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December 2015 | 1 www.power-grid.com

PowerGrid International® (ISSN 1547-6723).

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DECEMBER 2015 VOLUME 20.12

18 DistribuTECH 2016: The Best and BrightestNation’s biggest annual T&D event coming to Orlando in February. Be there. By Rod Walton, Senior Editor.

32 Leading the Worldwide Charge

Steven Bayne of Aggreko: Challenges of rural electrification need global innovation.

34 Products

35 Calendar/Ad Index

36 Parting Thoughts

11Cybersecurity:

How to Understand, Manage and Maintain

Three best practices for keeping the

grid secure. By Dana Pasquali of GE

Measurement and Control.

From the Editor 2

Notes 3

Cybersecurity Experts: 14 Utilities Must be Ready

Senior Editor Rod Walton writes about experts who warn that hackers are

getting closer to success.

21 Moving Toward a More Resilient Grid

Andrew Bennett of Schneider Electric recounts case study on Austin Energy’s handling of storm challenges.

24 A New Era of EngagementTaking cues from Amazon and Google on managing customer’s expectations. By Rodger Smith of Oracle Utilities.

27 Endless PossibilitiesJohn Radgowski of Landis+Gyr reveals how advanced meter infrastructure opens up a smarter future.

29 Substation AutomationLegacy RTU upgrade can be solution to a real problem. By Miguel Bengla, Advanced Control Systems

1512pg_1 1 12/4/15 1:36 PM

2 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

FROM THE EDITOR

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICAN POWER GENERATION GROUP

Richard Baker

EDITOR IN CHIEF Teresa Hansen

918.831.9504 [email protected]

SENIOR EDITOR Rod Walton

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June Griffin

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EDITOR IN CHIEF TERESA HANSEN

Grids Must Adapt to Europe’s Transitioning Electricity Industry

I’m sure you’ve heard lately that the electricity industry is transforming.

Certainly the electricity delivery industry, a.k.a. the grid, changed in 2015—

not just in North America, but globally.

I learned about some of the happenings in Europe’s electricity delivery sec-

tor last month when I attended Siemens’ media event in Vienna.

There isn’t enough space here to share everything I heard during my visit,

but I thought I’d use this letter to provie some highlights from Siemens’ execs.

Thomas Zimmerman, CEO of Siemens Digital Grid, said his company is

serious about helping its utility partners around the world develop and create

the digital grid. He said that automation is the first step to the digital grid and

many utilities are on their way to grid digitalization, having already invested

heavily in grid automation.

He talked about how the industry is changing. No longer is it just about

electricity production, delivery and consumption. Distributed generation,

electricity storage, digital technology, the shift in generation profile, competi-

tion, customer choice and more are changing the industry, Zimmerman said.

Some 680 million smart meters installed worldwide are providing valuable

information that will allow distribution grid owners and operators to not only

develop more resilient networks, but expand services.

Michael Weinhold, chief technology officer of Siemens’ Energy Management,

talked specifically about Germany’s electricity sector. He said Germany’s

installed renewable energy capacity has reached about 80 GW. The country’s

load ranges from 35 GW to 75 GW each day, therefore, the grid can have a

substantial intake of renewable energy on any given day. On a cloudy, winter

day, however, it might receive no electricity from renewable sources.

While Germany has one of the largest shares of renewable energy in its

generation mix, most of Europe’s renewable energy mix has seen noteworthy

growth. Europe currently receives about 20 percent of its electricity from wind

and solar PV sources. Siemens forecasts that number to reach 40 percent by

2030, Weinhold said.

And, no matter what some say, the grid isn’t going away. Weinhold firmly

believes it will be the glue that holds everything together.

Zimmerman and Weinhold both talked extensively about electric utilities’

need to adapt to the many changes and challenges they face.

Agility is the key to success and is enabled through technology,

Weinhold said.

Both gentlemen’s presentations included this quote from Charles Darwin,

which they believe every utility executive should remember: “It is not the

strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that

is the most adaptable to change.”

1512pg_2 2 12/4/15 1:36 PM

December 2015 | 3 www.power-grid.com

NOTES

an anchor snag occurs, including notifying

the U.S. Coast Guard, repairing the cables

and recovering the snagged anchor, if

possible.

The final EIS “marks another milestone

in the permitting of the project,” TDI-NE

CEO Donald Jessome said in the Oct. 29

statement. “We are confident that, once

built, the New England Clean Power Link

will deliver environmental and economic

benefits to the people of Vermont and New

England and do so in a way that minimizes

impacts to communities and helps meet

the region’s growing energy and environ-

mental challenges,” Jessome said.

TDI-NE said it expects to have all major

federal and state permits for the project

secured by the end of the year.

In previous statements, TDI-NE has

said it anticipates completing a financial

close on the project by July 2016, with an

in-service date in mid-2019.

TDI New England received the final

environmental impact statement from the

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for

its $1.2 billion Clean Power Link trans-

mission project designed to move power

from renewable resources in Canada to

Vermont, TDI-NE said in a statement.

The final EIS said DOE’s pre-

ferred alternative “is the issuance of a

Presidential permit that would authorize

the construction, operation and mainte-

nance of the project,” which would

cross the U.S. border with Canada.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the

summer of 2016. The planned 154-mile

project will be a high-voltage, direct cur-

rent line that capable of delivering 1,000

MW into the ISO New England system at a

substation in Cavendish, Vermont..

It includes a 97-mile underwater seg-

ment in Lake Champlain and a 57-mile

underground segment in Vermont to move

power from Quebec, Canada, to a convert-

er station in Ludlow, Vermont.

The final EIS noted that TDI-NE

developed environmental mitigation mea-

sures to minimize environmental impacts

before, during and after construction.

Cable installation on the Lake Champlain

segment would occur between June 1 and

Nov. 1 to avoid icy conditions on the lake,

although installation in the southern por-

tion of the lake could occur up to Dec. 31 if

needed, DOE

said.

Installation

in shallow water depths would result in

temporary, local effects on water quality

during construction, with cables buried

underwater at different depths using jet

plowing and shear plowing methods, with

shear plowing resulting in less sediment

suspension and dispersion, DOE said.

At water depths of more than 150 feet,

the cables would be laid on the lakebed

and allowed to self-bury, and the route

within Lake Champlain is designed to

avoid the possibility of anchor snags from

boats, the final EIS noted. Even so, it

directed TDI-NE to follow certain steps if

BY TOM TIERNAN, SENIOR ANALYST, TRANSMISSIONHUB

DOE APPROVES TDI NEW ENGLAND CLEAN POWER TRANSMISSION LINE

device failures, energy-related infrastruc-

ture investment ROI and other valuable

information that can inform and affect

major business decisions in the

future.”

Panoramic Power , which

has offices in New York, Israel

and the United Kingdom, was

founded in 2009. The firm has

deployed 25,000 sensors at 700 sites in 30

countries.

British-based Centrica has owned Direct

Energy since 2000. Centrica is focused on

oil and gas, power generation and smart

grid devices.

Retail electricity provider Direct

Energy and its parent company Centrica

have agreed to acquire Israeli energy

management firm Panoramic Power for

$60 million.

Houston-based Direct Energy’s acqui-

sition builds on an existing and exclusive

partnership with Panoramic Power that

began in June 2014. The partners are

focused on expanding the U.S. energy ser-

vices business.

Direct has 5 million residential and busi-

ness customers in North America, while

Panoramic offers technology to help cus-

tomers lower energy consumption, reduce

operating costs and increase overall opera-

tional efficiency.

“The commercial industry trend is mov-

ing toward more centralized

energy management solutions

with a focus on automated

energy data collection and

reporting, which is why Direct

Energy aims to seamlessly

incorporate Panoramic Power’s technology

and analytical expertise into what we offer

our growing customer base,” John Schultz,

president of Direct Energy Business, said in

a statement. “Customers will be able to see

energy insights, such as once unpredicted

CENTRICA BUYS PANORAMIC POWER TO

PARTNER WITH U.S.-BASED DIRECT ENERGY

1512pg_3 3 12/4/15 1:36 PM

4 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

NOTES

this important project milestone and

appreciate DOE’s careful environmen-

tal review and analysis of the Plains &

Eastern project. We look forward to

DOE’s Record of Decision.”

“We are very encouraged by the

release of today’s Final EIS because it

brings us one step closer to expanding

our nation’s interstate electric transmis-

sion backbone and meeting the growing

demand for wind energy in the United

States,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the

American Wind Energy Association.

“The Plains & Eastern Clean Line

is a critical component of this needed

transmission expansion and will deliver

low-cost, reliable wind power from the

Oklahoma Panhandle, where an enor-

mous amount of potential wind farm

capacity is waiting to be developed,

to Americans in the Mid-South and

Southeast United States,” Kiernan said.

“The line by itself will carry four

times more electricity than the Hoover

Dam generates, so this is a very big

development indeed in American clean

energy,” he added.

The U.S. Department of Energy

(DOE) released its final environmental

impact statement (EIS) for the proposed

Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmis-

sion project, marking an important step

toward the construction of America’s

largest clean energy project.

The multi-billion dollar infrastruc-

ture project is a nearly 700-mile over-

head direct current (DC) transmission

line that will create thousands of con-

struction jobs in Oklahoma, Arkansas

and Tennessee, support hundreds of

manufacturing jobs

in those states,

and deliver 4,000

MW of low-cost

clean power from

the Oklahoma

Panhandle region

to customers in

Arkansas, Tennessee

and other states in

the Mid-South and

Southeast.

DOE’s release of

the Final EIS marks

a key milestone for

the Plains & Eastern

Clean Line. The Final EIS presents a

thorough analysis and comparison of

the potential environmental impacts of

the proposed project, responds to pub-

lic comments DOE received regarding

the Draft EIS, and identifies DOE’s

participation in the project through

Southwestern Power Administration

(Southwestern) as its preferred alter-

native.

Based on the analysis presented in the

Final EIS, DOE identified a preferred

route for the direct current transmission

line. DOE also identified its preferred

locations for a delivery converter sta-

tion in Arkansas as well as a converter

station and associated project facilities

in Oklahoma. DOE’s participation in

the project would be limited to states in

which Southwestern operates.

Southwestern does not operate in

Tennessee, therefore, in the Final EIS

DOE does not indicate a preference for

the location of the DC transmission line

or the converter station in Tennessee.

The Final EIS “did not identify wide-

spread significant impacts as a result

of construction or operations and

maintenance of the Project.” DOE also

concluded that implementation of the

environmental protection measures that

Clean Line included as an integral part

of the project would avoid or minimize

the potential for significant environ-

mental effects.

“The release of the Final EIS marks

the culmination of more than five years

of work and the consideration of thou-

sands of stakeholder comments,” said

Michael Skelly, Clean Line Energy’s pres-

ident. “We are pleased to have reached

PLAINS & EASTERN CLEAN LINE PROJECT MOVES

AHEAD WITH ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT

1512pg_4 4 12/4/15 1:36 PM

December 2015 | 5 www.power-grid.com

NOTES

excellence in Bilbao, Spain, focused

on the rapidly growing international

regions. Aclara also will acquire a signif-

icant intellectual property portfolio of

active patents and patent applications.

“Aclara will greatly benefit from GE

Meters’ deep technology foundation and

its seasoned engineering group,” said

Brian Urbanek, managing director of

Sun Capital and member of the Aclara

Board of Managers. “This expertise will

support Aclara’s focus on addressing key

technology trends including AMI inte-

gration, cyber security and standards,

design for cost and field upgradability,

all of which are important aspects of a

smart infrastructure environment.”

A unit of Aclara Technologies, a sup-

plier of smart infrastructure technologies

signed a definitive agreement to buy the

electricity meters business currently oper-

ating within GE Energy Management’s

Grid Solutions (GE Meters) subdivision.

