1/3/14 Electrical grid - Wikipedia, the free encclopedia

1/8 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid
Geea a f eecici e. Vage ad
deici f eecica ie ae ica f Gea
ad he Eea e.
Elecical gid
F Wiiedia, he fee eccedia
A elecical gid i a iececed e f
deieig eecici f ie ce. I ci
f geeaig ai ha dce eecica e, high-
age aii ie ha ca e f dia
ce dead cee, ad diibi ie ha
cec idiida ce.
[1]
Pe ai a be caed ea a fe ce, a a da
ie, ae adaage f eeabe eeg ce, ad
ae fe caed aa f heai aed aea. The
ae a ie age ae adaage f he ecie
f cae. The eecic e hich i geeaed i eed
a highe age-a hich i cec he
aii e.
The aii e i e he e g
diace, eie ac ieaia bdaie, i i
eache i heae ce (a he ca ha
he ca diibi e).
O aia a a bai, he e i be eed d
f a aii ee age a diibi ee
age. A i ei he bai, i ee he diibi
iig. Fia, aia a he eice cai, he
e i eed d agai f he diibi age
he eied eice age().
Conen
1 Te
2 Hi
3 Feae
3.1 Sce f diibi gid
3.2 Gegah f aii e
3.3 Reddac ad defiig "gid"
3.4 Iececed Gid
4 Agig Iface
5 Mde ed
6 Fe ed
7 Eegig a gid
8 Refeece
9 Eea i
1/3/14 Electrical grid - Wikipedia, the free encclopedia
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Term
The term grid usually refers to a network, and should not be taken to imply a particular physical layout or breadth.
Grid may also be used to refer to an entire continent's electrical network, a regional transmission network or may
be used to describe a subnetwork such as a local utility's transmission grid or distribution grid.
Histor
Since its inception in the Industrial Age, the electrical grid has evolved from an insular system that serviced a
particular geographic area to a wider, expansive network that incorporated multiple areas. At one point, all energy
was produced near the device or service requiring that energy. In the early 19th century, electricity was a novel
invention that competed with steam, hydraulics, direct heating and cooling, light, and most notably gas. During this
period, gas production and delivery had become the first centralized element in the modern energy industry. It was
first produced on customers premises but later evolved into large gasifiers that enjoyed economies of scale.
Virtually every city in the U.S. and Europe had ton gas piped through their municipalities as it was a dominant
form of household energy use. By the mid-19th century, electric arc lighting soon became advantageous compared
to volatile gas lamps since gas lamps produced poor light, tremendous wasted heat which made rooms hot and
smoky, and noxious elements in the form of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Modeled after the gas lighting
industry, the first electric utility systems supplied energy through virtual mains to light filtration as opposed to gas
burners. With this, electric utilities also took advantage of economies of scale and moved to centralized power
generation, distribution, and system management.
[2]
With the realization of long distance power transmission it was possible to interconnect different central stations to
balance loads and improve load factors. Interconnection became increasingly desirable as electrification grew
rapidly in the early years of the 20th century. Like telegraphy before it, wired electricity was often carried on and
through the circuits of colonial rule.
[3]
Charles Merz, of the Merz & McLellan consulting partnership, built the Neptune Bank Power Station near
Newcastle upon Tyne in 1901,
[4]
and by 1912 had developed into the largest integrated power system in
Europe.
[5]
In 1905 he tried to influence Parliament to unify the variety of voltages and frequencies in the country's
electricity supply industry, but it was not until World War I that Parliament began to take this idea seriously,
appointing him head of a Parliamentary Committee to address the problem. In 1916 Merz pointed out that the UK
could use its small size to its advantage, by creating a dense distribution grid to feed its industries efficiently. His
findings led to the Williamson Report of 1918, which in turn created the Electricity Supply Bill of 1919. The bill was
the first step towards an integrated electricity system.
The more significant Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926 led to the setting up of the National Grid.
[6]
The Central
Electricity Board standardised the nation's electricity supply and established the first synchronised AC grid, running
at 132 kilovolts and 50 Hertz. This started operating as a national system, the National Grid, in 1938.
