can be applied
length of time. In such cases, the solu- depending on the information required.
2.5
1,000 1,000
Frequency (Hz)
Current (A)
2.0
¶ 800
1.5
-1,000 600
1.0
15 2
Stator electric field angle (revs)
1.0
Normalized current
Normalized current
1
10 0.8
0.6
0
5 0.4
-1
0.2
0 -2 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Time (s) Angle (revs) Angular frequency (orders)
0.3
quired. After an analogous transforma- indicators (KPIs)
tion, the x-axis represents the shaft angle, that give adequate 0.2
F 2·F Rot Rot
which in turn facilities the search for mo- information about,
2·“X”
0.1
tor defects related to the rotating speed. for example, the
health of a ma- 0
Diagnostic opportunities chine, process ro- 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6
Converted drive data can be analyzed bustness or supply Frequency (orders)
Hidden treasure 73
this likely corresponds to a resonance
5 Transient phenomena in a torque signal.
frequency in the driven equipment. This
is an interesting piece of diagnostic infor-
35
mation since such resonances acceler-
2.0
ate equipment wear, which in turn could 30
Torque (kNm)
Torque (kNm)
1.5
negatively impact certain process quality
1.0
issues, such as the uniformity of rolled 25
metal thickness. 0.5
20 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Transient phenomena Time (s) Frequency (Hz)
Spectral analysis also helps to reveal the
presence of transient phenomena in drive 5a The raw waveform with ringing 5b Spectrum of the ringing fragment
data. As well as stationary oscillatory
components in the signals, other more
6 Time evolution of the torque/speed ratio (τ/n2) for a fan
temporary events may also be present
that are indicators of potential problems. 0.87
For example, the raw torque signal from a
rolling mill, measured over the course of 0.85
4s is shown in ➔ 5a. Some form of ring-
ing, which lasts roughly half a second, is 0.83
40 50
40
2 nd principal component
30 30
Torque (kNm)
20
10
20
0
-10
10
-20
-30
0 -40
-1.0 -0.5 0 0.5 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
Time (s) 1 st principal component
7a Examples of torque up and down profiles 7b The two clusters represent torque increases
and decreases
slab leaves. These jumps can be ana- provided by devices for one purpose in a
Drives are but one lyzed to detect any process instabilities process can be used to satisfy another at
or divergence from normal behavior that no extra cost. As an important part of an
example of useful may be an indication of equipment wear industrial process, ABB drives have ac-
or material variations. cess to and generate large quantities of
diagnostic data data, which, when properly processed,
providers. Other In order to extract only the most essen- can be used for condition monitoring and
tial information, high-resolution data diagnostics. Drives are but one example
examples include gathered around torque jumps is pro- of useful diagnostic data providers. Other
cessed using the PCA methodology [4]. examples include motor control centers,
motor control This technique reduces multidimensional protection relays and intelligent fuses. As
centers, protection data sets to lower dimensions for analy-
sis. These lower dimensions condense
well as being data providers, these de-
vices are capable of using their onboard
relays and intelli- the set-to-set variability. Typical rolling computational power for analyses.
mill torque profiles are shown in ➔ 7.
gent fuses. Each profile in ➔ 7a, corresponding to
one jump, is reduced to a single point as Michal Orkisz
shown in ➔ 7b. Jumps – or points – that ABB Corporate Research
tend to cluster within certain boundaries Krakow, Poland
generally indicate the process is operat- michal.orkisz@pl.abb.com
ing normally while those outside could
signify a problem. The full data set can Maciej Wnek
be saved for further examination at a ABB Low Voltage Products
later stage or, if the analysis takes place Turgi, Switzerland
in real-time, more data can be collected. maciej.wnek@ch.abb.com
Hidden treasure 75
Smart metering
The meter cabinet as the metering and communication center
JÜRGEN LASCH – There are two main trends that are changing the way
we, as consumers, look at energy. One of these is growing concern
about the environment and especially the impact of energy usage. The
other is the rise in energy costs, which is leading people to seek ways of
consuming less. Both of these effects are changing the way people use
energy. Despite good intentions, it is not always easy to link day-to-day
actions with their actual energy impact and hence act accordingly.
Energy bills are typically received on a monthly basis and it is difficult to
distinguish the effects of individual actions or obtain meaningful feed-
back as to the effectiveness of changes.
750 mm
300 mm
T
he introduction of so-called not only use energy efficiently but also
smart metering technology is save money in a deregulated energy
changing this. At the Hanover market. In combination with a data gate-
Trade Fair 2009, ABB present- way ➔ 3, they provide a complete solu-
ed its electronic meters for domestic tion for smart metering. Besides electric-
supply. In combination with a “data gate- ity, the gateway can monitor and visualize
way,” such a device enables customers the consumption of other resources
to visualize and track their energy con- (such as water, gas or heat) and so rep-
3 The data gateway
sumption and so identify ways to opti- resent an integrated and complete me-
mize it. Data is displayed graphically in a tering platform ➔ 4. Data from the gate-
format that is simple to understand, en- way can be presented to the building’s
abling consumers to instantly optimize residents in many different ways, for ex-
their energy use and immediately see the ample on a PC, a mobile phone or a
results of their actions – for example Busch-ComfortPanel® ➔ 5. The data gate-
when they install an energy-efficient re- way also forwards this data to the suppli-
frigerator. ers. The additional devices needed for
this are housed in the meter cabinet be-
The German Federal Government has side the smart electricity meter, thus
made the introduction of smart meters turning this cabinet into a communica-
mandatory in Germany from 2010. With tion center.
the introduction of the electronic domes-
tic supply meter (EDSM) ➔ 1 and its inte- Once such a meter is installed, the long-
grated mounting and contact device standing requirement for a utility employ-
(BKE-I), ABB is offering innovative ee to visit the site regularly and manually
aproaches to metering and distribution. take a reading becomes history. The util- The energy
The new technology makes it possible to ity can periodically calculate consump-
build meter boards that are even more tion by remotely accessing the electronic consumption
compact than the present ones ➔ 2.
