Case Study: Near Real-Time System Loss Analysis at Ameren Illinois

With all the time and cost involved, it's little wonder why Utilities conduct a System Loss Analysis (SLA) only about once a decade. This was fine in a world where the grid profile looks pretty much the same year-to-year, as it has been up until that last 5-10 years. Now, the proliferation of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), a major shift of the workforce from manufacturing to services, remote employees working from homes, and several other factors can make significant year-to-year changes on the grid profile.

In the traditional time that it takes to conduct an SLA, 12-18 months, the models can be obsolete almost as soon as they are defined. Using a micro-forecasting technology with the capability to do spatial/time analyses, Ameren was able to join and align data from disparate OT & IT sources such as CIS, GIS, MDM and SCADA in near real-time and reduce the time it takes them to perform a comprehensive SLA from more than a year to about 20 minutes. This innovative approach to real time loss analysis is essential to the siting and integrating DER on the distribution grid.

Speakers:


Bill Darden is director of business solutions at PowerRunner, LLC. Previously he was manager of load forecasting at Hess Corporation for five years, and director of forecasting at Juice Energy for one year. Additionally, he served as senior forecasting analyst at Contellation Energy for seven years. Bill holds a B.S. degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Norte Dame, and an M.S. degree in metallurgy & materials science from Case Western Reserve University.