In the United States in the 1920s, utilities joined together establishing a wider utility grid as joint-operations saw the
benefits of sharing peak load coverage and backup power. Also, electric utilities were easily financed by Wall
Street private investors who backed many of their ventures. In 1934, with the passage of the Public Utility Holding
Company Act (USA), electric utilities were recognized as public goods of importance along with gas, water, and
telephone companies and thereby were given outlined restrictions and regulatory oversight of their operations. This
1/3/14 Electrical grid - Wikipedia, the free encclopedia
3/8 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid
The wide area synchronous grids
oI Europe. Most are members oI
the European Transmission
System Operators association.
The Continental U.S. power
transmission grid consists oI
about 300,000 km oI lines
operated by approximately 500
companies.
ushered in the Golden Age of Regulation Ior more than 60 years. However, with the successIul deregulation oI
airlines and telecommunication industries in late 1970s, the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) oI 1992 advocated
deregulation oI electric utilities by creating wholesale electric markets. It required transmission line owners to allow
electric generation companies open access to their network.
|2||7|
The act led to a major restructuring oI how the
electric industry operated in an eIIort to create competition in power generation. No longer were electric utilities
built as vertical monopolies, where generation, transmission and distribution were handled by a single company.
Now, the three stages could be split among various companies, in an eIIort to provide Iair accessibility to high
voltage transmission.
|8|
In 2005, the Energy Policy Act oI 2005 was passed to allow incentives and loan guarantees
Ior alternative energy production and advance innovative technologies that avoided greenhouse emissions.
Feae
Sce of diibion gid
The structure, or "topology" oI a grid can vary considerably. The physical
layout is oIten Iorced by what land is available and its geology. The logical
topology can vary depending on the constraints oI budget, requirements Ior
system reliability, and the load and generation characteristics.
The cheapest and simplest topology Ior a distribution or transmission grid is
a radial structure. This is a tree shape where power Irom a large supply
radiates out into progressively lower voltage lines until the destination homes
and businesses are reached.
Most transmission grids require the reliability that more complex mesh
networks provide. II one were to imagine running redundant lines between
limbs/branches oI a tree that could be turned in case any particular limb oI
the tree were severed, then this image approximates how a mesh system
operates. The expense oI mesh topologies restrict their application to
transmission and medium voltage distribution grids. Redundancy allows line
Iailures to occur and power is simply rerouted while workmen repair the
damaged and deactivated line.
Other topologies used are looped systems Iound in Europe and tied ring
networks.
In cities and towns oI North America, the grid tends to Iollow the classic
radiall fed design. A substation receives its power Irom the transmission
network, the power is stepped down with a transIormer and sent to a bus
Irom which Ieeders Ian out in all directions across the countryside. These
Ieeders carry three-phase power, and tend to Iollow the major streets near
the substation. As the distance Irom the substation grows, the Ianout
continues as smaller laterals spread out to cover areas missed by the
Ieeders. This tree-like structure grows outward Irom the substation, but Ior
reliability reasons, usually contains at least one unused backup connection to
a nearby substation. This connection can be enabled in case oI an
emergency, so that a portion oI a substation's service territory can be
alternatively Ied by another substation.
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High-age diec ce
iececi i ee
Ee - ed ae eiig i,
gee ae de cci, ad
be ae ed.
Geograph of transmission networks
Taii e ae e ce ih edda aha. F
eae, ee he a f he Uied Sae' (igh) high-age aii
e.
A ide aea ch gid "iececi" i a g f diibi
aea a eaig ih aeaig ce (AC) feecie chied
( ha ea cc a he ae ie). Thi a aii f AC
e hgh he aea, cecig a age be f eecici
geea ad ce ad eia eabig e efficie eecici
ae ad edda geeai. Iececi a ae h f
Nh Aeica (igh) ad Ee (be ef).
I a ch gid a he geea a he ae eed b
a a he ae hae, each geea aiaied b a ca ge ha
egae he diig e b cig he ea he bie
diig i. Geeai ad ci be baaced ac he eie
gid, becae eeg i ced a iaae a i i dced.