The transaction is expected to close

by the end of the year subject to stan-

dard conditions, regulatory approvals,

consultation processes with employ-

ees as applicable and completion of

business processes satisfactory to both

parties. Terms of the transaction were

not disclosed.

“This acquisition significantly enhanc-

es Aclara’s offering for electric utilities

across North America and around the

globe, creating a comprehensive portfo-

lio of leading-edge products,” said Allan

Connolly, Aclara’s CEO and president.

“The combination of Aclara’s industry

leadership in advanced metering infra-

structure (AMI) technology with GE

Meters’ 130 years of operating expe-

rience, technology development and

commercial expertise will enable us to

accelerate development and delivery

of advanced smart infrastructure solu-

tions.”

Aclara will acquire more than 300

employees along with GE Meters’ glob-

al headquarters in Somersworth, New

Hampsire, a satellite manufacturing

facility in Chicago and a center of

ACLARA TECHNOLOGIES UNIT BUYING GE’S METER BUSINESS

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doblePRIME™

CONDITION MONITORING

PLATFORM FOR TRANSFORMERS

Learn more about condition monitoring

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www.dooble.com//doblePRIME

Integrated On-Line Monitoring & Analysis Backed by Decades of Diagnostic Experience

1512pg_5 5 12/4/15 1:36 PM

6 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

NOTES

EYE ON THE WORLD

Canadian energy company Enbridge joined the Rampion

offshore wind power project by acquiring a 24.9 percent

interest. Enbridge will become one of three shareholders in

Rampion Offshore Wind.

E. On will remain the controlling shareholder at 50.1

percent, with the UK Green Investment Bank continuing to

hold a 25 percent interest.

Rampion is a 400 MW offshore wind farm project in the

English Channel, to be located off the Sussex coast south of

Brighton and remains set to become the first offshore wind

farm off the south coast of England.

E.On will manage construction and operation of the

Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. The project received the final

investment decision in May 2015, started construction in

September and is expected to be fully operational in 2018.

“Offshore wind is a natural next step for Enbridge’s sig-

nificant wind business,” said Enbridge President and Chief

Executive Officer Al Monaco. “We have a well-established

renewables business and growing expertise in wind power

technology, construction and operations and this project

provides an attractive opportunity to partner with E.ON, an

industry leading constructor and operator of offshore wind

projects, and Green Investment Bank with its experience of

supporting offshore wind ventures. Further developing our

expertise in this business will position Enbridge to partici-

pate in future offshore developments.”

“Our investment in Rampion Offshore Wind is a strong

fit with our investor value proposition and advances

a number of key corporate priorities,” added Monaco.

Rampion Offshore Wind Project gains new investor in Enbridge“Rampion provides a timely and effective entry point to

the European offshore wind business and it supports our

objective of developing new platforms that extend and

diversify our industry leading growth beyond 2019. The

European offshore wind business comes with strong market

fundamentals, sound commercial underpinnings and attrac-

tive returns. Once the project goes into service in 2018, we

expect it to be immediately accretive to available cash flow

from operations and earnings per share.”

Under the terms of the agreement Enbridge will become

one of three shareholders in Rampion Offshore Wind

Limited which owns the project. The UK Green Investment

Bank plc holds a 25 percent interest, and E.ON will retain

the balance of 50.1 percent.

E.ON will manage construction of the project under a

construction management agreement. Rampion Offshore

Wind Project is E.ON’s 10th offshore wind project world-

wide and its sixth in the UK. It will be operated by E.ON

under a 25-year management and operations management

agreement.

E.ON currently operates a 4 GW wind portfolio across

the globe. Enbridge and E.ON are partners in the 200 MW

Magic Valley Wind Project in Texas and the 200 MW Wildcat

Wind Project located in Indiana. Enbridge holds an 80 per-

cent interest in both projects; both are operated by E.ON.

E.On and Enbridge are already partners in the Magic

Valley wind farm located in Texas and the Wildcat wind

farm in Indiana. Enbridge holds an 80 percent interest in

both 200 MW onshore projects; both are operated by E.On.

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December 2015 | 7 www.power-grid.com

BY TOM TIERNAN, SENIOR ANALYST, TRANSMISSION HUB

Sempra Energy officials highlighted transmission investment

opportunities in Mexico starting in 2016, including some

cross-border transmission lines in a plan from the Ministry of

Energy in Mexico, during the company’s Nov. 3 conference call

on 3Q15 earnings.

Debra Reed, chairman and CEO, also mentioned that the new

50 percent renewable portfolio standard in California would

require both natural gas and power infrastructure investments

to meet the needs of a changing generation landscape.

“We will have to make investments to integrate additional

renewables” under the revised RPS, Reed said during the call.

The new RPS law calls for California to increase its use of

renewable resources from the current 33 percent level to 50

percent by the end of 2030. On Oct. 28, Tony Earley, chairman,

president and CEO of PG&E Corp. asserted that the higher RPS in

California should create transmission investment opportunities

in the state.

South of the border, Reed said “we see a wealth of opportu-

nities in Mexico” that Sempra’s Mexican unit IEnova and other

businesses will seek to develop. Those include liquids pipelines in

association with Pemex and power transmission and generation

plans from the Comision Federal de Electricidad.

Market rules for transmission investment are being finalized

and are expected to be open for competing proposals within

the first half of 2016, Reed said, adding “we’re very interested

in participating in that market.”

The Ministry of Energy’s long-term plan for the development

of a national electric system includes where power plants and

Sempra sees transmission investment opportunities in Mexicotransmission lines are being planned for different regions of

Mexico, Sempra said in its slide presentations accompanying its

3Q15 earnings report.

The plan lists nine transmission line projects, including three

along the U.S.-Mexico border, an interconnection of the Baja

grid to the Mexican National grid in the state of Sonora in 2019

and a high-voltage, direct-current line of 600 km that would

connect renewable energy projects in Oaxaca to central Mexico,

according to the presentation.

Addressing questions on Sempra and

IEnova competing with other firms to build such projects, Reed

said “we have some outstanding experience building major

transmission projects in difficult areas.” She also mentioned that

Sempra has worked with CFE on other projects, and it may be

able to use some shared rights-of-way on pipeline or infrastruc-

ture projects it already owns.

“We should be in very good standing to be competitive in

that market,” added Sempra President Mark Snell, who noted

that the company has experience developing transmission

projects in Chile and Peru, so working outside the U.S. is not

as daunting compared with other companies lacking such

experience.

Sempra officials and the 3Q15 earnings materials did not

include any dollar figures for the transmission investment proj-

ects in Mexico.

Siemens has signed a far-reaching agreement with the

Hidrocarbon and Energy Ministry of Bolivia on energy coopera-

tion and future collaboration in the field of products and services

for the oil & gas industry.

Furthermore, this includes a focus on renewable energy as

well as transmission and distribution.

“With this major agreement we further strengthen the ener-

gy partnership between Bolivia and Siemens,” said Willi Meixner,

CEO of Siemens’ Division Power and Gas. “Our products and

solutions will help our partner ENDE to significantly increase the

efficiency in electricity production and support the future plans

of energy export. By cooperating in the fields of renewable ener-

gy as well as transmission and distribution, we are supporting

the country’s ongoing efforts to improve access to electricity of

its population.”

The agreement was signed in the presence of the president

of Bolivia, Evo Morales, during his visit to Germany. Under the

Siemens signs renewable energy transmission deal with Boliviaterms of the exclusive agreement, Siemens intends to

supply gas turbine combined cycle equipment for a sub-

stantial expansion of three existing thermal power plants

of the state-owned utility ENDE ANDINA in Bolivia per

the government’s 2025 Patriotic Agenda. The agreement

is covering a long-term volume worth over $1.07 billion.

ENDE owns and operates three thermal power plants

with a total capacity of about 460 MW: Entre Rios, Termoelectrica

del Sur and Termoelectrica de Warnes, all equipped with Siemens

gas turbines. According to the agreement, each of these power

plants will be expanded.

Over the course of the last few years, Bolivia’s GDP growth

was one of the biggest in South America. The country has the

second-largest reserves of natural gas in the region. Furthermore

it is situated in the center of the continent, offering promising

opportunities for power exports to its neighboring countries

such as Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay or Chile.

1512pg_7 7 12/4/15 1:36 PM

8 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

NOTES

decision to install solar.

In fact, he warns that policy uncer-

tainty can have an outsize impact on

such complex consumer decisions, and

thus the CPUC must

be cautious and mea-

sured in its decision.

The study says that

the CPUC should

“move deliberately

and incrementally in

order to avoid fully

and durably throttling consumer adop-

tion of rooftop solar.”

The report compared the California

utility proposals to new fees and rate

structures for new rooftop solar adopt-

ers in Arizona’s second largest electric

utility territory, Salt River Project. The

changes adopted by that utility caused

rooftop solar applications to collapse in

its territory.

A study by Professor Justin McCrary

of the University of California, Berkeley,

an economist with Berkeley Law and the

National Bureau of Economic Research,

found that proposals at the

California Public Utilities

Commission (CPUC) on the

future of solar net metering

by the state’s monopoly utili-

ties and the CPUC’s Office of

Ratepayer Advocates (ORA)

would severely impede the

adoption of rooftop solar in

the state.

McCrary’s report, titled

“Impacts of Rooftop Solar

Adoption from Proposed

Changes to California’s Net

Metering Policy,” evaluated

proposals from Pacific Gas

& Electric, San Diego Gas &

Electric, Southern California

Edison, as well as the ORA

according to economic prin-

ciples of consumer decision-making.

“One of the main characteristics of

the current (net metering) program is its

simplicity: it is easy to understand that

no matter how the energy produced by

the solar system is used, it will result in

a deduction on a consumer’s total bill,”

the report said. “The proposed changes

to California’s California’s (net meter-

ing) program by the (utilities) and ORA

will greatly increase the complexity of

the decision that consumers face when

considering rooftop solar adoption… In

short, consumers will be discouraged

from adopting by the sheer complexity

of the choice they face.”

According to McCrary, the meth-

odology used by CPUC staff to help

evaluate different proposals does not

account for consumer behaviors specific

to an economic decision like going solar,

including: Discount rates and present

orientation (consum-

ers may undervalue

the long-term bene-

fits of rooftop solar);

risk aversion given

uncertainty; and lim-

ited attention and

bounded rationality

(consumers have limited attention and

capacities to perform complex calcula-

tions and trade-offs).

Given the long-term nature of

the rooftop solar investment and

the dynamics of consumer demand,

McCrary recommends that the CPUC

consider how any changes to the net

metering tariff will affect the riskiness

and complexity of the homeowner’s

UC BERKELEY ECONOMIST SAYS NET METERING

CHANGES COULD IMPEDE SOLAR ADOPTION

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Policy uncertainty can have an outsize impact on such complex consumer decisions, and thus the CPUC must be cautious and measured in its decision.

1512pg_8 8 12/4/15 1:36 PM

December 2015 | 9 www.power-grid.com

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same frequency. It does this by constantly

computing where each user is and alter-

ing the signal to each antenna to direct a

focused beam directly to each user.

Among the ArgosNet team members

is Clayton Shepard, a Ph.D. student

who is building the ArgosNet base

stations and mobile clients, and who’s

already worked with NASA to test mas-

sive MIMO designs using specialized

facilities that were originally built to test

spacecraft communications systems.

“ArgosNet is a very flexible platform,”

Shepard said. “We’ve designed it to

work like Lego blocks; we can add or

subtract antennas and other compo-

nents to construct any kind of node that

we want. The wireless test units also

can be configured to act like everything

from a laptop to a wireless handset.”

Shepard said the team is explor-

ing how to make ArgosNet compatible

with existing smartphones and wireless

devices, but the current base stations

are not compatible with existing tech-

nology. For Rice’s tests, Shepard and

other members of Zhong’s team will

use reprogrammable, battery-powered

test units.

