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Sagging Line Mitigator

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Sagging Line Mitigator (SLiM)

This unique device would replace or work with standard insulated hangers on power transmission towers, to counteract the effect of temperature on the sagging of overhead transmission lines. This allows increased line ampacity (load current capacity) of existing lines during curtailed summer months, reduced tower heights, and/or increased tower spacing. This device will significantly reduce the risk of forest fires and outages caused by sagging lines, increase the efficiency of energy transfer, delay the need for additional line capacity, and delay the construction of new lines.

The design philosophy is: “Because of the unpredictable nature of ambient temperature, elimination of the sag must be accomplished by a device which operates based on the same change in temperature.”

This automatic mechanical device would counteract axial expansion and hence sagging of suspended lines, such as those used in overhead electric transmission lines, due to ambient temperature increases. The device keeps the profile of the line and hence its sag constant and independent of ambient temperature changes. This device works on the same principal as the axial thermal expansion mechanism of the line but reverses its impact on the sag. That is, as ambient temperature increases (or decreases) so does the line length and its sag. The same ambient temperature change will increase (or decrease) the length of an actuator. The change in actuator length is amplified and transferred through a series of mechanical linkages comprising of lever-type devices, cogs, gears, or alike to contract (or extend) the line connections to the device such that the increase (or decrease) in line length is compensated for.

Several concepts are considered for the actuator. One uses a material with a high thermal expansion coefficient and a high compressive modulus of elasticity. Another uses a series of shape memory alloys for response to temperature changes. Yet, another uses an incompressible fluid with a high bulk modulus. Either device can also be “heated” for higher performance by wrapping it in a “heater coil” powered by the magnetic flux of the power line.

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DOE Reliability TF paper on T&D

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The Department of Energy’s Electric System Reliability Task Force has written a position paper, “Incentives for Transmission Enhancement”. The report indicates that a need exists for the construction of more power lines to relieve congestion, and that regulators should provide incentives for their construction. In the report, the Task Force reviews the nature of transmission and the challenges facing transmission companies in a deregulated electric industry. The report concludes that the main concern facing grid reliability is the need for stronger state and federal-level regulation to promote sound investments.

The report and earlier materials are available on line:

http://vm1.hqadmin.doe.gov:80/seab/elec_rep.html

Electric System Reliability Task Force – Minutes and Reports

MEETING MINUTES:
Ninth Meeting – Minutes from the ninth meeting (May 12, 1998).
Eighth Meeting – Minutes from the eighth meeting (March 10, 1998).
Seventh Meeting – Minutes from the seventh meeting (January 1998).
Sixth Meeting – Minutes from the sixth meeting (November 1997).
Fifth Meeting – Minutes from the fifth meeting (September 1997).
Fourth Meeting – Minutes from the fourth meeting (July 1997).
Third meeting – Minutes from the third meeting (June 1997).
Second meeting – Minutes from the second meeting (March 1997).
First meeting – Minutes from the first meeting (January 1997).

REPORTS:
Incentives for Transmission Enhancement (in PDF) (August 1998)
Transmittal Letter to Walter Massey, Chairman of SEAB (in PDF)
Technical Issues in Transmission System Reliability (in PDF) (May
1998)
Transmittal Letter to Walter Massey, Chairman of SEAB (in PDF)
Ancillary Services and Bulk-Power Reliability (in PDF) (May 1998)
Transmittal Letter to Walter Massey, Chairman of SEAB (in PDF)
The Characteristics of the Independent System Operator (March 1998)
Transmittal Letter to Walter Massey, Chairman of SEAB
Table: Roles, Functions and Relationships of Various
Institutions with ISOs
Task Force SRRO Letter Report (November 1997)
Task Force Interim Report (July 1997)
Transmittal Letter to Walter Massey, Chairman of SEAB

For more information on the Electric System Reliability Task Force, please contact:

Richard Burrow
DOE, Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (202) 586-7092

Clean Power Road Map

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Clean Power Generation Technologies Road Map

DOE is embarking on a series of vision setting and planning exercises that may significantly impact the direction of Federal research. These “Roadmapping” exercises are underway or planned in the areas of environmental management, fossil energy and energy efficiency/ renewable energy programs, as well as other selected programs within the Office of Energy Research.