Eeg i ed i he iediae h e b he aia ieic eeg
f he geea.
A age faie i e a f he gid - e ic ceaed f - ca cae ce e-e ief f
f he eaiig geea ce e aii ie f ifficie caaci, caig fhe faie.
Oe dide a ide ceced gid i h he ibii f cacadig faie ad ideead e age.
A cea ahi i a deigaed faciiae cicai ad dee c aiai a abe gid.
F eae, he Nh Aeica Eecic Reiabii Cai gaied bidig e i he Uied Sae i
2006, ad ha adi e i he aicabe a f Caada ad Meic. The U.S. gee ha a
deigaed Naia Iee Eecic Taii Cid, hee i beiee aii beec hae
deeed.
Se aea, f eae a ciie i Aaa, d eae a age gid, eig iead ca diee
geea.
[9]
High-age diec ce ie aiabe feec afe ca be ed cec aeaig ce
iececi e hich ae chied ih each he. Thi ide he beefi f iececi
ih he eed chie a ee ide aea. F eae, cae he ide aea ch gid a f
Ee (abe ef) ih he a f HVDC ie (be igh).
Redundanc and defining "grid"
A i aid hae achieed gid ceci he i i ceced eea edda ce, geea
iig g-diace aii.
Thi eddac i iied. Eiig aia egia gid i ide he iececi f faciiie iie
haee eddac i aaiabe. The eac age f deee a hich he ce bece a gid i
abia. Siia, he e naional gid i ehig f a aachi i a a f he d, a
aii cabe fee c aia bdaie. The e diibion gid f ca ceci
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and anmiion gid for long-distance transmissions are therefore preferred, but naional gid is often still used
for the overall structure.
Ineconneced Gid
Electric utilities across regions are many times interconnected to allow for a variety of advantages. First is the fact
that electric utilities benefits from its nature of being large and interconnecting utilities allows for economies of scale.
Second, utilities can draw power from generator reserves from a different region in order to ensure continuing,
reliable power and diversify their loads. Interconnection also allows regions to have access to cheap bulk energy by
receiving power from different sources. For example, one region may be producing cheap hydro power during high
water seasons, but in low water seasons, another area may be producing cheaper power through wind, allowing
both regions to access cheaper energy sources from one another during different times of the year. Neighboring
utilities also help others to maintain the overall system frequency and also help manage tie transfers between utility
regions.
[8]
Aging Inface
Despite the novel institutional arrangements and network designs of the electrical grid, its power delivery
infrastructures suffer aging across the developed world. Four contributing factors to the current state of the electric
grid and its consequences include:
1. Aging power equipment older equipment have higher failure rates, leading to customer interruption rates
affecting the economy and society; also, older assets and facilities lead to higher inspection maintenance costs
and further repair/restoration costs.
2. Obsolete system layout older areas require serious additional substation sites and rights-of-way that cannot
be obtained in current area and are forced to use existing, insufficient facilities.
3. Outdated engineering traditional tools for power delivery planning and engineering are ineffective in
addressing current problems of aged equipment, obsolete system layouts, and modern deregulated loading
levels
4. Old cultural value planning, engineering, operating of system using concepts and procedures that worked in
vertically integrated industry exacerbate the problem under a deregulated industry
[10]
Moden end
As the 21st century progresses, the electric utility industry seeks to take advantage of novel approaches to meet
growing energy demand. Utilities are under pressure to evolve their classic topologies to accommodate distributed
generation. As generation becomes more common from rooftop solar and wind generators, the differences between
distribution and transmission grids will continue to blur. Also, demand response is a grid management technique
where retail or wholesale customers are requested either electronically or manually to reduce their load. Currently,
transmission grid operators use demand response to request load reduction from major energy users such as
industrial plants.
