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Energy Storage & Grid Integration


Integrating Renewables

Turning green generation into power BY THE EXPERTS AT THE WORLD WATCH INSTITUTE A grid system’s difficulty in absorbing variable generation can present an obstacle to the growth of renewable power, especially when continued improvements in infrastructure and market design are absent. There are...

Asset Management & Maintenance


Smart Substations and Their Role in the Evolving Smart Grid

The power industry is undergoing a profound transformation driven by grid modernization, renewable integration, and increasing demands for resilience and efficiency. At the heart of this evolution lies the smart substation—a next-generation facility equipped with advanced sensors, digital...

Substation Automation T&D


Machine to Machine Communications

Connecting the ‘smart’ with the ‘grid’ with M2M technology BY JEFF DIXON, Freewave Technologies As the world becomes increasingly connected, the integration of smart devices and tools, such as sensors, process control devices, smart meters, and security cameras have increased the need for...

Utility Automation & Monitoring T&D


Moving Smart Grid to the Field

Ben Franklin famously said, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail”. This saying certainly holds true for Smart Grid deployments, which can cost utilities several hundred million dollars. Given these high stakes, effective planning is essential. Many North American electric utilities...

Distribution Automation


Distribution Grid Monitoring Technologies

How to improve situational awareness of grid operations BY MARK FEDERLE, QinetiQ North America The adoption of Smart Grid technology in recent years has accelerated the modernization of the electric utility grid. This is a positive development given that the grid infrastructure in North America is,...

Smart Metering T&D


Writing Smart Grid Requirements

Managing change with positive thinking to make the most of investments BY JOHN MCDONALD, IEEE Senior Member, GE Energy Management - Digital Energy The process of writing requirements for Smart Grid-related technology purchases may appear simple and straightforward. It is not. As the technology...

T&D Automation

Substation Automation

Substation Automation Standard

Reducing engineering costs using IEC 61850

BY ADAM GAUCI, Schneider Electric

As substation automation is moving towards software environments based on the International Electrotechnical Commission’s substation automation standard, IEC 61850: “Power Utility Automation”, the engineering process is becoming more complex. Consequently, a greater portion of the capital expenditure (CAPEX) budget is used to develop new—or upgrade existing—substations, especially in interoperable, multi-vendor environments. This can be attributed to the increasingly complex automation schemes which are now...

T&D Automation Articles