Bulk Power System Operation Subcommittee

Bulk Power System Operation Subcommittee

Chair: Dr. Anurag Srivastava, West Virginia University, anurag.srivastava@mail.wvu.edu

Vice Chair: Dr. Clayton Barrows, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, clayton.barrows@nrel.gov

Secretary: Dr. Mohammad Khodayar, Southern Methodist University, mkhodayar@mail.smu.edu

Past Chairs:


Scope:

The Bulk Power System Operation Subcommittee disseminates information on how and what power system operators do to operate the interconnected bulk power systems at control centers, with the objectives of safety, reliability and operational efficiency. To achieve these objectives, they need to perform a number of functions and their associated tasks.  Some of the major functions that Operators need to execute include:

  • Transmission Monitoring
  • Transmission Limit Assessment
  • Transmission Voltage Management
  • Transmission Congestion Management
  • Transmission Outage Management
  • Load Shedding Management
  • Generation Load Balance
  • Generation Operation
  • Generation Reserve Management
  • Generation Outage Management
  • Interchange Communication
  • Interchange Monitoring
  • Interchange Congestion Management
  • Interchange Operation
  • Emergency Generation Capacity Management
  • Emergency Load Shedding Management
  • Emergency Transmission Management
  • System Restoration

To perform the above functions, operators need to resort to different technologies and solutions, such as SCADA/Energy Management System (EMS), state estimation, outage management system, power system security (steady state and dynamic), power system stability (electromechanical and electromagnetic transient stability, small signal stability, voltage stability, frequency stability), system protection,  responding to fast changing load demand under a deregulated electricity market or under a regulated vertically integrated utility market.

The Subcommittee also highlights the R&D needs to support this power system operation discipline.  In control centers, SCADA/EMS Systems and Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC) Systems with the appropriate application software are installed to operate the power systems.  The major focus is on how bulk power systems (i.e., power delivery systems that are at voltage levels higher than the voltage level of distribution systems) are operated and dispatched in the face of evolving electricity market design and economics rules; changing environmental regulations; fast adoption of power electronics, high voltage DC and AC technologies and synchrophasors; and  increasing penetration of renewable resources (both as utility scale and distributed installations) and demand-side resources.

In addition, with the industry facing aging workforce, this Subcommittee also addresses the issue of operator training, knowledge management and asset management.

The time scale of interest in this Subcommittee covers system operations in the real-time, short term and operations planning time frames.  Under the operations planning time frame, it also addresses outage management issues to ensure power system reliability. Items of particular interest could cover the following:

  • Reliability and security assessment
  • Operational planning
  • Control center technologies
  • Operator training
  • Situation awareness and visualization
  • Network modeling management
  • Energy Management System (EMS)
  • Short term outage scheduling and management
  • Unit scheduling and dispatch
  • Transmission congestion management
  • System restoration
  • System control performance
  • Operational impact of renewable resources
  • Automation and control technologies
  • Gas pipeline modeling
  • Short term and very short term forecast: load, wind, solar PV and interchange

Working Groups and Task Forces:

  • WG on Power System Static and Dynamic State Estimation (Lamine Mili)
    • TF on Dynamic Parameter and State Estimation (Junbo Zhao)
    • TF on Standard Test Cases for Power System State Estimation (Mert Korkali, Yuzhang Lin)
  • WG on Power System Restoration (Martin Braun)
    • TF on Operational Tools for Enabling Resiliency (Marija Ilic, Anurag Srivastava, Lamine Mili)
    • TF on Cyber-Physical Interdependence for Power System Operation and Control (Junbo Zhao, Qinglai Guo)
    • TF on Advanced Intelligence Techniques for Resilient Power System Restoration (Jin Zhao, Nikos D. Hatziargyrio)
  • TF on Synchrophasor Applications in Power System Operation and Control (Anurag Srivastava)
  • TF on Water-Power Nexus (Rebecca O’Neil, Masood Parvania)
  • TF on Risk Mitigation in Bulk Power System Operation (Hong Chen)

Past Working Groups and Task Forces:

  • TF on Bulk Power System Operations with Variable Generation (Aidan Tuohy)
  • TF on Real-Time Contingency Analysis (Sarma (NDR) Nuthalapati)
  • TF on Next-Generation EMS for Advanced future bulk power systems: Challenge, Architecture and Concept (Pengwei Du)
  • TF on Voltage Control for Smart Grids (Hongbin Sun)