Strategies and Applications to Meet Grid Challenges and Enhance Power System Performance

Interconnected and integrated electrical power systems, by their very dynamic nature are complex. These multifaceted systems are subject to a host of challenges - aging infrastructure, generation availability near load centers, transmission expansion to meet growing demands, distributed resources, dynamic reactive compensation, congestion management, grid ownership vs. system operation, reliability coordination, supply and cost of natural resources for generation, etc. Other types of challenges facing the industry today include balancing between resource adequacy, reliability, economics, environmental constraints, and other public purpose objectives to optimize transmission and distribution resources to meet the needs of the end users. This paper describes the strategies to meet grid challenges in providing reliable power delivery. Solutions are offered through applications of modern technology, advanced feedback control schemes using wide area measurements, wide-area visualization techniques, and intelligent operational tools using IEC-61850 and information semantics to improve grid reliability under complicated power system conditions. The goal is to provide a vision for a comprehensive and systematic approach to meeting the grid management challenges through new information services.