Demonstrating Data Analytics for Transmission and Distribution Coordination

To supply power to homes and businesses, electric utilities and system operators work around the clock to balance supply of electricity with demand. The rapid addition of customer-owned solar and other distributed energy resources (DERs) requires changing distribution and transmission grid operations to maintain high quality power delivery that customers rely on. DERs change the flow of electricity on the grid while opening new opportunities to utilize grid edge resources to reduce power outages and accelerate recovery from power system disturbances. 

These developments underline the criticality of securing effective sensor technologies to gain greater visibility of this transforming grid. The power sector needs data integration using industry standards and open-source tools can make that data available, understandable, and actionable. Real operational improvement happens when data analytics are utilized to improve grid flexibility and reliability. To that end, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is leading two multi-year projects with Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) funded by DOE Office of Electricity (OE) Sensors and Data Analytics program. 

Vermont is a leader in renewables adoption and generates almost 100% of its electricity from renewable resources, more than any other state[1]. Within the decade, Vermont expects to have its entire daytime minimum load served by behind-the-meter DER. And as with other states, Vermont’s transmission and distribution utilities will need to comply with emerging federal reliability standards that will require much greater data gathering and collaboration. 

Through these projects, VELCO is working with PNNL and ORNL to develop the tools and procedures to fully integrate the renewable energy deployed into existing grid planning and operational systems by increasing coordination between transmission and distribution systems. VELCO can then share insights on effective DER integration with other utilities, helping to accelerate the energy transition. 

The two OE funded projects are MAPLE LEAF[2] and MAPLE BRANCH[3]. 

• Improving Emergency Operations: The MAPLE LEAF project is leveraging aggregated, anonymized smart meter data at the feeder-level to study the efficacy of under-frequency load shedding (UFLS), which is a safety net for the bulk power system during emergencies. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has identified that large amounts of DERs could render UFLS ineffective under current design practices. 
• Improving Power Quality and Stability: The MAPLE BRANCH project is evaluating innovative ways to improve load power factor at the transmission-distribution boundary. The project team will be comparing solutions with traditional infrastructure upgrades to solutions using grid-friendly inverter behavior, specifically through the development of volt-VAR curves to improve system flexibility. 

Both projects are demonstrations of a first-of-its-kind transmission-distribution data integration platform based on the Common Information Model (CIM). Because multiple systems need to be able to share information, common definitions of components, measurements, and conditions need to be universally used to facilitate cost effective interoperability. CIM is an industry standard that serves as the “Rosetta Stone” of sorts for the electric grid. All grid models, meter data, substation data, and grid-edge sensor data are being converted to CIM and combined in a cloud-based research environment with a novel distributed architecture. This allows the utility to automate and streamline grid data exchanges. VELCO is in the process of adopting the CIM through the Vermont Exchange (VX) Platform, and this project is accelerating the collaboration and innovation needed to realize the benefits of CIM in production environments.

PNNL is combining several flagship software tools developed with support of DOE to enable this demonstration, including GridAPPS-D[4] and VOLTTRON[5]. Mapping of data across the transmission-distribution is enabled by a breakthrough knowledge graph software, CIMantic Graphs[6], developed through this project’s work. The platform is powering cutting edge data analytics which will be demonstrated in field tests at actual VELCO substations. These demonstrations, and the projects overall, are building trust in the CIM as a powerful, foundational step key to maintaining grid reliability even as it accelerates grid transformation.

The new CIM data platform will be bench-tested by PNNL this Spring while the new algorithms for UFLS protection and volt-VAR curves for distribution circuits with high levels of DERs will be completed and analyzed by the end of 2024. In the Spring of 2025, the field tests at VELCO will be conducted for both the LEAF and BRANCH projects with final project reports expected in September of 2025. 

DOE anticipates that the results from these tests will inform other utilities and system operators throughout the US on how they can address similar issues when faced with increasing deployment of DERs on their systems. 

For more information, contact the PNNL Project Manager, Peter Christensen at [email protected].

[1] https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=VT

[2] Model-based Adaptive Protection & Load-shedding Environment Leveraging Estimates for Advanced Flexibility

[3] Model-based Adaptive Platform Environment for Broad Area Network Control Hierarchy

[4] https://gridapps-d.org/

[5] https://volttron.org/

[6] https://pypi.org/project/cim-graph/