The “Clean Power Generation Technologies Road Map” will examine a full range of production options, plus end-use efficiency, power transmission and distribution and the effect of regulatory structures. The effort spans both fossil and efficiency divisions of DOE, to help government and industry to: – determine the technology requirements to produce clean, affordable, and reliable power generation options – identify the federal, state, and industry roles in technology development, and – define the timing of needed RD&D investments over the next several decades.

The road map is to cover all fuel forms, conversion and enabling technologies (e.g. storage), and waste streams and effluents related to stationary power generation, including both central and dispersed generation, and co-production of electricity with steam, fuels, chemicals and gases. In light of climate concerns, a long term view will reach to 2100, with emphasis on the 2020-2050 time frame.

The road map is due to be completed in 2Q 1999. Initial work will be by a core group of about 12 persons, who will develop the overall vision and “destinations”, and oversee the roadmap process. The first “visioning workshop” meeting of the core group will be held in Washington on June 10-11. A select group of senior executives from utilities and IPPs have been invited (Duke, AEP, SMUD, Enron, Trigen, Onsite, Edison Int’l, Calif Energy Commission). At this stage, DOE wants only top level people to attend (CEO’s, Sr. VPs, etc.) and not lower level representatives.

Participation will be broadened to other groups later on, in a series of RD&D planning workshops. Drafts will be circulated for comments.

Initial Implementation Team:
– Victor Der (Fossil Energy) 301-903-2700, victor.der@hq.doe.gov
– Doug Carter (Fossil Energy) 202-586-9684, douglas.carter@hq.doe.gov
– William Parks (Energy Effic/Renew) 202-586-2093, william.parks@hq.doe.gov
– Joe Galdo (Energy Effic/Renew) 202-586-0518, joseph.galdo@hq.doe.gov
– Trevor Cook (Nuclear Energy) 301-903-7046, trevor.cook@hq.doe.gov
– Gil Gilliland (Oak Ridge) 423-574-9920, ig7@ornl.gov
– **Richard Scheer (Energetics, Inc.) 202-479-2748, rscheer@energeticsinc.com
**suggested point of contact

(See New Technology Week, March 2, 1998 for additional background).

Note: Due to the potential impact on national research priorities, UFTO companies should be aware of these planning exercises and may want to offer their input and participation at the appropriate time. I am in contact with the organizers, and they are aware of our interest.

Ancillary Services – new ORNL report

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In a continuing series on utility industry restructuring, Oak Ridge has just released a new report on Ancillary Services:

“Creating Competitive Markets for Ancillary Services,” ORNL/CON-448,
Eric Hirst and Brendan Kirby, October 1997

FERC has recognized the importance of ancillary services for bulk-power reliability and support of commercial transactions on interconnected transmission systems, and Order 888 includes a pro forma tariff for six key ancillary services. To date most tariffs that have been filed have prices these services on the basis of traditional cost-of-service (embedded) costs. Because most of these services are provided by generating units, however, it should be possible to create competitive markets for them. Recent proposals for ISOs call for such markets, but lack the details on how these markets would be structured and operated.

This report describes a spreadsheet model that simulates markets for sevsen services: losses, regulation, spinning reserve, supplemental reserve, load following, energy imbalance, and voltage support. The work demonstrates the likely complexity of markets for energy and ancillary services, arising because the markets are highly interdependent. Costs and prices will vary considerably as functions of system load and current spot price of energy. Also, embedded cost prices bear little relationship to costs and prices that would actually occur in competitive markets. (Capital costs which figure so prominently in embedded costs would be largely irrelevant, and opportunity costs ignored in cost of service analysis can dominate the prices of some ancillary services at times.)

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Copies of this report and others listed below can be obtained from Ethel Schorn, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6206, e-mail schornem@ornl.gov, or fax 423-576-8745.
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Eric Hirst, who is always interested in discussing industry issues, can be reached at 423-574-6304, hirstea@ornl.gov

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ELECTRIC-INDUSTRY POLICY STUDIES
Here is a partial list of recent ORNL publications, including several earlier ones on Ancillary Services:

L. Baxter, E. Hirst, and S. Hadley 1997, Transition-Cost Issues for a Restructuring U.S. Electricity Industry, ORNL/CON-440, March.