Moreover, existing meter boards can be
meter. For the consumer, the energy
consumption of the house is presented
of the house is
retrofitted with an adapter (BKE-A), eas- in an understandable format and at any presented in an
ing the transition to EDSMs. time. Residents can thus influence their
energy usage much earlier. Detailed understandable
ABB’s EDSMs are easy to install and set analysis can even help reveal any dam-
a new and forward-looking standard for age to the network or hidden “power
format.
domestic meters. They create a basis for hogs.”
smart metering and make it possible to
Smart metering 77
4 Smart metering
Socket
Busch-ComfortPanel®
Socket
Socket Socket
Socket
EDSM
Gas/water
Energy utilities
meter
Jürgen Lasch
Striebel & John GmbH & Co. KG
A member of the ABB Group
Sasbach, Germany
juergen.lasch@de.abb.com
BERNHARD DÖRSTEL, PETER SIEGER – New technologies, while were jointly awarded the “red dot: best of the best 2008”
capable of making life better, can occasionally lead to frustra- prize for their intuitive user-control system. Busch-priOn is a
tion through their complexity. Developing a technology that modular control system for KNX-based building system tech-
is not only innovative but also intuitive can challenge even the nology. The concept enables the switching of lights, heating,
brightest designers. In the area of building technology and air conditioning and home electronics from a single central
room control, ABB has met that challenge: A part of the Busch- position in a room that can also activate “living scenes” –
Jaeger Living Space concept, the Busch-ComfortPanel® (for preprogrammed settings that, eg, dim the lights, close the
building management) and Busch-priOn® (for room control) blinds and play one’s favorite music all at the same time.
I
ncreased functionality and ease of use
are the qualities that set a new tech-
nology apart from the others. Busch-
priOn is one such technology. Follow-
ing the principle of “simplexity” – simple
controllability and focus on the essential
– the user can intuitively control even
complex functions. This concept is based
on the idea that any simplification is wel-
come in an ever more complicated world.
3 Winner of the “red dot: best of the best 4 Busch-priOn’s color-oriented user-control
2008” award system utilizes four colors. Busch-priOn uses
Light
state-of-the-art
low-power
Blinds Heating
processor tech-
nology and an
Scene
advanced display
Each color – yellow, blue, amber and
with LED
magenta – is logically assigned to a
different functional area.
backlighting.
activated ➔ 3. Three different screen rep- illumination that allows the level of bright-
resentations are available, which can be ness to be adapted accordingly.
selected according to the user’s individual
taste. In addition, the control panel features
rocker switches, which can be used to
Using an additional device – the so-called select freely programmable functions.
media box – radio and video components When the panel is deactivated, it works
can be controlled as well. With the like a regular switch triggering a pre-
Busch-ComfortPanel, the layout of a defined primary function when the rotary
house, including the location of the con- control element is touched.
trols, can be clearly depicted.
Extra comfort and energy efficiency is
Each function can be quickly selected provided by an optional infrared receiver
and controlled. Individual lamps can be and proximity sensor on the upper bor-
Busch-priOn, the modular room control unit controlled and dimmed directly. Shutters der strip of the Busch-priOn. This com-
for KNX-based building system technology. and blinds can also be operated with the bines design and function in an intelligent
Functions can be easily selected with the rotary
rotary control element, and the tempera- way: When an occupant comes close, it
control element, whose colored aura indicates
the chosen function (here, blue for blinds).
ture in the building can be set for each automatically activates the background
room using the individual-room tempera- illumination of the room control unit. Sim-
ture-control function. ilarly, the lower cover strip can be com-
bined with a temperature sensor, so a
The rotary control element of Busch-pri- room-temperature controller is possible.
On can be combined with or extended to
different modules. All control elements of The winning feature: color
the system, including the TFT display, Busch-priOn and Busch-ComfortPanel
feature a switch-selectable day and night feature an intelligent, color-based user-
Peter Terwiesch
Chief Technology Officer
Group R&D and Technology
Clarissa Haller
Head of Corporate Communications
Ron Popper
Manager of Sustainability Affairs
Axel Kuhr
Head of Group Account Management
Friedrich Pinnekamp
Vice President, Corporate Strategy
Andreas Moglestue
Chief Editor, ABB Review
andreas.moglestue@ch.abb.com
Publisher
ABB Review is published by ABB Group R&D and
Technology.
ISSN: 1013-3119
Besides railways, ABB Review will also look at some of the
www.abb.com/abbreview company’s other involvements in making transportation more
sustainable. These range from a green breakthrough in the
marine sector to recharging the batteries of electric cars.
Preview 83
Connect renewable power to the grid?
Electricity generated by water, sun and wind is most abundant in remote areas
like mountains, deserts or far out at sea. ABB’s leading power and automation
technologies help renewable power reach about 70 million people by integrating
it into electrical grids, sometimes over vast distances. Our effort to harness
renewable energy is making power networks smarter, and helping to protect
the environment and fight climate change. www.abb.com/betterworld Naturally.