Rice University researchers have won

$2.4 million from the National Science

Foundation (NSF) to conduct the most

extensive experimental research yet of

wireless technology that uses 100 or more

antennas per base station to send tightly

focused beams of data to each user, even

as they move.

The research at Rice’s campus in Houston

will help the wireless industry determine

whether and how to include the many-an-

tenna technology—known in industry par-

lance as “massive multi-user, multi-input

multi-output,” or massive MU-MIMO—in

upcoming 5G wireless standards.

“Early tests of many-antenna technology

at Rice and elsewhere suggest that wireless

carriers could use this technology to serve

many times more data than can be served

with today’s 4G networks,” said Lin Zhong,

associate professor of electrical and com-

puter engineering and of computer science

at Rice and the principal investigator on the

new grant. “But there are still many ques-

tions about how to scale this technology

for real-world implementation. Those are

the challenges we’ll be tackling with the

new research.”

The research will make use of ArgosNet,

a many-antenna experimental test bed

that Zhong’s Efficient Computing Group is

building thanks to a 2014 NSF infrastruc-

ture grant. ArgosNet will eventually include

up to a half-dozen programmable base

stations, each with 100 or more antennas.

Zhong’s team will be able to reconfigure

each to emulate cell-tower base stations or

other types of wireless network nodes. The

many-antenna technology being investi-

gated leverages a large number of base

station antennas to serve many users at

the same time. When the number of base

station antennas is significantly larger than

the number of users, the technology is also

referred to as “massive MIMO.”

“Large-scale multi-user MIMO technolo-

gy is a key enabler in meeting the 1,000x

data challenge -- that of increasing spectrum

efficiency by a factor of 1,000 when com-

pared to cur-

rent 4G data

ne tworks , ”

said Thyaga

Nandagopal,

NSF pro-

gram director.

“The National

S c i e n c e

Foundation

has funded

basic research

in this area for

several years

now, and this

project will

advance this research to the next level by

addressing the system-level challenges that

can hinder the realization of this technolo-

gy’s full potential.”

According to a 2014 study by Cisco,

wireless carriers increased the average

mobile network downstream speed from

1,387 kilobits per second (kbps) in 2013

to 1,683 kbps in 2014. That’s a nota-

ble improvement, but nowhere near the

growth that is needed to meet demand.

The same report found that smartphones

generated 22 times more demand for

mobile data than did nonsmart devices,

and 88 percent of the 497 million new

mobile devices added worldwide in 2014

were smart.

Zhong said the new experimental

research with ArgosNet, which draws its

name from the many-eyed giant of Greek

mythology, could provide the answer that

wireless carriers need for the coming band-

width crunch. ArgosNet uses its many

antennas to beam information directly to

numerous users simultaneously on the

RICE WINS $2.4 MILLION TO STUDY MANY-ANTENNA WIRELESS

Rice professor Lin Zhong (standing) and graduate student Clayton Shepard with ArgosNet base station.

Photo by Jeff Fitlow, Rice University

1512pg_9 9 12/4/15 1:36 PM

10 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

NOTES

investor-owned utilities combined on

projects hit a record high of $98.1

billion in 2014 and is expected to top

$108 billion this year, according to the

EEI.

Fortunately, interest expenses fell 5.3

percent. The industry’s average credit

rating improved to BBB+ from BBB, the

first such change in 11 years, the report

reads.

Those risk assessments and interest

rates could change in coming years,

even as utilities are under persistent

pressure to meet stringent environment

regulations. Rating agencies believe

expenditures focused on meeting the

EPA’s Clean Power Plan final rules will

stress utilities in states which have to

make the biggest reductions in CO2

emissions.

“S&P and Moody’s both expect the

eventual credit impact of the CPP to be

significant but not uniform across the

U.S. electricity sector,” the report reads.

“On June 3, Moody’s described the

EPA’s draft rule as “credit-negative for

coal-dependent utilities, power projects

and merchant power generators because

. . . the rule will likely result in reduced

power volumes and higher costs for

generation.”

Visit www.eei.org to see the report.

The double-edged swords were raised

high with the nation’s investor-owned

utilities last year. Revenues, dividends

and capital budgets were up, up, up,

but so was long-term debt and pressure

to deliver more flexibility and choice to

customers.

The Edison Electric Institute’s (EEI’s)

2014 Financial Review annual report

was released this fall, detailing the mul-

titude of ways that publicly traded util-

ities spent and earned their money last

year. Overall, total oper-

ating revenues rose 7.2

percent to $376.9 billion

nationwide, while those

utilities in the EEI index

also increased dividends

by 3 percent to a com-

bined $21 billion.

The pace of change is quickening in

the 130-year-old electricity industry,

EEI President Thomas Kuhn said in

his letter leading off the 2014 Financial

Review.

“Today, our industry is working at

a breakneck speed to integrate new

technologies and new innovations onto

the electric power grid as they come

to market,” Kuhn noted.

“They want to be able to

plug in all of their new

devices or access new ser-

vices.

“They expect us to con-

tinue to sustain a power

grid that supports their

needs, while

also giving

them flexibil-

ity and choice

in how they

use energy,”

he added.

So far, so

good. The

industry’s net

income rose

slightly to

a collective

$28.2 billion

in 2014, but

long-term debt nearly hit $500 billion,

an all-time high. Overall, the total long-

term debt has risen 39 percent, or near-

ly $137 billion, since 2007.

Those debts are financing consistent-

ly high levels of capital expenditures

by the utilities. The capital spent by

REVENUES, DEBTS RISING IN TANDEM AT NATION’S IOUS, EEI REPORTS

BIG STATS OF 2014:

NATION’S INVESTOR-OWNED ELECTRIC UTILITIES

FINANCIAL (IN $ MILLIONS) 2014 2013 Percent Change

Total Revenues 376,885 351,509 7.2%

Earnings 771,988 730,299 5.7%

Dividends Paid 21,080 20,492 2.9%

Interest Expense 23,029 24,307 -5.3%

Long-term Debt 486,961 456,734 6.6%

ROD WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

The industry’s average credit rating improved to BBB+ from BBB, the first such change in 11 years, the report reads.

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1512pg_10 10 12/4/15 1:36 PM

December 2015 | 11 www.power-grid.com

vendors with no unified security mea-

sures

3. Difficulties managing remote connec-

tions.

Not only must power grid organiza-

tions keep operations online for customers

amidst equipment failures and extreme

weather challenges, they also need to man-

age security risks to reduce vulnerabili-

ties. To do so, utility organizations should Cybersecurity has become a critical

part of power grid operations as

infrastructure ages and industrial control

systems become more integrated and con-

nected. Advanced sensors and automation

have ushered in the “Industrial Internet”

by connecting machines and maximizing

data.

Outdated legacy systems, however, were

not built to manage the potential pitfalls of

connected systems. As a result, industrial

control systems (ICSs) are exposed and

vulnerable to sophisticated cyber threats. A

recent report revealed hackers successfully

breached the U.S. Department of Energy

(DOE) 159 times between October 2010

and October 2014. Critical infrastructure

has become a primary target for cyber

attacks, and therefore must have a pro-

cess in place for detection, response and

recovery.

Many utilities operators are challenged

with:

1. Inexperience in dealing with security

issues

2. Legacy equipment from various

Three Ways Utilities Can Deal with CYBER THREATS

BY DANA PASQUALI, GE MEASUREMENT & CONTROL

Dana Pasquali has worked in the oil and gas,

energy and chemical industries for the past

18 years within leadership product manage-

ment, marketing and sales positions. She is

currently the product line manager at GE

responsible for cybersecurity solutions. Prior

to that, Pasquali spent the last eight years

leading product management teams at

software companies serving the oil and gas

and power industry. Pasquali has a bachelor

of science degree in chemical engineering

from Ohio State University.

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HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART I

1512pg_11 11 12/4/15 1:36 PM

12 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

Industrial cybersecurity

is no longer solely

the security of assets,

networks and data.

Cybersecurity is

integral to maintaining

operations, compliance

and safety.

follow three industry best practices that

help maintain secure operations, including:

1. Understand current security

posture: develop a policy through

a site assessment, uncovering where

vulnerabilities exist in your site, as

well as your policies and procedures.

This can be according to a standard in

alignment with best practices.

2. Focus on centralized security

management: With one place to

be able to see and manage the protec-

tion of your industrial control system,

you have better visibility in order to

gain insight and take action at a site

level. By monitoring and mitigating

vulnerabilities centrally through mul-

tiple layers, you create a true defense-

in-depth approach.

3. Continue maintenance and

assessment: Because the cyber

landscape continually changes, main-

tenance and updates are an important

function of security. Like any asset,

a successful security program needs

ongoing attention, and updating

critical areas is key to making sure

your posture evolves with persistent

threats.

CYBER CHALLENGES

Cybersecurity challenges are not unique

to any single industry, and as a result our

country faces a shortage of qualified pro-

fessionals to manage the daily threats and

keep business operations running smooth-

ly. Utility organizations, in particular, are

confounded by both technical workforce

shortages and limited security experience.

The greatest threats to the network are

people, whether that stems from lack of

knowledge resulting in negligence, inef-

fective processes or inefficient solutions. If

there aren’t informative training guidelines

available and enforced within the organi-

zation, employees will not have a strong

foundation of security awareness to inform

their daily behaviors and job tasks.

Further, security requirements in the

power industry are more complex than in

many commercial sectors, because equip-

ment and computers operate across dif-

ferent network layers to protect the most

critical equipment at the industrial control

level. Many SCADA

systems and ICSs

were also installed

10 or more years

before current tech-

nologies and cyber

security solutions

existed. This results

in vulnerabilities

that cause loss of

view, control or

operations. Additionally, most organiza-

tions have multiple pieces of equipment

from various manufacturers and genera-

tions, which make a unified security pro-

gram difficult to implement and operate.

Even the latest technology has been

developed with a focus on operational

efficiency rather than security. With a wide

range of systems operating across legacy

hardware from remote locations, it’s very

challenging for operators to manage secure

connections and keep passwords updated.

Both power generation and distribution

can be disrupted through a remote con-

nection breach.

Given the various challenges utility oper-

ators confront when managing security, it’s

important that best practices are widely

shared and understood to limit the number

of vulnerabilities and risks for power grid

operations.

BEST PRACTICES TO

ADDRESS CYBER THREATS

Knowing the specific industry risks and

looking at the three best practice areas on

which to focus, the following ideas will

help operators develop a much stronger

security posture to ward off growing threats

and assure business continuity.

• Current posture assessment. As

the saying goes, “you don’t know

what you don’t know.” The first step

of assessment is understanding your

gaps and being prepared to institute

policies and proce-

dures in the areas of

people, process and

technologies. If you

don’t know where

to start, standards

are available based

on industry and/or

region to help pro-

vide best practices

for companies to

create a baseline security reference

architecture that meets their needs.

• Centralized management and

visibility. All organizations should

have centralized management sys-

tems set up to ensure network access

points are protected and continu-

ously monitored. By running regular

tests and documenting updates and

configurations, operators are able to

better assess vulnerabilities and keep

track of threats entering their system.

Potential threats can also be logged

and notifications sent to the proper

contacts through a centralized system.

In addition, centralized management

enables security experts to collect and

store system components, indexing

them for quick and easy retrieval. This

approach provides clear accountabil-

ity for any security incidents, unlike

when information is fragmented.

Centralized management can

also help support strong password

management, as well as enforce

role-based access control, which

requires every user to have a

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART I

1512pg_12 12 12/4/15 1:36 PM

December 2015 | 13 www.power-grid.com

Go to pgi.hotims.com for more information.

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solely the security of assets, networks

and data. Cybersecurity is integral to

maintaining operations, compliance and

safety. Many U.S. utilities are mandated to

comply with NERC CIP and International

Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) stan-

dards that dictate industrial security and

remediation technology.

