Showing papers on "Smart grid published in 1997"

System and methods that facilitate the introduction of market based economic models for electric power

Abstract: A smart meter/billing system that eases the transition to commodity-like marketplace operations for electric power, and supports near real-time load balancing between competing suppliers of electric power. Existing watt-hour meters become multi-parameter terminals or smart meters that measure consumption per unit of time correlatible to calendar-time, measure near real-time demand, measure reliability, store information and transmitting it to a smart meter reader when properly interrogated. The smart reader periodically sends its accumulated information to a billing computer. An optional ancillary system uses the same smart meters to support automatic load balancing between competing suppliers that share common distribution facilities. Supplier designated demand increments from possibly millions of consumers, are summed according to the supplier-of-record, over near real-time intervals. These sums are used by the suppliers to adjust their output power so it equals the actual, near real-time demand of their customers-of-record at any time.

Grids get smart protection and control

Abstract: As open transmission access is becoming a reality, a major concern of electric power utilities is to maintain the reliability of the grid. Increased power transfers raise concerns about steady-state overloads, increased risks of voltage collapse and potential stability problems. Strengthening the protection and control strategies is what utilities must do to prevent a local problem from spreading to other parts of the grid. This article defines the framework and motivation for the development of a multilayered protection and control scheme that starts with local measurement devices and integrates higher-level control schemes into an overall control strategy.