Grid orchestration: Challenges and Opportunities

Title: Grid orchestration: Challenges and Opportunities 

Abstract:

Distribution grids are becoming complex and managing them with traditional approaches is increasingly untenable. On the one hand, the exponential adoption of DERs such as rooftop solar, home batteries and EVs is dramatically altering power consumption (and production) patterns. On the other hand, concerns over the price tag of building out new infrastructure to meet the forecasted increase in overall load growth (from a modest 0.5% over the last decade to 4.7% over the next 5 years), especially considering the uncertainties inherent in load forecasting, are causing several grid expansion projects and utility-scale interconnections to be delayed or outright rejected [1]. There is an ever-increasing need for intelligent software solutions which can maximize efficiency of the infrastructure already in place today and orchestrate the multi-directional flow of electrons while keeping distribution grid operations safe, reliable and affordable.

With this goal in mind, utilities are looking to control and coordinate DERs using Operating Envelopes (OEs). OEs are bounds on the allowable import or export of power at any given time (now or in the future) for an individual or aggregation of DERs. These limits are computed dynamically, based on the state of the network now, for a future time horizon (say, 24 hours ahead), and account for voltage, thermal and other network constraints. For instance, EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) charging may be curtailed to prevent an upstream fuse from tripping, or a utility-scale solar plus storage system may be controlled to provide voltage support across a feeder. The computation of OEs hinges on the development of several technical capabilities: (a) situational awareness, i.e. a granular understanding of who is consuming/producing what, where and when, (b) load forecasts at every point on the grid, and (c) power flow models to solve for, and optimize, network operation. Furthermore, each of these capabilities must be robust (e.g. to missing data) and scalable (e.g. to large distribution grids). In this talk, we will present some of our company’s recent technical progress, challenges and lessons from deployments in the field.

[1] https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/transmission/suddenly-us-electricity-demand-is-spiking-can-the-grid-keep-up

Speaker:

Akhilesh Bakshi leads the grid optimization team at Camus Energy and is an expert in mathematical optimization and simulation of physical systems. Prior to joining Camus, he led Enel X’s behind-the-meter economic optimization engine, from prototype to production for hundreds of applications globally. He has also served as an ORISE postdoctoral fellow at the National Energy Technology Laboratory building tools for statistical analyses applied to computational fluid dynamics. Akhilesh received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the area of multiphase flows for thermo-chemical applications, and B.Tech. and M.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology – Mumbai.