It would seem that everybody knows

about cybersecurity, but few people

know how to apply it successfully. A

successful approach involves implemen-

tation and maintenance of up-to-date

solutions, following the recommended

best practices, and ensuring people are

educated and trained. Employing multi-

ple defensive services and technologies

will also help utilities increase the reli-

ability, availability, integrity and main-

tainability of their plant’s critical control

systems and related networks.

unique username and password.

Restricting remote access to a small

number of security expert opera-

tors dramatically reduces the risk of

privileged user threats and remote

access breaches.

• Maintenance and validated

patch management. Due to the

high frequency of attacks against the

system, organizations must main-

tain regular maintenance intervals to

keep systems up-to-date. First and

foremost, updates to the firewall and

IDS/IPS devices can help monitor or

protect the control system network

for known attack signatures and

unusual network activity.

In addition to updating the firewall,

utility organizations should have a val-

idated patch management program to

prevent unnecessary disruptions in

both transmission and distribution.

Invalidated patches can have operational

and financial consequences, validation a

crucial part of patching updates. With

validated patch management, the patch

is run in a virtual environment on-site

or in a lab environment that mimics the

plant environment to identify any incom-

patibilities that may exist before the

patch is applied. This allows operators

to determine what alterations need to be

made to ensure uptime and protection

against cyber security threats. Testing

also demonstrates that the functional

operation of the control and related

interfaces, as well as the system commu-

nication, is not adversely impacted by the

updates.

CONCLUSION

Industrial cybersecurity is no longer

1512pg_13 13 12/4/15 1:36 PM

14 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

ackers are not the kind of secret

agents who need to sneak over

borders to attack U.S. energy infrastruc-

ture. They are already here (virtually

speaking) and getting closer to their

objectives all the time.

BY ROD WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

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Using the parallel of wartime, these

hackers are online enemy patrols which

have invisibly probed into the front

lines, looking for weaknesses and attack

points that present the best possible

chance of success. They may want

credit card information or even noto-

riety. Sometimes their motivation is ter-

ror, chaos and infrastructural damage,

such as trying to bring down part of the

power grid within a city or even black-

ing out giant swathes of the U.S.

“The knowledge is out there, the

intent is out there, and the capacity is

out there,” said Jonathan Pollet, found-

er of Houston-based firm Red Tiger

Security. “Now we’re just waiting for

someone motivated enough, by money

or political events, to take advantage.”

This hasn’t happened yet, but the

potential is getting closer as bad actors

compile knowledge of the grid’s cyber

weaknesses and gather illicit financial

support for their efforts. A USA Today

report earlier this year indicated that

the U.S. Department of Energy was

under constant siege in recent years,

with 1,131 attempted cyberattacks from

2010-2014. The hackers were success-

ful about 14 percent of the time, or in

159 of the attempts, according to the

article.

“I think it’s very likely” an attack on

a utility company could be success-

ful someday soon, maybe within three

years, Pollet added.

Another report, this one released

in September by cybersecurity ratings

BitSight, indicates that the energy indus-

try only ranks fair to middling when

it comes to cybersecurity efforts. The

energy-utility sector was ranked fourth

among sectors, slightly above health

care and behind finance, government

and retail. Education was categorized,

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART II

1512pg_14 14 12/4/15 1:36 PM

December 2015 | 15 www.power-grid.com

Go to pgi.hotims.com for more information.

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far and away, as the most vulnerable to

cyberattack by BitSight.

BitSight researchers noted a dip in

the energy-utility sector, finding it most

vulnerable to malevolent bugs such as

Poodle and Freak. The report indicated

a growing concern about the cybersecu-

rity posture of these companies even as

more control systems are being brought

online.

Cybersecurity is kind of like the

offensive line in football. The casual

fan only notices them when something

goes wrong. It’s a thankless task but one

which has to be done.

“This is going on inside compa-

nies every day,” said Stephen Boyer,

co-founder and chief technology officer

of BitSight. “There is a battle going on

between attackers and defenders. It’s

very, very hard to be perfect.”

Hacker attacks against Target, Sony

and Ashley Madison certainly gained

much attention, embarrassed many and

have alarmed consumers, but Boyer said

the “scary parts” of cybersecurity for

utilities “are the things we don’t know

about.”

Hackers glean inside knowledge, trick

users into giving up passwords and pro-

tocols and leave footprints that take pre-

cious time to track down. Cybersecurity

experts in the U.S. are well aware of the

threats coming from China, Russia and

Iran, among many other places, but the

attacks could originate from anywhere,

even on American soil.

“Attribution is very hard,” Boyer said.

“The power goes off and no one knows

who it is.”

One saving grace, surprisingly, is that

the U.S. power grid is not one seamless

piece, but rather numerous systems. For

that reason, many experts do not think

that cyber terrorists could pull off a con-

tinental-wide blackout. But they could

be a threat to turn off power within a

city or region.

Del Rodillas, solution lead for SCADA

and industrial control systems at Palo

Alto Networks, said he cannot rank

the energy-utility sector’s preparedness

compared to other industries. But what

he worries most about is a perceived

disconnect between two distinct, yet

connected parts of the power compa-

nies.

“What I can say is within the ener-

gy-utility organization, there is a stark

contrast in the level of security between

1512pg_15 15 12/4/15 1:36 PM

16 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

Source: September 2015 report

BITSIGHT SECURITY RATINGS BY INDUSTRY 1

Finance

Federal GovernmentRetail

Energy/Utilities

Healthcare

Education

Secu

rity

rati

ng

720

700

680

660

640

620

600

580

560

540

520

500

August October December February April June August

2014 2015

the IT (information technology) envi-

ronment and operational technology

(OT) environment,” Rodillas said. “Keep

in mind, though,

that the staff secur-

ing IT environments

in energy and utility

companies are typical-

ly separate from the

staff in OT responsi-

ble for security and

not always working in

unison. The IT envi-

ronment in the energy-utility may be

cutting edge, but the OT environment is

typically lagging.”

For instance, through various and rela-

tively easy means the world-class hacker

can find the name of a SCADA engineer

working for a utility. They try to get that

engineer’s email address and, once they’ve

gone that far, they send the engineer an

email that entices the prey to click on

something that might be of personal or

professional interest.

Once clicked, a rootkit is released into

power infrastructure, so put-

ting utility defenders on higher

alert is a good idea.

“The awareness is probably

at an all-time high,” Boyer said.

“They are very much aware

and asking these sort of ques-

tions.”

The federal government is

getting on board. A new cyber-

security framework, direct-

ed by the White House and

supported by industry, was

announced last year by the

National Institute of Standards

and Technology. The NERC

CIP and ICS-specific standards

like NIST SP800-82 certainly

have helped increase aware-

ness, Palo Alto Network’s Rodillas noted.

“It helps with raising the bar for

successful cyberattacks,” Rodillas said.

“However there is still a ways to go to

have these personnel understand how

targeted attacks work.

“Forget about deploying tools for

detecting and stopping (attacks),” he

added. “Many OT personnel don’t even

know these tools exist. Getting one’s

organization educated is an important

first step.”

Red Tiger Security is advising its

clients to isolate their control systems

from corporate networks. The industry

also needs to do a more work securing

the growing smart meter infrastructure,

given the bi-directional nature of that

communication.

Harden the perimeter, Pollet added.

Sounds like war. And it sounds immi-

nent.

“I think it’s very likely,” he said. “I

think it’s above 60 to 70 percent likely

that it could happen in the next five

years.”

the desktop that both masks the software’s

existence and intent and also allows the

hacker remote access to the computer,

Pollet pointed out. For

the past two years, his

company has iden-

tified kits moving

through the corporate

networks, looking for

open platform com-

munications (OPC)

servers and gaining

more database infor-

mation about SCADA systems.

“I know they have access to the system,

and they’re able to read information off

the system,” Pollet said. “We have not

seen an adversary remotely command a

SCADA system—that’s the last piece they

are missing. I think they are close.”

What to do about the barbarians at the

gate? BitSight’s Boyer said he was actually

encouraged about the USA Today report

on the hacks into the U.S. Department

of Energy. Once every four days there is

a physical or virtual attack on the U.S.

“Many OT personnel don’t even know these tools exist. Getting one’s organization educated is an important first step.”

HACKERS AT THE GATE, PART II

1512pg_16 16 12/4/15 1:37 PM

PRESENTED BY: OWNED & PRODUCED BY:

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Outage Management

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Fouling, Erosion and

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Inlet Filter Selection

O&M Regimens

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1512pg_17 17 12/4/15 1:37 PM

18 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

Ralph Izzo and Tucson Electric Power

CEO David Hutchens will lead an after-

noon panel discussion on “The View

From the Top.”

This first day is crowned by the

DistribuTECH Awards Reception and

Dinner presented Monday evening by

Electric Light & Power and POWERGRID

International magazines. These awards

will honor the Utility of the Year,

Projects of the Year and CEOs of the

Year for both large and small utilities.

DistribuTECH offers a host of other

events spread out through Thursday,

Feb. 11, including:

he nation’s biggest

annual gathering for

the electricity transmission

and distribution (T&D) sector is just

around the corner.

The 26th annual DistribuTECH

Conference and Exhibition will be Feb.

9-11 at the Orange County Convention

Center in Orlando. This year’s event fea-

tures close to a hundred offerings with

Utility University courses, conference

sessions, panel discussions, breakfast

roundtables, networking receptions, a

utility women networking event, awards

ceremony and a keynote featuring a

NOVA television host, two of Orlando’s

brightest leaders and one of the indus-

try’s best-known entrepreneurs and

energy financial analysts.

POWERGRID International is the official

publication of DistribuTECH. The Orlando

Utility Commission is the host utility.

“DistribuTECH 2016 will once again

bring together the best and the bright-

est that this industry has to offer,”

MaryBeth DeWitt, senior vice president

of DistribuTECH said. “Our industry

experts speak with hard-won insights

about dealing with the changes facing

all the utilities,  their service partners

and customers. We are pleased to offer

many networking opportunities during

the week including breakfast roundta-

bles, our networking party and spon-

taneous one-on-one and small group

discussions.”

The T&D-focused week actually kicks

off Monday, Feb. 8, with the Electric

Light & Power Executive Conference

at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. The

Executive Conference program features

sessions on dealing with the world of

change utilities face, vying for the energy

dollar, innovative approaches to growth

and how financiers view the future of

the industry. Public Service Enterprise

Group Chairman, President and CEO

or is just

BY ROD WALTON, SENIOR EDITOR

1512pg_18 18 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 19 www.power-grid.com

UTILITY UNIVERSITY COURSES

These Monday sessions cover a tremen-

dous amount of ground, from AMI best

practices to analytics, capital project justifi-

cation, demand response markets, distrib-

uted generation and integration planning,

to name a few. Actually, Utility University

offers 22 courses total, featuring experts

from across the industry and the globe.

The instructors include industry lead-

ers from many companies, including GE

Digital Energy, Britton Consulting, Electric

Power Research Institute, Oracle Utilities,

Pepco Holdings, Converge, Oncor, Pacific

Gas & Electric, Navigant, Quanta, IBM and

many others.

DISTRIBUTECH 2016

KEYNOTE AND SESSIONS

Tuesday, Feb. 9’s events start off with

a morning keynote address open to all

attendees and exhibitors. Keynote speak-

ers are Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer,

Orlando Utilities Commission President

Linda Ferrone, Bloomberg New Energy

Finance founder and advisory board

chairman Michael Liebreich and David

Pogue, host of NOVA ScienceNow and

Yahoo tech columnist.

