Project Directory

The main objective of this project is to develop a voltage stability margin computation method using PMU data. The approach is to use the PMU data to estimate the Thevenin equivalent voltage and reactance, allowing a smaller size system to be analyzed for real-time stability application. Simultaneously, a new steady-state voltage stability technique called the AQ-bus method has been developed, which benefited this proposed voltage stability method. The program was handed over to BPA to allow for calculation, in an off-line capacity, of stability concerns.

This project is focused on establishing the business case for industrial ancillary services providers.  Activities include determining the national and regional market potential of industrial DR, creating a user-friendly on-line tool and guidance document for use in discussions with potential industrial or commercial electricity users, and identifying demonstration opportunities for a follow-on Load as a Resource in an industrial facility.

This project was designed to explore the potential saving in economic dispatch cost from simultaneous economic dispatch of generation resources and switching off lines in a smart grid environment.

LBNL contractors John Undrill, Energy Mark, and Advanced System Research, participated in a variety of technical support activities leading to the revisions to NERC Standard BAL-003. As a result of these efforts the NERC Standard BAL-003 contains for the first time requirements for interconnection frequency response and creates obligations for balancing authorities to maintain minimum levels of frequency response.

This tools suite to be developed uses PMU measurements to validate the models and calibrate incorrect parameters to describe a generator’s dynamic performance. It offers a non-intrusive alternative to traditional stage testing methods to provide this information—which is required by NERC standards—to grid operators.

This project provides direct technical support for industry-led activities, conducted through the IEEE and IEC, to develop consensus standards for the technologies involved in synchrophasor grid monitoring systems—such as the means for describing the performance of phasor measurement units.

This project developed a prototype application for validating and conditioning real-time synchrophasor data.

The objective of the SuperOPF project is to develop a framework that will provide proper allocation and valuation of resources through true co-optimization across multiple scenarios. Instead of solving a sequence of simpler and approximate sub-problems, the SuperOPF approach combines as much as possible into a single mathematical programming framework with a full AC network and simultaneous co-optimization across multiple scenarios with stochastic costs.

The objective of this work was to extend the existing spectral coherence algorithm to improve the detection of persistent oscillations and provide more tractable information to the end user, in the form of daily summaries or outputs. Determining alarming techniques and thresholds, as well as integrating into the DISAT capabilities, we conducted the following work:

This study addresses the potential use of phasor measurement units (PMUs) within electricity distribution systems, and was written to assess whether or not PMUs could provide significant benefit, at the national level. We analyze examples of present and emerging distribution-system issues related to reliability, integration of distributed energy resources, and the changing electrical characteristics of load. We find that PMUs offer important and irreplaceable advantages over present approaches.

The objective of this project was to improve the capability of BPA to manage the enormous amount of data used and generated in various analysis processes including oscillation detection. Working with domain experts in BPA, this project worked to develop data reduction algorithms to reduce the amount of data that OSISoft PI needs to process. Additionally, a data management system was also developed to handle big data.