Grid Modernization: The Hard Parts

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Grid ModernizationThe Hard Parts

• Erich W. Gunther
• Chairman and CTO

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Developers of the Modern Grid
EPACT05Hearings
FERC
EEI
GWAC
UtilityAMI
NERC (FM)
GridWise Alliance
DOE-OE Grid 2030
Galvin Initiative
NETL Modern Grid Initiative
CEC PIER
EPRI Intelligrid
GridWise Program
NW GridWise Testbed
CPUC AMI
OpenAMI
PSERC
GridWorks
CERTS
NYSERDA
GridApps
DOE-OE
CEC PIER
DV 2010
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Developers of the Modern Grid

• Grid Modernization a Non-Trivial Task
• Each organization has a constituency, but
• Visions are Aligned
• Goals are Remarkably Consistent
• Tactics are Complimentary
• Modern Architecture Concepts are Being Adopted,
  Developed, and Applied
• Collaboration is Occurring
• Events like GridWeek further consistency

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Thats great but

• Now the Hard Part Systems Engineering
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Security
• Privacy
• Config Mgmt
• Etc.

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Visioning Hides the Details

• Who can argue with cool vision?
• Standard pundit diagram
• House with a PV panel
• Electric car
• Demand responsive loads

• One or a few are easy to demo
• Pilotitis has been a result
• What happens when there are millions?

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Tough Issues

• Short Circuit Protection

Security and Privacy
Utility Personnel Safety
Device / Configuration Management
Distributed Control Systems
Emergent Chaotic Behavior
Legacy Device / System Management
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Running the business

• Planning, Building, Operating the Power System
• Methodologies MUST FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE

• Utilities must make the business case for grid
  modernization to happen

• Easy to demonstrate end point value
• Much harder for necessary individual steps

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Engineering Talent

• Existing talent pool being rapidly depleted
• Demand greatly exceeds supply
• Ability to import talent restricted
• New skills needed
• Its not your mentors power system any more
• New approach to selling our profession needed

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Conclusion

• Many Organizations
• Aligned Visions,
• Consistent Goals
• Tactics are Complimentary
• Collaboration Is Occurring
• The hard part is ahead of us
• Architecture Engineering of Large Systems

• We need the human and financial resources to
  implement the vision and modernize the grid