Following Tuesday’s lunch,

DistribuTECH offers sessions which run

over the next two days. Panels include

in-depth discussions on issues such

asset management (including one ses-

sions on drones), big data and analytics,

communications solutions, defending

the grid against cyberattacks, demand

response, distribution automation,

microgrids, emerging distributed ener-

gy resources, geospatial and mobile

solutions.

One area gaining renewed interest is

customer service with several great ses-

sions catering to this important factor.

These segments look at how to respond

to new customer expectations, engage-

ment, social media, big data and home

technologies beyond the meter. Panels

in these sessions are peppered with

experts from CS Week, National Grid,

Dominion, Duke Energy, DTE, Exelon

and other prominent utilities.

BREAKFAST OPTIONS, MEGA

SESSIONS AND SOCIAL FUN

Wednesday, Feb. 10, gets interest-

ing early with a concurrent breakfast

roundtable and utility women network-

ing breakfast. Both events are separate

and have tickets available for purchase.

The popular breakfast roundtables

each offer 90 minutes focused on hot

topics from the Internet of Things to

outage management, smart metering

and international projects. Attendees are

DistribuTECH isn’t all work and no fun. In celebration of its 25th

anniversary, some special guests showed up at DistribuTECH

2015, providing attendees with great selfie opportunities. The

2016 event also will include the opportunity to have a little fun

in sunny Orlando.

Attendees at DistribuTECH 2015 packed the Exhibit Hall to learn

more about the products and services offered by more than 445

exhibiting companies.

1512pg_19 19 12/4/15 1:37 PM

20 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

encouraged to speak up and discuss chal-

lenges they face and share best practices in

an informally moderated setting.

The utility women networking break-

fast, as the DistribuTECH official pro-

gram notes, “brings together women in

the energy market to build relationships,

share stories and, most importantly,

provide real insights to help in your

career and professional development.”

Some of the most powerful women in

the industry will talk about how they

got their voices heard and helped influ-

ence change in their business.

DistribuTECH’s Mega Sessions top

Wednesday afternoon with a host

of multi-expert takes on New York’s

Reforming the Energy Vision, IoT

strategies to drive utility value, new

revenue streams and a utility approach

to building smart cities, among oth-

ers. The day’s hard work lightens up

considerably with two 4 p.m. recep-

tions—the “It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere!

Reception” on the exhibit floor and the

Water Reception, hosted by WaterWorld

magazine.

The conference sessions extend into

Thursday with speakers leading discus-

sions on operational transitions, reliability

improvement and customer analytics.

The numbers behind DistribuTECH

speak for themselves: Last year’s event

had more than 11,000 attendees from

67 countries, 447 exhibitors, 81 con-

ference sessions and hundreds of utility

DistribuTECH 2015 Keynote featured some of the industry’s

brightest leaders, as well as physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku.

The standing room only crowd loved it.

The 2016 Keynote promises to be the same high quality

DistribuTECH’s attendees have come to expect. MONDAY, FEB. 8

8:00A.M.-5:00P.M.

Utility University Courses

8:30A.M.-5:00P.M.

ELP Executive Conference, Hyatt Regency Orlando

6:00P.M.-8:30P.M.

DistribuTECH Awards Reception and Dinner, Hyatt Regency Orlando

TUESDAY, FEB. 9

9:00A.M.-11:00A.M.

Keynote Address

1:00P.M.-4:30P.M.

DistribuTECH Conference Sessions

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10

8:00A.M.-9:30A.M

Breakfast Roundtable

8:00A.M.-9:30A.M

Utility Women Networking Breakfast

10:00A.M.-11:30A.M.

Conference Sessions

2:00P.M.-3:30P.M.

Mega Sessions

5:00P.M.-6:30P.M.

Networking Party

THURSDAY, FEB. 11

8:30A.M.-10:00A.M.

Conference Sessions

10:30A.M.-12:00P.M.

Conference Sessions

* all events at Orange County Convention

Center unless otherwise noted

2016 Highlight of Events*

and industry leaders as speakers.

Visit www.distributech.com for more

information on how to register and see a

complete conference lineup.

1512pg_20 20 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 21 www.power-grid.com

© B

IGS

TO

CK

/ T

HE

YO

Kcontrol of various distribution automa-

tion devices over a Landis + Gyr mesh

radio network. Simultaneously, Austin

Energy modeled a two-substation area

to assess the validity of the geographic

information system (GIS) model, as

well as the model’s ability to effective-

ly communicate the data needed to

calculate and solve load flow and fault

current. The pilot found that the mesh

radio network was able to handle the

“last mile” of communication between

the substation and various distribu-

tion automation devices. The pilot also

demonstrated that Austin Energy’s GIS

model could sufficiently provide the

data needed to successfully run the

advanced components of an ADMS.

In 2012, Austin Energy and Schneider

Severe weather is the No. 1 cause of

power outages, which costs the U.S.

economy billions of dollars a year in lost

output and wages, spoiled inventory,

delayed production, inconvenience and

damage to grid infrastructure.

Creating a resilient electric grid is crit-

ical to reducing our nation’s vulnerability

to severe weather. Furthermore smart

grid technology designed to increase

resilience can improve the overall effec-

tiveness of grid operations, leading to

greater efficiencies in energy use, reduced

carbon emissions, and the ability to sup-

port the integration of a growing number

of distributed energy resources.

To move towards a modern, more

resilient grid, utilities need to replace

aging infrastructure and deploy smart

grid technologies that enable improved

communication with end users, greater

visibility across operations and more

intelligent energy management.

Austin Energy, the eighth largest com-

munity-owned utility in the nation, owns

and operates transmission and distri-

bution and generation for the Greater

Austin area. In Austin, as anywhere,

providing a safer, stronger, more resilient

power grid is a priority.

The key is making big data action-

able, which leads to enhanced customer

engagement, improved crew safety, new

demand response capabilities and greater

visibility into operations from the trans-

mission system to customer meters.

By integrating millions of data points

into a single, simplified user experience,

utilities have the opportunity to drive

greater visibility and ultimately make

better decisions.

In its mission to turn data into use-

ful information, provide more reliable

service and improve energy efficiency,

Austin Energy decided to work with

Schneider Electric to implement an

advanced distribution management sys-

tem (ADMS).

PROJECT

Prior to rolling out the ADMS, Austin

Energy conducted a pilot to assess the

technical feasibility, as well as the costs

and benefits of installing such a system.

The pilot consisted of monitoring and

BY ANDREW BENNETT, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Moving Toward a More Resilient Grid:

Austin Energy Case Study

Andrew Bennett

Andrew Bennett is senior vice president of

energy at Schneider Electric

1512pg_21 21 12/4/15 1:37 PM

22 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

power and sending crews directly to

areas needing repair.

As a result, the platform provides

heightened operator situational aware-

ness, increased crew safety and produc-

tivity, optimization of distribution system

including loss reduction, enhanced reli-

ability while maximizing grid economics

and exceptional customer service.

The biggest impact Austin Energy’s

implementation has had so far is the

change it has made in the control room.

Operators now have a fast, highly reli-

able system they can depend on. They

have access and awareness to more real-

time information such as load flow infor-

mation, locations of crew vehicles and

access to SCADA and OMS information

on the same system. The system assists

Austin Energy in validating any changes

made to the topology of the system. In

addition, access to load flow information

provides operators with better insight

into what load they are actually moving.

In addition, Austin Energy now has

access to a dispatcher training simula-

tor for its ADMS, which it leverages to

provide its operators with OMS training.

Previously, Austin Energy only had a dis-

patcher training simulator for its SCADA

system, which operators spent only a

fraction of their time using in their daily

duties. The ability for operators to now

train in the system where they spend

most of their time is a real benefit. With

this training simulator, new operators

have the opportunity to really learn the

system and be put through important

scenarios they must know how to han-

dle, rather than being expected to learn

with no formal training.

Austin Energy’s entire distribution

engineering team including system

engineering, distribution planning and

control engineering can now access one

Electric officially began rolling out the

ADMS system. Austin Energy’s ADMS sys-

tem combines distribution management

system (DMS), outage management sys-

tem (OMS) and distribution supervisory

control and data acquisition (DSCADA)

system functionality into one system.

By fully integrating both demand

response and distribution resources into

the operations of the distribution system,

Austin Energy can provide enhanced

customer communications on the status

of outages to improve customer sat-

isfaction. In addition, Austin Energy’s

ADMS offers the system dispatch team

better tools for responding to system

disturbances, thus increasing situation-

al awareness and improving reliability.

Finally, the ADMS is designed to enable

Austin Energy to decrease peak demand

and lower system losses through conser-

vation voltage reduction and Volt/VAR

optimization programs.

RESULTS TO DATE

In June 2014, less than two years from

the start of the project, Austin Energy

and Schneider Electric successfully com-

pleted the rollout of the comprehensive

ADMS platform, including DMS, OMS,

and SCADA. The deployment proved

effective right away by successfully man-

aging Austin Energy’s network through

its summer storm season.

The ADMS deployment included

advanced applications including inte-

grated Volt/VAR control (IVVC) to opti-

mize the system, reduce power losses

and apply conservation voltage reduction

to reduce demand. It also included fault

location, isolation and service restoration

(FLISR) to assist locating faulted equip-

ment, automatically isolating and expe-

diting power restoration by re-routing

1512pg_22 22 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 23 www.power-grid.com

WHAT’S NEXT?

As Austin Energy enters the final

stages of determining how its business

processes will change to allow it to

extend controls from the ADMS system

to its Ranger energy management sys-

tem (EMS), it plans to use additional

advanced system applications to enable

its control room and distribution engi-

neering groups.

Through this deployment, Austin

Energy aims to achieve a number of

energy-efficiency, profitability and cus-

tomer-service goals, including:

• Reaching 55 percent renewable

energy in its energy mix by 2025

• Deploying 950 MW of solar power,

with 200 MW being local solar, by

2025

• Adding 100 MW of demand side

management to bring its total to

900 MW of demand side manage-

ment by 2025

• Achieving overall customer satis-

faction of 82 percent as measured

by a variety of surveys

• Maintaining reliability goals

for System Average Interruption

Duration Index (SAIDI) of 60

minutes and System Average

Interruption Frequency Index

(SAIFI) of 0.8 interruptions

• Achieving all of these goals while

meeting affordability measures of

no more than an average 2 percent

rate increase per year and ensuring

that the average residential bill is in

the bottom 50 percent of all resi-

dential bills in Texas.

Austin Energy’s ADMS deployment

represents a significant step toward the

development of a smarter grid and

stands as an example for utilities across

the country as they work to create a

more sustainable, resilient, energy effi-

cient country. Body copy

data model, which has increased their

communication and collaboration with

each other. Together they can now work

to improve their ADMS model and are

aligned by looking at one common

system, which they were never able

to do in the past. This collaboration is

bringing a new synergy to these teams

that will allow Austin Energy to better

troubleshoot distribution issues in the

future in a more

cohesive manner.

Giving Austin

Energy’s team’s access

to one data model is

increasing awareness,

not just from an oper-

ator perspective, but

company wide. Other

teams and depart-

ments can now

access information

that they never had

before. Distribution

construction crew leaders, engineers

and SCADA personnel have access to

information on crew locations, outages,

real time load flow information and

more.

While some of this information is

not pertinent for all these work groups

to perform their daily tasks, giving

them more access to Austin Energy’s

operations information is creating more

well-rounded utility personnel, who

are more aware and knowledgeable of

the company’s operations. For example,

SCADA database analysts who used to

only be concerned with building dis-

plays and point names are now exposed

to catalog information for utility equip-

ment and electrical characteristics of

devices. Planning engineers whose pre-

vious data models modeled only to the

service transformers are now exposed

to a system that lets them analyze the

effects of Austin Energy’s secondary

distribution model, as well as on a con-

sumer level.

