Method and system for power management in substations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9450407-B2
Application number	US-201213542469-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 5, 2012
Priority date	Jan 5, 2010
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

Power management systems and methods are disclosed for a plant electrical network using plurality of controllers configured for power management such that a first controller from the plurality of controllers is configured to perform power management in a first local process area within the plant electrical network and can communicate with a second controller that is configured for power management in a second local process area within the plant electrical network, over a plant wide communication network. The power management function in the first local process area can be performed based on the information communicated between the first controller and the second controller and/or based on a power balance computation carried out for the plant wide electrical network or for the first local process area. The power management function can include slow load shedding.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for power management in a plant electrical network comprising one or more upstream and downstream substations, the one or more upstream and downstream substations comprising a plurality of power equipment, and wherein the power management is carried out using one or more local controllers and a central controller, the one or more local controllers and the central controller being configured for the power management in their respective local process areas within the plant electrical network, and wherein the one or more local controllers and the central controller are also configured for communication in a plant wide communication network, wherein the one or more local controllers and the central controller communicate with each other and with a plurality of intelligent electronic devices associated with respective power equipment of the plurality of power equipment, the method comprising:
receiving, at the central controller, load condition information which includes an amount of overload in at least one of the power equipment along with a direction of the overload, from at least one local controller among the one or more local controllers in the plant electrical network;
performing power balance computations, by the central controller, for plant wide power management considering the received load condition information;
issuing, by the central controller, a power management command along with a priority information based on the direction of the overload to the one or more local controllers in the plant wide communication network; and
carrying out load shedding by the central controller or the one or more local controllers in their respective local process areas based on the power balance computations and the issued power management command.

2. The method for power management of claim 1 , comprising:
providing the power management command for load shedding of loads in at least one local process area, other than the local process area containing the overloaded power equipment, when the direction of the overload is such that the overloaded power equipment is feeding power in a direction from the downstream substation to the upstream substation.

3. The method for power management of claim 1 , comprising:
providing the power management command for load shedding of loads in the local process area containing the overloaded power equipment, when the direction of the overload is such that the overloaded power equipment is feeding power in a direction from the upstream substation to the downstream substation.

4. A method for load shedding in a plant electrical network having a plurality of controllers including a central controller configured for plant wide power management, the controllers being connected through a plant wide communication network, and the controllers being configured for power management in their respective local process areas in the plant electrical network, the method comprising:
detecting, by a first controller among the plurality of controllers, an overload condition in a power equipment and a direction of the overload in its respective first local process area, and consolidating the overload condition information along with the direction of the overload;
assessing, by the first controller, an ability to communicate the consolidated overload condition information in the plant wide communication network and electrical connectivity of the first local process area in the plant electrical network, to select an operation and control mode;
performing, by the first controller, based on the operation and control mode, a power balance computation to determine a priority information to control loading of the power equipment in the first local process area using the consolidated overload condition information for either load shedding in the first local process area or communicating the consolidated overload condition information for load shedding in the plant wide communication network to cause at least one local controller from the plurality of controllers in the plant electrical network to load shed in its respective local process area to control loading of the power equipment in the first local process area; and
performing, by the first controller and/or by the at least one local controller in the plant electrical network, load shedding based on the priority information for load shedding to control load in the overloaded power equipment.

5. The method for load shedding of claim 4 , wherein the first controller is configured as the central controller for plant wide power management.

6. The method for load shedding of claim 4 , wherein the first controller is configured as a local controller in the plant electrical network.

7. The method for load shedding of claim 4 , comprising:
selecting, by the first controller, the operation mode as a remote control mode when the first controller has an ability to communicate to the central controller and the overloaded power equipment in the first local process area has electrical connectivity with at least one local process area in the plant electrical network that is disjoint from the first local process area.

8. The method for slow load shedding of claim 7 , comprising:
selecting, by the first controller, the operation mode as a completely autonomous mode either when the first controller is unable to communicate with the central controller, or when the first local process area does not have electrical connectivity with at least one local process area in the plant electrical network that is disjoint from the first local process area.

9. The method for load shedding of claim 7 , comprising:
selecting, by the first controller, the operation mode as a partial autonomous mode when the first controller has an ability to communicate to the central controller, and when the at least one power equipment in the first local process area has electrical connectivity with at least one local process area that is disjoint from the first local process area.

10. The method for load shedding of claim 7 , wherein the control mode is manual load shedding carried out in one or more local process areas, the load shedding being carried out by operators based on the priority information provided by the first controller or by the central controller.

11. The method for load shedding of claim 4 , comprising:
managing the first controller and the central controller for slow load shedding based on load-time characteristics of overloaded power equipment.

12. The method for load shedding of claim 4 , comprising:
performing slow load shedding concurrently with fast or manual load shedding.

13. A power management system for a plant electrical network comprising one or more upstream and downstream substations, the one or more upstream and downstream substations comprising a plurality of power equipment managed by a plurality of intelligent electronic devices, the system comprising:
a plurality of controllers for power management in the plant electrical network;
a plant-wide communication network connecting the plurality of controllers with each other and with the plurality of intelligent electronic devices associated with respective power equipment; and
wherein a first controller from the plurality of controllers is configured for power management in a first local process area within the plant electrical network and is configured to communicate, over the plant-wide communication network, with at least a second controller from the plurality of controllers configured for power management in a second local process area within the plant electrical network, and for performing a power management function based on

Assignees

• Kulathu Ganesh
• Gupta Arinjai
• Anton Emilian-Ioan
• Abb Schweiz Ag

Inventors

• Kulathu Ganesh
• Gupta Arinjai
• Anton Emilian-Ioan

Classifications

• H02J13/1337

  involving the use of Internet protocols · CPC title

• H02J13/1321

  using a wired telecommunication network or a data transmission bus · CPC title

• H02J13/36

  specially adapted for protection systems · CPC title

• H02J13/333

  the equipment forming part of substations · CPC title

• H02H7/261

  involving signal transmission between at least two stations (transmission of signals in general H02H1/0061) · CPC title