[11]
With everything interconnected, and open competition occurring in a free market economy, it starts to make sense
to allow and even encourage distributed generation (DG). Smaller generators, usually not owned by the utility, can
be brought on-line to help supply the need for power. The smaller generation facility might be a home-owner with
excess power from their solar panel or wind turbine. It might be a small office with a diesel generator. These
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resources can be brought on-line either at the utility's behest, or by owner of the generation in an effort to sell
electricity. Many small generators are allowed to sell electricity back to the grid for the same price they would pay
to buy it. Furthermore, numerous efforts are underway to develop a "smart grid". In the U.S., the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 and Title XIII of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 are providing funding to encourage
smart grid development. The hope is to enable utilities to better predict their needs, and in some cases involve
consumers in some form of time-of-use based tariff. Funds have also been allocated to develop more robust energy
control technologies.
[12][13]
Various planned and proposed systems to dramatically increase transmission capacity are known as super, or mega
grids. The promised benefits include enabling the renewable energy industry to sell electricity to distant markets, the
ability to increase usage of intermittent energy sources by balancing them across vast geological regions, and the
removal of congestion that prevents electricity markets from flourishing. Local opposition to siting new lines and the
significant cost of these projects are major obstacles to super grids. One study for a European super grid estimates
that as much as 750 GW of extra transmission capacity would be required- capacity that would be accommodated
in increments of 5 GW HVDC lines. A recent proposal by Transcanada priced a 1,600-km, 3-GW HVDC line at
$3 billion USD and would require a corridor wide. In India, a recent 6 GW, 1,850-km proposal was priced at
$790 million and would require a wide right of way. With 750 GW of new HVDC transmission capacity required
for a European super grid, the land and money needed for new transmission lines would be considerable.
Fe end
As deregulation continues further, utilities are driven to sell their assets as the energy market follows in line with the
gas market in use of the futures and spot markets and other financial arrangements. Even globalization with foreign
purchases are taking place. Recently, U.Ks National Grid, the largest private electric utility in the world, bought
New Englands electric system for $3.2 billion. See the SEC filing dated March 15, 2000 Here
(http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/35-27154.htm) Also, Scottish Power purchased Pacific Energy for $12.8
billion.
[ciaion needed]
Domestically, local electric and gas firms begin to merge operations as they see advantage of
joint affiliation especially with the reduced cost of joint-metering. Technological advances will take place in the
competitive wholesale electric markets such examples already being utilized include fuel cells used in space flight,
aeroderivative gas turbines used in jet aircrafts, solar engineering and photovoltaic systems, off-shore wind farms,
and the communication advances spawned by the digital world particularly with microprocessing which aids in
monitoring and dispatching.
[2]
Electricity is expected to see growing demand in the future. The Information Revolution is highly reliant on electric
power. Other growth areas include emerging new electricity-exclusive technologies, developments in space
conditioning, industrial process, and transportation (for example hybrid vehicles, locomotives).
[2]
Emeging ma gid
As mentioned above, the electrical grid is expected to evolve to a new grid paradigm--smart grid, an enhancement
of the 20th century electrical grid. The traditional electrical grids are generally used to carry power from a few
central generators to a large number of users or customers. In contrast, the new emerging smart grid uses two-way
ows of electricity and information to create an automated and distributed advanced energy delivery network.
Many research projects have been conducted to explore the concept of smart grid. According to a newest survey
on smart grid,
[14]
the research is mainly focused on three systems in smart grid- the infrastructure system, the
management system, and the protection system.
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The infrastructure system is the energy, information, and communication infrastructure underlying of the smart grid
that supports 1) advanced electricity generation, delivery, and consumption; 2) advanced information metering,
monitoring, and management; and 3) advanced communication technologies. In the transition from the conventional
power grid to smart grid, we will replace a physical infrastructure with a digital one. The needs and changes present
the power industry with one of the biggest challenges it has ever faced.
A smart grid would allow the power industry to observe and control parts of the system at higher resolution in time
and space.
[15]
It would allow for customers to obtain cheaper, greener, less intrusive, more reliable and higher
quality power from the grid. The legacy grid did not allow for real time information to be relayed from the grid, so
one of the main purposes of the smart grid would be to allow real time information to be received and sent from and
to various parts of the grid to make operation as efficient and seamless as possible. It would allow us to manage
logistics of the grid and view consequences that arise from its operation on a time scale with high resolution; from
high-frequency switching devices on a microsecond scale, to wind and solar output variations on a minute scale, to
the future effects of the carbon emissions generated by power production on a decade scale.
