The intelligent grid

To support the intelligent grid concept, many utilities and regulators are funding projects that range from installing automated metering infrastructure (AMI) to using remote sensor controls for energy management. Consumers are doing their part to achieve energy efficiency as well, installing load control devices on appliances and solar devices on their rooftops.

To provide the information needed to smarten up the energy grid, utilities are adding numerous new meters, sensors, and control devices. But with these additional assets, the grid’s complexity grows. In the midst of this increasingly intricate grid design, many utilities realize their current design processes are inefficient and not standardized. Furthermore, utilities struggle to quickly and accurately assess the condition of their growing network of assets.

The three building blocks
Emerging energy and information technologies can radically improve energy efficiency. To capitalize on these advancements, utilities first need to address some basic building blocks: better design processes, complete and accurate information, and timely access to as-built data.

Better design processes are essential. As the number of devices, switches and meters within an electric network soars, so does the required amount of network design work. If utilities want to complete this design work faster, more easily, and more accurately, they need design software that features true rules-based automation. It should also include workflows for streamlining common activities and automating the routine tasks related to creating, configuring, and maintaining electric utility network designs. By automating and consolidating these time-consuming activities, utilities can avoid re-entering data for the many tasks associated with installing new assets and maintaining the network.

With additional design work, it also becomes increasingly important that utilities standardize as much as possible. Standardized design processes not only promote consistency, they are more efficient and help ensure optimized and reliable system designs.

The next building block a utility needs is the ability to generate an accurate model of all its network assets. As the number and types of assets increase, the utility needs a way to centralize asset and spatial information. That way, it can easily access and update data on a specific asset’s age, location, status, and relationship to other assets. A centralized database can also capture as-built updates when changes are made in the field that deviate from the original design. With Autodesk Utility solutions, utilities can integrate and analyze design, spatial, and asset information – from poles and transformers to meters and sensors.

The final building block for utilities is the ability to make accurate, as-built information readily available throughout the organization. All teams and systems need up-to-date data to operate and maintain intelligent grid assets. For example, after new facilities are put in service, there are often significant backlogs in making network data available to operational systems. Before the updated data reaches the outage management or the distribution management system, operators are working from old data, compromising quality and safety. By integrating network designs into utility workflows and systems as they are constructed, operators are always working from accurate, as-built data.

Realize the benefits
As utilities are discovering, intelligent grid initiatives significantly increase design work as well as substantially increase the sheer number of assets to track. Utilities with the basic building blocks of better design, complete and accurate information, and timely access to data are poised to successfully execute on the vision of an intelligent grid. An open, standards-based platform can enable efficient and consistent design and provide utilities with complete network visibility. As some utility operators say, “you can only manage what you can see in your systems”. With integrated design, spatial and asset information, the efficient and effective design, operations, and maintenance of intelligent grid networks can be a reality.

About Alan Saunders
Alan Saunders is the industry principal for the Autodesk utilities vertical. He is responsible for Autodesk’s global utility solution strategies, alliances and business development. With over 25 years’ experience in the international energy and utilities business, Saunders has experience leading successful initiatives in distribution planning and operations, customer service, energy trading and marketing, business development, and solution strategy and delivery, and brings a big-picture view to anticipating and solving industry challenges. He can be contacted at alan.saunders@autodesk.com.