E. Hirst, and B. Kirby 1997, Ancillary-Service Details: Dynamic Scheduling, ORNL/CON-438, January.

E. Hirst 1996, “Bulk-Power Reliability: More Than Apple Pie and Motherhood,” The Electricity Journal 9(10), December.

E. Hirst 1996, Ancillary-Service Details: Regulation, Load Following, and Generator Response, ORNL/CON-433, September.

E. Hirst, S. Hadley, and L. Baxter 1996, Factors that Affect Electric-Utility Stranded Commitments, ORNL/CON-432, July.

L. Baxter, S. Hadley, and E. Hirst 1996, Strategies to Address Transition Costs in the Electricity Industry, ORNL/CON-431, July.

B. Kirby and E. Hirst 1996, Ancillary-Service Costs for 12 U.S. Electric Utilities, ORNL/CON-427, March.

B. Tonn and M. Schweitzer 1996, Public Policy Responsibilities in a Restructured Electric Industry: Analysis of Values, Objectives, and Approaches, ORNL/CON-428, March.

S. W. Hadley 1996, ORFIN: An Electric Utility Financial and Production Simulator, ORNL/CON-430, March.

E. Hirst and B. Kirby 1996, Electric-Power Ancillary Services, ORNL/CON-426, February.

QuickStabTM: Real-Time Prediction of Transmission System Loadability

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Subject: UFTO Note – QuickStabTM: Real-Time Prediction of Transmission System Loadability
Date: Fri, 04 Apr 1997
From: Ed Beardsworth
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| ** UFTO ** Edward Beardsworth ** Consultant
| 951 Lincoln Ave. tel 415-328-5670
| Palo Alto CA 94301-3041 fax 415-328-5675
| http://www.ufto.com edbeards@ufto.com
————————————————————–

(The developer of this program was referred to UFTO by a staff member at DOE. The following write up was prepared by him. Note the special offer for UFTO Members, in the last paragraph.)

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QuickStabTM : Real-Time Prediction of Transmission System Loadability

Today’s utility systems are likely to be dispatched near the limit of capacity and stability. In the context of open transmission access, network loadings will often get close to unstable states undetectable by conventional power-flow, optimal power-flow and contingency analysis programs. Such states will have to be predicted before they occur.

Without a real-time ability to determine how close the system is to a critical state, utilities will be less able to operate reliably and to compete effectively in the deregulated market. Also, the real-time assessment of the maximum loadability will have to be performed LOCALLY by EACH utility, in addition to, or rather than, being performed only at ISOs or large area coordination centers (power pools).

Critical states occur at, or within a certain margin from, the maximum power transfer capability, or maximum loadability of a power system. This limit is not constant. It depends on the generation, customer demand and transmission network conditions. In order to be meaningful and reliable, it must be computed from the real-time conditions of the transmission network.

A field-proven solution to this problem is available. A maximum loadability predictor has been developed and successfully tested and validated. It determines the transmission reliability margin corresponding to a given system state and evaluates the distance to the point of maximum loadability of the transmission network. In addition, it displays the results in a suggestive, easy-to-understand graphical format, and provides information that can help develop a quick remedial action strategy.

The program, known as QuickStabTM, offers significant benefits. It can help increase revenues from wheeling charges while meeting higher MW demand and reliability requirements. It is well suited for short- and mid-term operations planning scenarios. And it can be used on-line to supplement existing real-time computing facilities. Its modular design and portable code implementation make it possible to integrate the stability calculations with existing power-flow, optimum power-flow and security assessment applications.

As a special offer to UFTO members, QuickStabTM will be made available FREE for a 60 days trial period. Since users need to understand the methodology and be technically proficient at doing load flow and steady-state stability calculations, a training workshop will be provided at moderate cost to address the solution technique, definition of study cases, data preparation procedures, program installation, and interpretation of results.

For additional information, or to arrange for a private, exclusive QuickStab presentation at the upcoming PICA 97 conference, please contact:

Dr. Savu Savulescu
5104 Woodmere Drive, Suite #204
Centreville, VA 20120-4333
(703)818-8028 savu.scs@worldnet.att.net