Austin Energy’s ADMS is the ideal

platform to support integrating control

and monitoring of intelligent electronic

distribution devices, along with its AMI

infrastructure. ADMS allows the util-

ity to perform AMI functions such as

pinging meters or receiving notification

of last gaps or power

restoration messages.

This functionality is

not only better visu-

alized in the system,

but it is better taken

advantage of because

the system acts as

Austin Energy’s out-

age management

system. In addition,

the advanced AMI

infrastructure allows

personnel to validate

and be notified of outages or resto-

rations prior to customer notification.

The system provides Austin Energy with

control center capabilities and support

it previously didn’t have.

This ADMS system is the platform of

Austin Energy’s future. The utility now

has the ability to better leverage infor-

mation from intelligent electronic distri-

bution devices for applications such as

load flow. More importantly, it can use

the information and the new capabilities

to perform advanced applications (such

as VVO and FLISR), giving it complete

control over its distribution system and

the ability to respond to changes in an

intelligent way. Having the flexibility to

control system voltages, optimize the

system or self-heal the network is the

ultimate goal of all electric utilities, and

the ADMS is the platform that makes

this goal achievable for Austin Energy.

Austin Energy’s ADMS is the ideal platform to support integrating control and monitoring of intelligent electronic distribution devices, along with its AMI infrastructure.

1512pg_23 23 12/4/15 1:37 PM

24 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

oday’s consumers have grown to expect

the personalization they receive from

Amazon, Netflix, Google and others within

every aspect of their lives—even from their

utility providers. It is this high level of

engagement that creates each customer’s

experience, unique to his or her tastes and

needs, designed to deliver the maximum

impact for his or her life and the greatest

benefit from the services rendered.

It has been proven that personaliza-

tion and higher engagement works. This

translates into major gains for business-

es across many industries. Oracle Corp.’s

2011 Customer Experience Impact Report

revealed that 86 percent of customers say

they would pay more for a better customer

service experience.

But what are the best ways for utilities

to do this?

DEALING WITH THE DATA

To better engage the modern consumer,

utilities need to deliver a positive customer

experience in ways that resonate with the

people they serve. The wealth of customer

data available to utilities—including usage

patterns, billing and payment preferences,

communication preferences and more—

is key to managing changing customer

expectations and keeping satisfaction high.

But while data is key, better engagement

goes well beyond simply having the data on tap.

A fully integrated approach to customer data and

program management provides the utility with numerous

advantages, including the ability to:

• Engage with customers through multiple channels.

• Drive more effective, successful customer programs.

• Tailor customer communications to fit their preferences.

• Provide utility customer service representatives with the tools

and information they need to resolve customer questions

quickly in order to improve customer experience.

A multi-faced approach that crosses traditional industry silos,

incorporating all data connected to the customer and sharing appro-

priate segments of that data across other areas of the business (from

billing to customer service to outage management and so forth) will

go a long way toward creating a seamless customer experience.

To do so, however, utilities must consider a number of available

tools within the modern customer engagement toolkit.

ENABLING THE MOBILE CUSTOMER

The always-on, 24/7 customer of today generally prefers low-

touch, mobile channels rather than high-touch telephone calls

to customer service. The ability to pay bills online and manage

services and issues (including outages) quickly and at any time

of day or night is a growing imperative.

It sounds simple, but J.D. Power’s 2015 Utility Website

Evaluation Study, released in March of this year, found that

while the number of U.S. utilities deploying a mobile-enabled

website or app is increasing year-over-year, customers who

access their utility’s website via mobile have more difficulty

than those using a desktop computer.

BY RODGER SMITH, ORACLE UTILITIES

© CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / HYPNOCREATIVE

Rodger Smith is Oracle Utilities’ senior vice president and general manager,

1512pg_24 24 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 25 www.power-grid.com

1512pg_25 25 12/4/15 1:37 PM

26 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

and skills gaps that make utility adoption

of data analytics challenging.

The rewards are many, however. By

integrating and analyzing data from all

customer touch points (i.e., meter data,

billing data, outage data, customer com-

munications and more), utilities can

derive even greater insight into custom-

er usage trends. Utilities then can apply

this information to:

• Provide usage-driven insights to

customers

• Drive customer program partici-

pation

• Monitor customer program and

service performance

• Identify top energy users for target-

ed, proactive approach and educate

them on the value of an energy

audit or consultation

• Resolve meter or billing issues

before they impact the customer

• More effectively operate and main-

tain your distribution system

• Track your utility’s customer

engagement progress over time,

making ongoing improvements to

programs and services

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Managing and nurturing positive cus-

tomer engagement is an ongoing, fluid

process, not a set-and-forget, one-time

automated effort. With respect to new

customer programs, for instance, it’s

important to track progress, recognize

which messages and programs are cap-

turing customers’ attention, and under-

stand how those programs are impact-

ing their overall customer experience.

The lessons you learn with each effort,

each program and each new communi-

cations channel can be iteratively direct-

ed into the planning for future efforts

and programs.

The tasks examined by the study

(depending upon the type of utility

being surveyed) included: set up an

online account; account log in; view

consumption history; review account

information; make a payment; research

energy saving information; update ser-

vice; report outages; view outages; locate

contact information; perform account

and profile maintenance; and locate

gas leak information. Underperforming

mobile sites and apps, according to the

J.D. Power study, lead to lower custom-

er service satisfaction and, ultimately,

lower overall satisfaction.

At best, a utility’s mobile-ready ser-

vices provide useful information and

services on demand, while engaging

with customers through the channels

they prefer. Beyond the benefits of

increased customer satisfaction, there

are other business benefits to this

multi-channeled approach. Most sig-

nificantly, by delivering more custom-

er-centric communication and services,

a utility can reduce call center operating

costs by diverting calls to self-service

options. In addition, it can proactively

manage service disruption events.

THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is one particular mobile

communications tool that is seeing a

dramatic increase in consumer use and

by utilities, as well. In fact, social media is

fundamentally changing the way utilities

approach customer interaction.

A multi-faceted communications tool,

social media channels offer utilities many

new ways in which to engage customers.

They can monitor what’s being said about

them, disseminate messages (whether

broadly or to identified segments of their

customer base), better connect one-on-

one with individual customers and even

identify online “influencers” who will

champion utilities’ messages.

Electric, gas and water utilities are

engaging Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,

LinkedIn, Instagram and other online

channels in their efforts to open new lines

of communication in the places where

their customers and other interested par-

ties are communicating and to adopt a

more informed customer service role.

Each communications channel a utility

uses has its own strength. Choosing the

right communications channel for each

customer and each communication is key,

and it is important when switching from

one channel to another to keep the expe-

rience seamless for the customer.

Experts expect more and more ser-

vice-driven interactions to come through

social media channels in the future, where

consumers see greater possibilities for

24/7, near real-time discussions and prob-

lem resolution. The ability to connect

these vital interactions with the rest of a

utility customer’s information is crucial.

In turn, social data, when collected,

filtered and integrated with transaction-

al and structured data within customer

relationship management and other key

utility operational and business systems,

can be an incredibly powerful, near real-

time tool within the utility’s customer

management and engagement toolset.

UNLOCKING NEW DOORS

WITH DATA ANALYTICS

In concert with analytics, all of this

new data can provide the utility with

a 360-degree view of each customer,

allowing for the better delivery of ser-

vice excellence.

For many utilities, data analytics

remains a largely untapped resource. The

industry continues to be hindered by

information silos, static business processes

1512pg_26 26 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 27 www.power-grid.com

than other networking technologies. AMI

networks provide the ability to prioritize

messages over other traffic, which is not

permissible with cellular or broadband

Internet. In fact, data traffic on cellular

networks has the lowest priority. And,

with broadband Internet, utility traffic is

treated the same as any other packets in

the network.

As the true enabler of the smart grid,

multi-purpose AMI networks provide

two-way communication capabilities for

moving data from the utility head-end

system to endpoints, while managing

how that data is used and secured.

Some key attributes distinguish AMI

networks as the most versatile, secure

and interoperable platform for imple-

menting smart energy projects:

• Regional distribution of

assets—RF mesh technology can

be regionally distributed, so the

operator can target specific areas

without needing to deploy infra-

structure in areas not being serve.

Self-healing architecture—AMI

networks communicate through

self-healing mesh architecture for

built-in reliability. If one module

loses communication with the net-

work, the network automatically

finds another path to bring commu-

nications back to the head-end sys-

tem. The network operator, there-

fore, never needs to worry about

network performance hinging on a

Smart grid technology’s ability to

improve quality of life for consumers

and their communities is no longer an

abstract concept. Utilities have the tools

to implement smart energy projects today

and many have already begun leveraging

advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)

communications networks for these inno-

vative projects.

The global push toward development

of smart energy communities rests on

the same foundation utilities already

use to modernize daily operations.

Reaching this goal involves a systematic

examination of the component parts

and resources already in use, along with

a dedicated process by which new tech-

nologies are added to the grid.

On Sept. 14, 2015, the White House

announced the formation of a new nation-

al nonprofit, Envision America, aimed at

bringing together stakeholders to tackle the

nation’s challenges in energy, water, waste

and air quality. A key component to this

initiative is developing best practices for

utilities and communities to share, com-

municate and secure distribution grid and

consumer energy usage data to improve

efficiency and reduce overall consumption.

The launch of Envision America pro-

vides utilities with the opportunity to assert

a leadership position in this effort. By

using their multi-purpose AMI networks

to improve reliability, secure communica-

tions and facilitate interoperability, utilities

can demonstrate immediate value for their

customers and help all players take action

on the intelligence and automation these

networks provide.

As smart meters, distribution auto-

mation sensors, electric vehicles, smart

thermostats and other technologies are

deployed, utilities and consumers will be

able to control energy usage at unparalleled

levels. This increase in information and

control requires both a focus on security

and a greater reliance on analytics engines

to meet the goals ahead.

With tens of millions of smart meters

and advanced sensing devices already

operating on advanced communications

networks the opportunity becomes clear:

we can leverage AMI network investments

to provide new insights into energy usage

and improve the quality of life for both the

customers and communities within the

utility’s service territory.

AMI NETWORKS: THE ENABLER

OF SMART ENERGY COMMUNITIES

Utilities need to think critically about the

types of communication technologies that

can provide immediate benefits, as well as

the type of communications platform that

will be flexible, secure and resilient enough

to incorporate new technologies. In addi-

tion, strategic planning is required around

the integration and interoperability of com-

munication layers to enable better visibility,

management and data sharing, as well as

determine how and where the different

communication layers can be consolidated

and integrated.

Multi-purpose AMI networks meet and

exceed the requirements for future-ready

smart energy projects. As enabling plat-

forms for new grid technologies, multipur-

pose AMI networks offer more advantages

Leveraging AMI Communications Networks to Build Smart Communities

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES:

BY JOHN RADGOWSKI, LANDIS+GYR

John Radgowski is vice president of Solutions

Product Management at Landis+Gyr.

© C

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28 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

control necessary to make timely

decisions that help reduce peak load

and protect distribution infrastruc-

ture from overload.

• Securing critical infrastruc-

ture—In conjunction with New

York State Energy Research and

Development Authority and

National Grid, the Buffalo Niagara

Medical Campus (BNMC) is using

AMI network technology to improve

electric power for end-users by

managing the interaction of the grid

with distributed energy resources.

As microgrid management increas-

ingly becomes critical for maintain-

ing reliability and power quality for

the distribution grid, utility partner-

ships with microgrid operators are

becoming more common. Intelligent

networks provide oversight of

capacity and load requirements to

balance energy needs and monitor

distributed energy resources.

A look into the future sees endless

possibilities for building on the foun-

dation AMI networks already provide.

They interoperate with technologies

that go beyond the grid to assist with

managing city infrastructure and water

resources. They help automate home

energy management and smart appli-

ance operation. In addition, this tech-

nology is already proven worldwide to

offer a secure and reliable data hub to

drive operational and energy efficiency

down to the consumer level.