The management system is the subsystem in smart grid that provides advanced management and control services.
Most of the existing works aim to improve energy efciency, demand prole, utility, cost, and emission, based on
the infrastructure by using optimization, machine learning, and game theory. Within the advanced infrastructure
framework of smart grid, more and more new management services and applications are expected to emerge and
eventually revolutionize consumers' daily lives.
The protection system is the subsystem in smart grid that provides advanced grid reliability analysis, failure
protection, and security and privacy protection services. We must note that the advanced infrastructure used in
smart grid on one hand empowers us to realize more powerful mechanisms to defend against attacks and handle
failures, but on the other hand, opens up many new vulnerabilities. For example, NIST pointed out that the major
benefit provided by smart grid, the ability to get richer data to and from customer smart meters and other electric
devices, is also its Achilles' heel from a privacy viewpoint. The obvious privacy concern is that the energy use
information stored at the meter acts as an information rich side channel. This information could be mined and
retrieved by interested parties to reveal personal information such as individual's habits, behaviors, activities, and
even beliefs.
Refeence
1. ^ Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power Transmission: Background and Policy Issues. The
Capital.Net, Government Series. Pp. 1-42.
2. ^

Borberly, A. and Kreider, J. F. (2001). Distributed Generation: The Power Paradigm for the New
Millennium. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 400 pgs.
3. ^ Shamir, Ronen (2013). Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
4. ^ Mr Alan Shaw (29 September 2005). "Kelvin to Weir, and on to GB SYS 2005"
(http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/enquiries/energy/evidence/ShawA1.pdf) (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh.
5. ^ "Survey of Belford 1995" (http://www.nnouk.com/survey/survey-utilities.shtml). North Northumberland Online.
6. ^ "Lighting by electricity" (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-places_collections/w-collections-
main/w-collections-highlights/w-collections-lighting-electricity.html). The National Trust.
7. ^ Mazer, A. (2007). Electric Power Planning for Regulated and Deregulated Markets. John, Wiley, and Sons, Inc.,
Hoboken, NJ. 313pgs.
8. ^

. (2001). Glover J. D., Sarma M. S., Overbye T. J. (2010) Power System and Analysis 5th Edition. Cengage
Learning. Pg 21.
9. ^ Energy profile of Alaska, United States
(http://www.eoearth.org/article/Energy_profile_of_Alaska,_United_States), Editor: Cutler J. Cleveland, Last
1/3/14 Electrical grid - Wikipedia, the free encclopedia
8/8 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid
Updated: July 30, 2008 - Encyclopedia of Earth
10. ^ Willis, H. L., Welch, G. V., and Schrieber, R. R. (2001). Aging Power Delivery Infrastructures. Marcel Dekker,
Inc. : New York. 551 pgs.
11. ^ "Industry Cross-Section Develops Action Plans at PJM Demand Response Symposium"
(http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS206497+16-May-2008+PRN20080516). Reuters. 2008-08-13.
Retrieved 2008-11-22. "Demand response can be achieved at the wholesale level with major energ users such as
industrial plants curtailing power use and receiving payment for participating."
12. ^ "U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007" (http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?
c110:./temp/~c110z6D5F8). Retrieved 2007-12-23.
13. ^ DOE Provides up to $51.8 Million to Modernize the U.S. Electric Grid System
(http://www.oe.energy.gov/DocumentsandMedia/6-27-07_US_Electric_Grid_Press_Release.pdf), June 27, 2007,
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
14. ^ Smart Grid - The New and Improved Power Grid: A Survey (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?
tp=&arnumber=6099519); IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials 2011; X. Fang, S. Misra, G. Xue, and D.
Yang; doi:10.1109/SURV.2011.101911.00087 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1109%2FSURV.2011.101911.00087).
15. ^ Alexandra Von Meier (2013). Electrical Engineer 137A: Electric Power Systems. Lecture 2:Introduction to
Electric Power Systems, Slide 33.
Eternal links
Map of U.S. generation and transmission (http://www.energy-graph.com/interactive-map.html)
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