Highlights

• Provide the real time data along with the estimation of demand (Demand Side Analytics / Response) for the utilities.
• Fault/ Failure Prediction
• Theft Detection
• Energy Transparency
• Insight about investment as an alternate source of energy.
• Load balancing

Introduction

17% of the Energy sold was not billed at 2019 approx. 200 billion of kWh (units) worth 10.4 Billion GBP in India highlighted by Mr Saurabh, Energy Efficiency Service Limited. From 2000 to 2017 energy demand doubled in India. However, under the Efficient World Scenario, the increase could be limited to just 82% between now and 2040. This would save 10 EJ of additional energy use compared to the NPS. Savings would mainly come from industry (45%) and buildings (30%), followed by the transport sector said by Mr. R K Singh, Minister of Power, India. Demand response is an important tool for improving the delivery of electricity because it reduces demand during peak periods and helps grid operators keep demand and supply in balance. Peak demand is a major cost driver for the delivery of electricity as it requires utilities to build power plants that may be used for only 10% of the time, or less. Peak demand reductions reduce electricity costs and improve utilization of grid assets such as power lines, substations, and power plants.

The electrical infrastructure in our neighbourhood is usually capable of serving the demands which existed at that particular time only. With the growing demand and new constructions are just adding to the existing load and it results in an inefficiency and often the transformers / fuses are blown off. If the utility could get the granular details of the electricity usage at realtime in a locality, it would help them to understand the energy consumption behaviour of consumers which helps to flatten the peak demand by applying dynamic pricing i.e, theelectricity costs more when there is high demand usually mornings and evenings and costs less during the day and also reassess their equipment deployed whether or not it can sustain the demand or not.

Having insight into the demand might help the utility to reduce peak demand by incentivize the customers for participating in demand response for example, People who are at home can run their washing machine and dishwashers on the day when the prices per unit are less. This helps the utilities to manage peak demand, which would have otherwise forced them to buy electricity at very high prices from other sources. Also, if Utilities had past 60 days or so consumption data from the meters, they could foresee the consumption trends and meet their demands by getting any additional power if required. This could turn out to be very helpful for the utility.

The transmission losses and energy theft results in a major of unbilled electricity produced. it can be minimized if we get to know the outages and other breakdown in the grid. Also, if the grid is able to send a signal from where the problem is, it saves a lot of troubleshooting time for the engineers. Meter Tampering alerts could be one way by which the meters in realtime can notify the utilities to check theft etc. Moreover, Remote connect/disconnect can be performed just like the broadband in case the bill payment is delayed or a customer wants a connection deactivated. If we could monitor the consumers having violated his/her sanctioned load instant notification to the utility would also provide lots of revenue to Utility.

Solution

By placing Minion EMS at every intersection of the street where the distribution transformers are placed, the utility can know exactly at a holistic approach which street is consuming how much electricity at real-time. This helps in detecting any power leakage or energy theft. Also, Minion EMS can detect any overload on the transformers beyond their maximum capacity and prevent any failure by notifying the utility about it. With the data collected from the key areas, EMS can also analyse and predict the energy usage trends of dynamic areas and give an insight to the utilities for ensuring a proper demand response which may include setting up or buying additional resources from private generation units. Having a full detailed report into energy consumption and supplied energy the utility has full transparency over the energy flowing to and from the grid.

Automated Demand Response:

It also helps getting accurate and reliable data displaying historic and real time data on the Minion EMS dashboard. With EMS in place there is no need for manual data collection and efficiency check. The EMS also provides valuable insights that are needed to deduce conclusions that help track fluctuations in power demand, its impact on the grid and the transformer. Imagine if the Minion EMS has been installed in every building, utilities can send out notification signals for upcoming critical peak events to demand response automation servers (DRAS), which then signals Minion EMS. The system uses EEBUS protocol, an open,industry-standard communication protocol, to pass messages between the DRAS and Minion EMS. Once a signal is received, Minion EMS uses a priority list of pre-selected curtailments that were identified by the participants in accordance with their own needs. Typical curtailments include non-essential lighting and elevator banks, and certain equipment such as pumps, motors, compressors, and refrigeration systems, whose operations can be delayed without noticeable disruption.

Use Cases:

Use case 1:

Having Minion EMS installed, it can send the billing data directly to the control center and the utility can generate the bills with that data. This way, meter readers will not have to go to the houses every month to note down the reading. Having Demand response is place, the EMS can respond to the Peak load management that shifts the power consumption to lower consumption hours. Thus, Consumers can directly participate in the incentive programs announced by the utility on the consumer portal. EMS enables remote controlling of different appliances from an app either automatically or manually. Consumer can also shift from prepaid to post-paid and vice versa only with the help of these smart meters. He will be sent an SMS/EMAIL when he reaches a threshold (say Rs. 10)

Use case 2:

EMS if installed at the distribution sites, it can remotely monitor power transformers and can detect and diagnose problems before they occur – EMS had been installed on some of those transformers to evaluate the health of both the high and low voltage bushings, including capacitance, power factor, and the extent of current imbalance. Bushing failures can damage transformers, which means costly repairs and the possibility of extended service interruptions. EMS detected an out of tolerance high voltage bushing. Customers served by this transformer were temporarily switched to another one, and the affected transformer was removed from service. Meanwhile, the faulty bushing was replaced, preventing an outage that would have affected several thousand customers.

Use case 3:

The EMS can also monitor capacitance voltage transformers (CVTs) and is measuring voltage levels and other power flow variables. EMS implemented an algorithm that uses these data to detect early CVT degradation so preventative maintenance measures can be taken. In a deployment EMS received an alarm signal indicating potential problems with a degraded phase on a CVT. Local field engineers were notified and dispatched, located the damaged CVT, removed the affected transmission line section from service, and replaced the defective CVT, thus preventing a failure that could have resulted in an extended outage and affected several thousand customers.

Use case 4:

Smart grid capabilities involve providing customers with information and data displays so they can better control their electricity consumption and costs. Each customer with anactivated smart meter can view his or her own “Energy Dashboard” through Minion dashboard. The dashboard displays information about consumption and costs in real time after it has been recorded by the smart meter. Each customer can view his or her own power use by the hour, day and month and can receive bill estimates based on current usage patterns. They can also automate appliances to meet demand response and get rewarded by the incentives provided by the utility. i.e. pricing as an incentive for consumers to save energy, particularly at times of peak demand. Time-of-Use Pricing (TOU) is generally the category for these rates, where customers pay different predetermined prices at different times of the day1.

Use case 5:

With the recent growth in renewable energy, mainly in the form of solar panels and EVs, the grid operators have to face an important scenario. Since users are now consuming as well as producing energy, it disrupts the balance between the phases of the grid. This happens because that in some locality with many solar panels which are connected to one phase would be demanding minimal power or rather sending excess power back to the grid, while as the other phase connected to homes with less or no solar panels demands a lot more energy. These variations in energy demand have an impact on medium voltage transformers. Thankfully based on the insights provided by Minion EMS, the grid can restore the balance by shifting the energy flow from one phase to another by installing a heavier transformer and thus protect the proper functioning of the grid.