When it comes to building smart com-

munities, recent experience with AMI

and intelligent sensor networks demon-

strates what can be done. Going forward,

utilities have the knowledge to lead this

effort. In fact, they already are doing so

by implementing the technology that will

make interconnected and interoperable

communities a reality.

single communication node.

• Self-forming operation—The net-

work’s intelligence enables commu-

nication signals to find the optimal

route back to the head-end system.

This is particularly important in

areas where obstructions, such as

mountains or high-rise buildings,

can impede transmissions.

• Interoperable standards—AMI

networks incorporate standards-based

communications solutions that will

assure interoperability, enabling a

broad ecosystem of endpoints, com-

municating grid devices and software

applications that can all leverage the

data and connectivity of the network.

• Advanced security—AMI net-

works can be enabled for advanced

end-to-end security, meeting and

exceeding even the strictest encryp-

tion requirements.

• Low risk investment—As the smart

grid evolves, additional standards

will be defined, new applications

will emerge and data requirements

will expand. To protect the long-term

interest of both utilities and custom-

ers, AMI networks are designed with

ample memory, processing power and

platform flexibility for both hardware

and software.

• Cost-effective operation—The

versatility of modern AMI networks

makes them more cost-effective

than the piecemeal communica-

tions approaches of the past. And,

unlike cellular, additional devices

can be added without incurring

new monthly data fees, or external

troubleshooting costs, as with con-

sumer Wi-Fi networks.

UTILITIES ARE BUILDING

SMART ENERGY COMMUNITIES

Utilities, on their own initiative or in

collaboration with their communities, are

already using their AMI networks to imple-

ment smart energy projects. A smart grid

and a smart energy community doesn’t

require massive investments or complete

integration of every possible component

onto the network. It requires the strategic

utilization of AMI networks to implement

targeted technologies, which can result in

immediate benefits to both the community

and the utility. The gradual, systematic and

collaborative addition of these technologies

supports each objective for a smart energy

community. There are numerous examples

of how this implementation works:

• Smart thermostats—Advances in

load management technology enable

utilities to use demand response as

a virtual peaking plant, while con-

sumers receive more control to man-

age their participation in these pro-

grams. Utilities such as Baldwin EMC

and Colorado Springs Utilities have

deployed network-enabled program-

mable communicating thermostats.

Consumers can actively participate

in load control programs and take

advantage of price incentives to dra-

matically shave peak energy use. Not

only does this technology provide

the utility with immediate insights

into the amount of load being shed,

but consumers can remotely monitor

and control their participation using a

mobile application.

• Electric vehicles—Con Edison is

using intelligent switches to prepare

for more electric vehicles. With this

technology, Con Ed is able to monitor,

control and respond to signals from

charging stations, while using the

information to implement a variety

of tariffs to support its programs. The

network provides a reliable commu-

nication path with these load man-

agement devices with the data and

1512pg_28 28 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 29 www.power-grid.com

Leagacy substation remote terminal

unit (RTU) installation.

hen you, the substation expert at your utility,

enter an aging installation and see a 40-year

old transformer, 30-year old circuit breaker or the

50-year old fence that is falling apart, the old remote

terminal unit (RTU) sitting in a corner might not be

your first concern.

Some of the thoughts that run through your head

might be: “I know the original vendor is no longer in

business, so there is no one to call for support”; “There

is no way I can get parts for it”; “I can’t do any IED

integration or open communication protocols”; or, “But

it still works and I certainly don’t have the time, budget

or people to replace that old thing.”

This is not an isolated engineer in an isolated substa-

tion at an isolated utility. As Figures 1 and 2 (provided

from 2014 Newton-Evans Research©) illustrate, the

number of transmission and distribution substations in

operation with little or no automation in the U.S. is by far

larger than the number of fully automated substations.

With all the available technology, one might ask how can

it be that we still have non-automated substations? Isn’t

this supposed to be the smart grid era?

To answer this question, technology leaders must

realize that if it was simple to do, it would already be

BY MIGUEL BENGLA, ADVANCED CONTROL SYSTEMS

Miguel Bengla is substation automation product manager

at Advanced Control Systems (ACS). He has been working in

substation management for 10 years.

1512pg_29 29 12/4/15 1:37 PM

30 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

substation automation industry know

what it takes to replace an old RTU. It

is much more than budgeting for a new

substation controller. Most time is spent

on field installation and rewiring (with

all the associated testing), substation

wiring diagram revisions and, in some

cases, making changes to the existing

SCADA master databases and displays.

This often makes it prohibitive for a

utility to upgrade to existing modern

technology and all the possibilities it

unleashes, or simply prevent the util-

ity from losing a substation and living

through all the consequences that loss

brings to it, as well as the community

it serves.

Industry leaders, therefore, must

explore different solutions for these

problems. If the solutions being offered

don’t address utilities’ needs, a new

solution other than replacing the legacy

RTU must be found.

THE POWER OF UPGRADING

Upgrading is a solution. An upgrade

delivers superior modern technology

by replacing only the legacy RTU logic,

control cards and processor, along with

the old power supply. Existing control

relays and wiring, digital and analog

input termination modules, field wir-

ing, and SCADA master database and

displays, if working properly, all can be

retained and left untouched. This solu-

tion results in real and significant time

and cost savings and brings smart grid

to the substation. It is an opportunity

for today’s technology to work in last

century’s installations.

This upgrade solution exists today

and many utilities have already imple-

mented it and seen proven results.

Cleco Corp. is one of those utilities.

It is a public utility holding company

done. In addition, they must understand

that while there might be hundreds of

items to consider when contemplating

substation control center modernization,

that list of items can usually be reduced

to just three: cost, people and time.

Is it possible to address these three

items and optimize a substation? A

state-of-the-art substation controller can

be installed in an old substation at a

reasonable cost, while reducing the num-

ber of people involved in the change. In

addition, open TCP/IP communications,

IED integration, real automation and

NERC CIP compliance can be integrated

into the old substation in just one day.

LEGACY RTU REPLACEMENT

MIGHT NOT BE THE ANSWER

Most people who work in the

1LEVEL OF AUTOMATION FOR TRANSMISSION

SUBSTATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA

Num

ber

of

Sub

stati

ons

Now in operation

To be retrofitted by year end 2016

New, to be built by year end 2016

1,600

1,400

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

0With No Automation Some Automation Full Automation

Source: 2014 Newton-Evans Research©

2LEVEL OF AUTOMATION FOR DISTRIBUTION

SUBSTATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA

Num

ber

of

Sub

stati

ons

Now in operation

To be retrofitted by year end 2016

New, to be built by year end 2016

4,000

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0With No Automation Some Automation Full Automation

Source: 2014 Newton-Evans Research©

1512pg_30 30 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 31 www.power-grid.com

Substation remote terminal unit

(RTU) installation after upgrade.

than what other vendors offer,” Dupuis

said. “Some solutions offer the option

to replace old, outdated RTUs with

replacements to modernize your sub-

stations; however, it usually takes three

people and two to three days to com-

plete the task, at a much more signifi-

cant cost.”

Xcel Energy is also discovering how

simple, fast and cost-effective an RTU

upgrade can be when compared with a

full replacement.

“We now have the ability to modify

aged RTU designs that have little to

no replacement parts into a modern

RTU,” said Mitchel Wilkinson, an Xcel

Energy engineer in Minneapolis with

seven years of substation engineering

and design experience. “This solution

leaves all existing wiring in place while

upgrading CPUs so that data can be

gathered and sent, using modern com-

munication protocols. These modifi-

cations can be done for a fraction of

the engineering and construction time

required for a complete replacement.

This is a great option as we upgrade our

aging system.”

THE FUTURE IS TODAY

Technology constantly evolves and

infinitely more possibilities will exist

tomorrow than exist today. New fea-

tures and products should never exist,

however, only for the sake of creat-

ing something new. They must provide

answers to real concerns, challenges

and problems.

The legacy RTU upgrade is a solution

to a real problem. It can, in many cases,

be a better choice than RTU replace-

ment when modernizing the substation

control center. It addresses the three

major constraints utilities face: budget,

time and people.

based in Pineville, Louisiana, that has

been in business since 1935. It employs

approximately 1,200 people, serves

approximately 286,000 retail customers

in Louisiana and

supplies wholesale

power in Louisiana

and Mississippi. Its

legacy RTU upgrade

has become routine

for Miles Dupuis, a

principal engineer

at Cleco with 20

years of experience

in SCADA equipment

and 33 years total at

the utility.

“There is no com-

parison (with a full RTU replacement).

Using a vendor that allows us to retrofit

RTUs in one day while using only one

person in the field is far less costly

The legacy RTU upgrade is a solution to a real problem. It can, in many cases, be a better choice than RTU replacement when modernizing the substation control center.

1512pg_31 31 12/4/15 1:37 PM

32 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

aintaining and updating aging power

distribution infrastructure can create

a huge strain on utility resources, with

maintenance of transmission lines often

running into hundreds of thousands of

dollars per kilometer.

Rural power distribution brings with it

a specific set of challenges. The length of

distribution lines and their susceptibility to

the elements create maintenance problems

across large sections of the grid, and the

cost of higher-voltage lines means replacing

them is an expensive operation.

BY STEVEN BAYNE, AGGREKO

Preventing widespread

power failure and protecting reli-

ability, is the No. 1 concern of most

electric utilities. The power

industry plays a vital role

in determining quality of

life, generating jobs and

developing growth.

The weather plays a

crucial role, too. Line

failures, disruptions and

critical equipment damage

caused by storms and extreme

weather conditions all play a part in

rural power infrastructure management.

Add to this decreasing voltage levels along

distribution lines and reduced reliability as

they wear out, and utilities face huge costs

simply to maintain the status quo, let alone

to overcome issues that can cause havoc for

end users in remote locations.

Not addressing these concerns can lead

to a collapse of power infrastructure in

rural communities—and often investment

is at the heart of the matter.

For example, Nigeria has lost around

50 percent of its aging power generation,

transmission and distribution infrastruc-

ture because it has not been maintained,

upgraded or replaced. This is according to

Rural electrification is not a niche issue

globally. It is estimated that seven out of

eight rural Sub-Saharan Africans do not

have access to electricity at all, alongside

as many as 300 million people in India.

Of course, many more face poor quality

electric power across the globe—it is not

just a “developing nation” issue.

Utilities that distribute power to

rural customers need to find a balance

between the cost of supplying electricity

and the value of maintaining permanent

infrastructure.

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December 2015 | 33 www.power-grid.com

That cost-benefit analysis led to wider

thinking about more cost-effective solu-

tions. Aggreko was asked to assess the cost

and rewards of on-site energy production

using a generator. While this would render

the distribution line redundant, the cost of

energy, while higher than its current level,

could represent a huge saving for the farm,

utility and government.

The solution was for Aggreko to install

a mix of small scale batteries, diesel gen-

eration and solar at the farms, resulting in

a more reliable supply. Aggreko estimated,

based on the projections from upgrading

the lines, that even after 20 years of use, the

government would still be saving money.

Regulatory changes were required to

implement this solution because custom-

er had to be “disconnected.” This meant

that the distribution company no longer

received subsidies for those disconnected

customers and, therefore, faced a potential

loss of annual revenue, but the long-term

overall savings couldn’t be ignored.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR RURAL

ENERGY DISTRIBUTION?

Utility businesses are right to look at

varied and less obvious solutions. Rural

communities play a vital role in societies

around the world. In many nations, lack of

power is affecting millions of people. It is

important, therefore, for distribution utili-

ties and regulators to look at the most effec-

tive way to counteract aging infrastructure.

Whether that means creating new

energy markets through investment or

being prepared to say “no” to repair-

ing old transmission lines, innovative

thinking will only become more import-

ant as time moves on.

a Nov. 3, 2015, Vangard (a Nigeria-based

media company) report.

