June 27, 2005
Technical Paper: New Approaches to Maximizing Reliability.
Douglas M. Staszesky
Director—Marketing, Automation Systems Division
S&C Electric Company
Utilities are faced with the considerable challenge of providing an alternate source for increasing numbers of power-sensitive customers. In the past, this meant that an additional feeder, with sufficient capacity to meet the customer’s demand, had to be routed to the customer’s site, often at considerable expense. Or, alternatively, valuable capacity had to be reserved on existing lines. Either way, the customer is faced with higher service costs, which may lead them to seek another provider or another location which better meets their financial needs . . . sometimes not in the power provider’s territory.
Utilities now have the ability to use advanced, proven automation technology to overcome this problem by more effectively using all the distribution feeders near a power-sensitive customer to not only meet that customer’s needs, but to generally improve the reliability of service to the entire area. By using realtime load monitoring as part of the restoration algorithm, and taking advantage of access to multiple power sources, a utility can now realistically provide enhanced service without the need to reserve or route the additional capacity needed for any one customer.
So how can a utility offer a more cost-effective solution for alternate-power-source applications? The answer lies in more effectively utilizing existing MVA capacity while ensuring that the reliability of service to other customers is not jeopardized.