New e-book: Smart grids era

Grid modernization is a strategic initiative for many electricity companies and one key concern is improvement of grid efficiency.

The key performance indicator for grid efficiency of an electrical distribution network is the amount of losses

The technical losses are due to energy dissipated in the conductors, equipment used for transmission, sub-transmission and distribution lines and magnetic losses in transformers.

Technical losses depend on the network characteristics and the mode of operation. They can commonly be > 20% of the energy transferred to the users.

The electrical distribution systems must be properly designed, operated and maintained to optimize these losses, learn more in the use case document.

The impact of DER connections to the distribution network is no more a new subject.

Network operators know that every time a DER generation feeds into a network it rises the voltage at the connection point. With high DER penetration rate, the voltage over the whole network will increase, and can quickly become a big issue if it is not managed properly.

The high DER penetration also goes with possible reverse power flow while the network are basically not designed to work in such condition. The protection plan is no more appropriated, possible imbalance between phase can occur if many dispersed generators are present among the network .

Discover how Technical issues of DER impacts should be handled in the use case document?