About half of Nigeria’s population lives

in rural communities and the lack of

electricity in these rural areas is a major

problem. A poster paper titled “Rural

Electrification Infrastructure Development

in Nigeria Using 0n-Grid and Off-Grid

Sources” presented by Kelechi Eke at the

2014 World Engineering Conference on

Sustainable Infrastructure held in Abuja-

Nigeria, covered Nigeria’s rural electrifica-

tion problems.

Eke said experts believed provid-

ing electricity in rural areas would cat-

alyze the growth of agricultural indus-

tries, which would help curb some of the

wider socio-economic issues Nigeria faces.

The lack of investment in that infrastruc-

ture, however, has instead contributed to

Nigeria’s problems.

To deal with these concerns, utility com-

panies are starting to look at the bigger pic-

ture. What’s the economic impact of rural

power distribution? Where are the pinch

points both to the cost of maintaining the

line and to the end user in losing the line?

What are the alternative solutions to labo-

riously maintaining extremely expensive,

lengthy and aging distribution lines into

rural areas?

Reducing both the cost of supply and

consequently the cost of electricity con-

sumption is the end game. But looking

at the wider implications can also lead

to the establishment of entirely new

energy markets.

Peru is a good example. It has one of

the world’s fastest growing economies and

is rich in energy resources. With vast rural

forestlands, Amazonian plains and enor-

mous mountain ranges, however, poverty

is deepest and most common among peo-

ple living in these remote rural areas.

Since 2006, Peru has increased access to

electrical power to more than 100,000 low

income rural households through a com-

bination of extending its national grid and

using distributed generation in the form of

solar power systems. This is according to

“Energy Case Study: Peru,” published on

Oct. 13, 2015, by CFI.co.

At a cost of $145 million, schools, health

clinics and community centers benefited,

as did households and small businesses.

In addition, the project was instrumental

in establishing a national tariff for off-

grid photovoltaic systems, leading some

distribution companies to improve rural

electrification as part of their commercial

investment.

Another example is Australia, which

despite being a highly urbanized nation,

faces significant challenges in reaching its

rural communities. Investment in power

transmission infrastructure can cost billions

of dollars, which may not be recovered.

Aggreko was involved in one project that

illustrates the issue in microcosm.

Rural regions in Western, Northern and

North Queensland face costly maintenance

and replacement of single wire earth return

(SWER) lines to small communities and

even to single farms. Entirely reliant on

one, sometimes up to 280-km SWER line,

the cost of energy to the farm was increas-

ing each year due to the huge maintenance

and repair expenses required to keep the

link in place.

Each distribution company involved

received government subsidies to provide

energy distribution in the region. In addi-

tion, they owned the transmission line to

the community or farm. An audit of the

maintenance requirements for these lines

put the cost of long-term repairs around

$10 to $15 million Australian dollars ($7.3

to $11 million U.S. dollars) per line. This

made the cost of providing electricity to

these farms extremely high.

Steven Bayne is an Aggreko sector manager

for IPP/utilities in Australia-Pacific. Aggreko PLC

is a provider of modular, mobile power and

adjacent product solutions.

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PRODUCTS

34 | December 2015www.power-grid.com

Portable voltagetransformer tester

At only 15 kg/33 pounds and compact in size Omicron’s

VOTANO 100 is a portable voltage transformer testing

device that also offers high accuracy. 

The testing and calibration system

measures winding resistance, short cir-

cuit impedances, the transformation

ratio and the magnetic characteristic

of inductive or capacitive voltage trans-

formers in a single measuring cycle.

Together with the new VBO2 voltage booster with inte-

grated switch box, the complete measuring results of a

voltage transformer are available in less than 15 minutes as

the voltage transformer needs to be wired only once, thus

improving testing time and efficiency. Along with the new

hardware, a new software upgrade for the VOTANO (2.00)

has also been released.     

OMICRON

GO WWW/PGIHOTIMS,COM FOR MORE INFORMATION

Meter reports software

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc. (SEL) released its

ACSELERATOR Meter Reports SEL-5630 Software. This latest

version includes support for dynamic viewing tools, faster

database interrogation and offline demonstrations.

ACSELERATOR Meter Reports

Software helps users organize, visual-

ize and optimize energy usage, using

data from SEL-734 Advanced Metering

Systems, SEL-735 Power Quality and

Revenue Meters and SEL751A Feeder Protection Relays. 

ACSELERATOR Meter Reports Software trends energy con-

sumption data, so operators can avoid peak demand

charges and optimize a schedule that moves overlapping

electric processes to off-peak hours.

Additionally, the software offers tools to diagnose voltage

disturbances using historical data, so the user can assess the

impact and improve system operation. 

The latest release of ACSELERATOR Meter Reports also is

accompanied by an integrated demonstration database.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories

GO WWW/PGIHOTIMS,COM FOR MORE INFORMATION

Detachable laptop

for field services

Panasonic announced the world’s first fully rugged

detachable laptop. The Toughbook® 20 delivers

durability, reliability and performance, while adding

the increased level of flexibility and functionality

customers want in a single fully rugged computer.

Combining the best features of a laptop and tablet, the

new device

is ideal for

field workers

who need a

highly mobile

c o m p u t i n g

solution and

the ability to

reliably cap-

ture large

amounts of

data. The Toughbook 20 is purpose-built for chal-

lenging environments, including field services, utili-

ties, oil and gas, transportation and logistics and

more.

Because mobile workers are charged with

completing increasingly complex tasks in the field,

the Toughbook 20 features a 6th Generation Intel®

CoreTM vProTM processor technology, 128GB SSD,

8GB RAM and choice of Windows 10 Pro or Windows

7 Professional (available through downgrade rights

from Windows 10 Pro).

It offers six usage modes, making it ideal for any

situation or environment and the tablet can be

detached and used by itself or flipped 180-degrees

to show content in presentation mode. The

Toughbook 20 is designed to meet MIL-STD-461F

for electromagnetic interference and MIL-STD-810G

for drop, shock, vibration, explosive atmosphere,

temperature, humidity, rain and sand, as well as

waterproof and dustproof ingress (IP65). 

At 3.9 pounds (2.1 lbs. for the tablet only), the

device is exceptionally portable.

Panasonic

GO WWW/PGIHOTIMS,COM FOR MORE INFORMATION

1512pg_34 34 12/4/15 1:37 PM

DistribuTECH 2016: The industry’s most comprehensive conference on automation, smart grid

and T&D engineering. Feb. 9-11, 2016, Orlando, Florida. 918.832.9265 www.distributech.com

CALENDAR

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICAN POWER GENERATION GROUP

Richard Baker

PRODUCTION MANAGER Daniel Greene

918.831.9401 [email protected]

ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER Glenda Van Duyne

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1421 S. Sheridan Road, Tulsa, OK 74112 P.O. Box 1260 : Tulsa, OK 74101 918.835.3161, fax 918.831.9834

www.pennwell.com

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918.831.9184 fax 918.831.9834 [email protected]

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ACT International Unit B, 13/F, Por Yen Building

478 Castle Peak Road, Cheung Sha Wan Kowloon, Hong Kong

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ISRAEL SALES MANAGER Daniel Aronovic

Margola Ltd. 1/1 Rashi Street, Raanana 43214 Israel

phone/fax +972.9.899 5813 [email protected]

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Sandy Norris 918.831.9115 fax 918.831.9834

[email protected]

For assistance with marketing strategy or ad creation, please contact PennWell Marketing Solutions

VICE PRESIDENT Paul Andrews

240.595.2352 [email protected]

REPRINTS Rhonda Brown

219.878.6094 fax 219.561.2023 [email protected]

December 2015 | 35 www.power-grid.com

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1512pg_35 35 12/4/15 1:37 PM

December 2015 | 36 www.power-grid.com

PARTING THOUGHTS

“Unusual question: Are you spending too much on #cybersecurity?”— @leidosengineers

“How has #MooresLaw disrupted the #utility industry? “

— http://intel.ly/1WYS8if

“Maintaining reliable electric service is the top priority of electric co-ops’ member-owners. New nationwide survey: http://ow.ly/URdxN

— @NRECAnews

“If U.S. is committed to curbing climate change, we must

prevent #nuclear plant shutdowns http://mycj.co/1WUaP16

#ActOnClimate #FactsNotFear”

— @ AREVAus

“Forty-two percent of energy CEOs are more confident about their

prospects for growth over the next three years than they were last year,

while 76 percent expect their headcount to rise over the next three years.”

— KPMG Global Energy Institute: Global CEO Outlook

“The shift to an efficient and low-carbon energy system could create hundreds of billions in euros or dollars in new annual value for the global electricity utilities industry by 2030.”

— Accenture and CDP: Low Carbon, High Stakes

“As the winter season approaches, all signs are that the current El Nino is maintaining its strength as sea-surface temperatures remain warmer than average across much of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean.”

— www.elp.com: ELP Executive Digest monthly weather report

“U.S. electric utilities reliability is on the rise over the

past decade, according to study by PA Consulting. The

study found that system average interruption duration

index (SAIDI) has improved over the 2009 to 2014

period by about 6 percent.”— http://www.paconsulting.com/industries/energy/sr3-report/

“The threat is ever changing…We know we’ve always got to anticipate the threat

environment is changing and therefore adapt our own strategies…skating to where the

puck will be.”— Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning, speaking about

GridEx III exercise on grid security

“Aerial systems have the potential to provide significant benefits and savings for the electric utility industry, and some

utilities are beginning to explore the use of the technology.”

— Tom Alley, vice president of EPRI’s Generation

research, on drone technology

“Basically we want drive

units that just never wear out;

that’s our goal. And I think we’ve

made really good progress

in that direction.” — Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk

“We are advancing the theme that energy technology innovation and the resultant continued cost reductions of clean energy technologies are

ultimately key to meeting our challenges in climate change. Lower cost clean energy solutions enable

policy to move forward more quickly.” — U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

TALK TRENDS

TWEET S

1512pg_36 36 12/4/15 1:37 PM

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Host Utility:

Kelly Saye @WHOLEISTICSafar

@DistribuTECH San Diego was a huge success! Looking forward to engaging new talent in #cleantech #energyefficiency with @EnertechSearch

Access WDS @AccessWDS

Great #DTECH2015 thank you @DistribuTECH! This year was even better than last. We are looking forward to 2016.

SmartUtilitySystems @SmartUtilitySys

We had a very successful time @DistribuTECH. Thanks to all who stopped by our booth. See you next year in Orlando.

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We’re sad #DTECH2015 is over – it was such a great conference. Our clients had rave reviews! Thanks @DistribuTECH

Go to pgi.hotims.com for more information.

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ìOur Control Center serves as the heartbeat of our operations. As a key

partner since 1977, ACS provides the tools to successfully achieve two

priority goals in our daily service delivery. First and foremost the ability to

keep our Power Crews safe in a potentially dangerous environment and

secondly, to consistently deliver reliable services to our customers in a timely

manner,î says Jim Culpepper, Power Control Supervisor, Marietta Power.

Our customer-relationship secret is trust. From the North Pole to

every line pole, customers trust ACS to execute their vision while we work as

a team to deliver innovative automation solutions worldwide. Since 1975,

our systems & services have enabled improved grid reliability, resiliency

and e�ciency for utilities of all sizes. Let us help you realize your goals with

proven technology, turnkey services and industry-leading support.

Contact us: 800.831.7223 | Extension 4

Advanced DMS

Outage Management

Mobile

Energy Management

Substation Automation

Feeder Automation

SCADA

Customer Infrastructure Solutions

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ìYouíre good, for goodness�sake! With ACS�your customers

know when and what to expect! Ho Ho Ho!î

Courtesy of M

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Go to pgi.hotims.com for more information.

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