20160823AVU to Staff 100 Attachment A.pdf

Team: Dave James, Troy Dehnel, Glen Madden, Mike Magruder, Jacob Reidt, Curt Kirkeby,
Darrell Richardson, John Gibson
Requirement: Request from Heather Rosentrater
Subject: Distribution Grid Modernization Program
Date: 5/29/2013
CC: Heather Rosentrater, Scott Waples
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Developing a Distribution Grid Modernization Program
GOAL:
The project goal is to blend the existing Feeder Upgrade and automation program into a common Grid
Modernization program. The Grid Modernization program will aggregate work activities to provide
refreshed system feeders with new automation capabilities across Avista’s distribution system.
DESCRIPTION
Feeder Upgrade
The Feeder Upgrade program has been in existence for approximately two years and the program is
designed to rank feeders by two selection criteria. The first criterion is a system ranking of the feeders
by energy savings, avoided cost and reliability. Once the feeders have been filtered through the first
criteria, a second criterion is used to align feeders by work plans and other strategic programs. The
program was initially designed to upgrade five feeders a year to refresh all of Avista’s feeders over a
sixty year cycle. To date, the feeders upgrade program is currently upgrading three feeders a year.
Grid Automation
The grid automation program is an outgrowth of the Smart Grid projects which have automated seventy
one of the approximately three hundred plus feeders on Avista’s distribution system. To support the
Smart Grid programs, the distribution standards were updated to incorporate “Smart” Switches and
Reclosers as the new design criteria. In addition, the Distribution Management System (DMS) back office
was designed to scale with the addition of feeders to the network. The Grid Automation program will
incorporate additional feeders into the suite of Smart Grid feeders improving system reliability and
system efficiencies.

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Grid Modernization
Although at a first glance, the feeder upgrade and grid automation programs do not appear to combine
synergistically. Since, the work plan for the feeder upgrade program is designed to rank the worst
condition feeders and to disperse the work equitably across various service areas. While, the grid
automation program would benefit by automating feeders in contiguous regions in order to provide
feeder interties and communication mesh density. This view may be adequate in the short run.
However, if viewed strategically, over a longer time range, the feeder upgrade and grid automation
program could be merged into a common grid modernization program.
The Grid Modernization program will develop strategic regions across multiple office areas called Grid
Modernization Zones (GMZ). The GMZ will represent a geographic region where a significant number of
feeder upgrades would be required when viewed over a five to ten year time horizon. Also, the GMZ
zones will be defined to support operational objectives of system reliability and energy efficiencies
obtained by feeder automation. The GMZ zone will be extended to support substation integration and
communication road maps for system upgrades.
Substation
To date, substation system upgrades incorporate relays which will support DMS or SCADA integration.
The substation work group currently has a list of stations targeted for system upgrades over a five to ten
year horizon. By aligning substation upgrade work with GMZ zones will help to prioritize and coordinate
distribution feeder work with substation work tasks.
Communication
The automation of the distribution system requires integration of field Intelligent Electronic Devices
(IED) to support analog measurement, device state and remote control. The IED’s are distributed across
the distribution network utilize Field Area Network (FAN) to report back to a common front-end. Due to
the remote location of these devices the mode of transport is typically wireless. The backhaul from the
gateway or substation is dependent the regions Wide Area Network (WAN). To date, a variety of
transport options are available including leased carrier circuits or services, privately owned fiber optics,
or privately owned microwave options. Where WAN connections are not easily leveraged public FANs
(cellular solutions) can be leveraged where available. The Grid Modernization project will develop a
survey of the various transport options available for each GMZ zone to determine the viability of grid
automation.

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WORK PLAN
The work plan identifies the tasks required to develop a Grid Modernization Program. The Grid
Modernization Program will refresh the analysis used to develop the selection criteria for feeder
upgrade program as well as defining selection criteria for grid automation. Also, the GMZ will be
developed by defining automation selection criteria with feeder upgrade opportunities. The work plan
activities to develop a Grid Modernization Program are outlined below:
Refresh Feeder Upgrade Efficiency Analysis
The system efficiency analysis was performed six years ago and should be updated to reflect existing
system state. The efficiency analysis evaluated energy savings corresponding to feeder reconductoring,
transformer replacements, redesigning secondary districts and capacitor placements. A Solver model
was developed to obtain the system efficiencies. Additional savings could be accounted for by applying
Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR). To support the analysis the work activities and resources are
outlined below.
Description Resource

Automation Opportunity Audit
The automation opportunities across the system will be dependent upon the existing substation relays
and communication infrastructure. To identify existing capability, an inventory of the existing substation
and communication integration infrastructure will be audited. Also, the future upgrade projects targeted
over the next five to ten year planning horizon should be included in the system audit. The work
activities and resources to accomplish the audit are listed below:
Description Resource

Staff_PR_100 Attachment A Page 3 of 4
Develop GMZ Zones
In order to develop GMZ zones, a map of our distribution system should be developed showing the
following activities: 1) Feeder Upgrade feeders (5 to 10 year horizon), 2) Substation Integration (5 to 10
year horizon), 3) Existing communication infrastructure and 4) Operational switching procedures. A
review of the various work and operational activities across Avista distribution system may suggest the
boundary and extent of the GMZ zones. The work activities and resources are outlined below.
Description Resource

Develop GMZ Capital Budgets
Once the GMZ zones are completed then a project schedule can be developed to show the work
activities to modernize the grid. The project schedule will illustrate the time horizon to complete the
GMZ zones across multiple service areas. The project schedule to complete the work is listed below.
Description Resource

Schedule
The timetable to complete the tasks is outlined below:
Task Start Duration
Man Days

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