Project Directory

This project is enhancing algorithms for use in a mode meter that will detect, analyze, and potentially help localize forced oscillations in a power system. It also supports BPA in conducting probing tests for modal analysis in the Western Interconnection.

DOE's 2002 National Transmission Grid Study recommended that DOE undertake designation of national interest transmission bottlenecks (NITB).  This project supported DOE in that process by assessing and addressing gaps in current methods, approaches, and data needed to make these designations. This project initiated research needed to address the limitations of available approaches toward improving future designations by DOE.  

This project provides research and technical support to the NERC Reliability Standards Drafting Teams (SDT) and Reliability Subcommittees, Resource Subcommittee, and RS-Frequency Working Group to identify and quantify reliability performance issues and trends, and assist in drafting and field testing and deploying reliability standards that improve situational awareness and system reliability. This work aims to provide technology solutions that address critical reliability issues, and improve load-generation control, reserves adequacy, and reliability performance.

The scope of the project was to develop strategies to achieve the co-benefits of maintaining power systems reliability and protecting public health (from air pollution) during high electricity demand days (HEDDs). HEDDs are typically hot summer days when the demand for electricity is highest and the atmosphere is conductive to pollution formation such as ozone. Meeting high electricity demand during HEDDs requires dispatch of all generation resources, and demand response programs often lead to firing up of diesel backup generators.

The goal of the proposed research work is to develop a universally accepted test plan that would support the DOE and NIST efforts for phasor measurement and testing. 

The purpose of this study was to determine the best way to incorporate “proxy-limits” in a DCOPF to preserve features of the solution of a more detailed ACOPF.  Specific voltage and stability limits cannot be directly represented in a DCOPF and are indirectly included as line flow limits.  This research sets out to determine the best way to set proxy limits to preserve the dispatch and prices of the ACOPF, in a DCOPF representation.

This project was designed to develop and test advanced prototype applications on the Real-Time Dynamic Monitoring System (RTDMS) platform to provide dispatchers and reliability coordinators with a unified wide-area grid monitoring visualization capability that provides dispatchers and reliability coordinators an instant visual snapshot of key system metrics. 

The Real-Time Voltage Security Assessment (RTVSA) project was designed to be part of the suite of advanced computational tools for congestion management that is slated for practical applications in California. Modern voltage assessment methods include the development of such advanced functions as identification of weak elements, automatic selection of remedial actions and automatic development of composite operating nomograms and security regions.

This project conducted first-ever demonstrations of the use of large fleets of residential load management technologies (radio-dispatched switches on central air conditioning units) to provide spinning reserves that met the operational dispatch requirements of the California ISO. Separate demonstrations were conducted with the Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Companies, each using a different load management dispatch platform and 1000’s of air conditioning load control technologies.

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. 

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 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: