Transmission and Regulation
Transmission and Regulation
18 Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015
The giant on the
US East Coast: PJM
serves 13 states and
Washington, D.C.
Photo: Getty Images/NASA , Illustration: independent
Going Green
in America’s
Garden State
New Jersey provides vital links in an electric transmission
network that serves 61 million people in 13 states. To ensure
the stability and security of the system, energy giant PJM
has partnered with ­Siemens to create one of the world’s most
advanced control centers.
Text: Sameh Fahmy Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015 19
Transmission and Regulation
Transmission and Regulation
“The Advanced Control
Center is probably
the most sophisticated
in the world.”
Terry Boston, PJM President and CEO
L
ocated on the busy mid-Atlantic
corridor of the USA and within a
day’s drive of more than 130 million people, New Jersey is an integral
part of one of America’s most dynamic centers.
The state is a national leader in the
use of renewable energy, and its position adjacent to New York and Pennsylvania makes it a vital link to a much
wider distribution system. The electric transmission network that powers
New Jersey – a hub for life sciences,
finance, information technology and
several other industries – is owned
by four electric distribution companies
and controlled by PJM, a regional
transmission organization that ensures both the r­ eliability and the security of the bulk electric power system.
In 2011, PJM partnered with S
­ iemens
to launch the Advanced Control Center, the world’s most advanced energy
management system and the only
20 Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015
one in North America to employ a
“dual primary” control center configuration. Two geographically dispersed
centers are capable of operating the
grid independently or combined as a
single control center to create an unmatched degree of reliability. The Advanced Control Center has already
proven itself through many challenges, including a record-breaking hurricane in 2012.
“The Advanced Control Center is
probably the most sophisticated in
the world,” says PJM President and
Chief Executive Officer Terry Boston.
“Since it was launched, we have not
had a single outage of the main control function … and we’ve had some
weather extremes.”
An Energy Master Plan
In addition to being the year that
the Advanced Control Center was
launched, 2011 also was the year that
New Jersey released the final version
of its Energy Master Plan. The ambitious, 138-page document details a vision for the use, management, and
development of energy in the state. It
also builds upon Governor Chris
Christie’s efforts to make New Jersey,
which has been nicknamed of “the
Garden State” since the late 1800s, the
largest and fastest-growing solar energy market in the USA.
“This final adopted Energy Master Plan
demonstrates the administration’s
firm commitment to change the way
energy is produced, distributed and
used as part of our broader emphasis
on driving the development of cleaner and renewable sources of energy to
spur business and economic growth
throughout the Garden State,” Christie
noted in a statement that accompanied the announcement of the plan.
Just two years after the Energy Master
Plan was announced, the state marked
Photos: Agnes Thor, PJM
The Advanced Control Center: an unmatched degree of reliability.
a significant milestone in surpassing
1 gigawatt of installed solar capacity.
The state has more than 20,000 solar
projects on homes, business and
government facilities, as well as on
underused land such as landfills and
brownfields.
New Jersey has adopted a renewable
portfolio standard requiring that
at least 22.5 percent of net electricity
sales come from renewable energy
resources by 2021, with specific solar
and offshore wind requirements.
The state is on track to meet that requirement, and Terry Boston points
out that New Jersey’s renewable portfolio standard is part of a larger trend
among states. He notes that 10 of the
13 states that PJM serves have renewable portfolio requirements or goals.
“Renewables are here to stay,” Boston says confidently. “We currently
have 6,500 megawatts of wind attached to the PJM system and about
2,000 megawatts of solar, most of
which is in New Jersey.”
Infrastructure for Tomorrow
Boston notes that the increased share
of renewables in New Jersey and the
rest of the PJM network highlights the
need for technologies that can help
rapidly balance energy generation and
loads. “On a partly cloudy day, you’ll
see the solar loads swing by 90 percent
in a matter of seconds,” he points out.
In the lobby and outside the company’s Valley Forge, Pennsylvania headquarters sit several examples of how
the inherent variability of solar and
wind can be managed. PJM is also
evaluating the use of electric and
plug-in hybrid vehicles to store energy, for example. Boston explains
that off-peak electricity from the grid
could charge the vehicles, while the
vehicles could provide regulation
services to the grid in the daytime
hours. PJM also is evaluating the use
of thermal storage with a large electric water heater that responds to
grid needs when it receives pricing
and regulation signals from PJM
dispatchers.
In addition, a 2-megawatt array of
lithium-ion batteries on the PJM
campus provides regulation service
in the PJM market. A much larger
32-megawatt battery facility that sits
on a mountain in West Virginia went
into operation in 2011 in conjunction
with a 98-megawatt wind farm. The
battery facility is capable of changing
its output in less than one second in
response to PJM requests to balance
the grid.
Rather than expecting to find a single
solution to balancing energy loads,
Boston envisions several technologies
working together. “People say storage
is the holy grail or the silver bullet,”
Boston says, “I’m focused on silver
Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015 21
u
New Jersey in Numbers
Population of
New Jersey
Transmission and Regulation
Paterson
146,000
Connecting Cities with Power with HVDC
The Neptune HVDC project, completed
in 2007 for PowerBridge LLC, connects
the TSO Long Island Power Authority to
the competitive PJM market and provides power to a fast-growing load center on Long Island. The system is a
monopolar cable transmission link with
a DC voltage of 500 kilovolts and a continuous power transmission rating of
660 megawatts. The cable stretches
from First Energy Inc.’s substation in
Sayreville, New Jersey, to Uniondale,
New York-based LIPA’s Newbridge Road
substation in Levittown. S
­ iemens, as
the leader of the consortium for this
turnkey project, was responsible for the
installation of two converter stations.
The consortium partner Prysmian delivered and installed the cable package
including an 82-kilometer DC submarine
cable section from New Jersey to the
landfall at Jones Beach followed by a
23-kilometer DC land cable section to
the converter station with AC cable
connections from the two converter
stations to the grid.
Newark 278,000
Jersey City 247,000
Elizabeth 124,000
22.5%
Edison
103,000
Trenton
84,000
One of the highest
renewable
energy portfolio
standards
in the USA
Toms River
88,000
22 Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015
help ensure reliability across the region and foster economic growth.
A 2011 report commissioned by WIREs,
a nonprofit trade association that includes transmission providers, renewable resource developers and regional transmission organizations,
found that every US$1 billion of US
transmission investment supports approximately 13,000 full-time-equivalent
years of employment and US$2.4 billion in total economic activity.
The Susquehanna-Roseland power
line through Pennsylvania and New
Jersey is one of four high-visibility
projects in the PJM network that are
informally referred to as “backbone
projects.”
Boston notes that maintaining the
reliability of the grid while at the
same time making needed upgrades
is a challenge that often involves
working in the fall, spring and winter
to ensure that lines are in service
and available during the summer peak
season. “It’s kind of like maintaining
the engine on your airplane while
you’re flying,” he says only half-jokingly. “You must keep the lights on
during the venture.”
Boston points out that the project is
proceeding ahead of schedule and
will be operational by summer 2015
thanks to the work of PPL Electric
Utilities and PSEG and its designation as a priority project by the
White House and the Interagency
Rapid Response Team for Transmission which was created in 2009 to enable nine federal agencies to closely
coordinate their review of electric
transmission on federal lands to
streamline infrastructure permitting.
Managing Challenges
One of the biggest challenges that the
PJM network faced came on October
29, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy, the
largest Atlantic hurricane in recorded
history, roared ashore and disabled u
11th
The most
densely
populated
American
state
in terms of
population
47th
by area
Atlantic City
40,000
Technology # Projects
Solar 33,927
Biomass 19
Illustration: Mariela Bontempi
buckshot … the opportunities are endless in terms of smart control.”
For its infrastructure projects, PJM
uses a 15-year planning horizon that is
driven by the need to maintain reliability across PJM’s massive network.
Of particular importance to the Garden State is a project to upgrade a
transmission line that runs from
Pennsylvania to New Jersey from 230
to 500 kilovolts for its entire 72-kilometer length. The power line project
was mandated by PJM, and the Pennsylvania portion is being built by PPL
Electric Utilities while the New Jersey
portion is being built by PSEG, New
Jersey’s largest electric utility.
The New Jersey portion alone is expected to cost approximately US$790
million, including construction of a
new switching station and the expansion of another, while the Pennsylvania portion of the transmission line is
estimated to cost an additional US$630
million. The result, however, will
Fuel Cell 8
Wind 43
Total* 33,997
Total kW
1,456,569.7 kW
31,155.0 kW
1,505.0 kW
9,609.1 kW
1,498,838.8 kW
Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015 23
*Source: New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
http://www.njcleanenergy.com/renewable-energy/project-activity-reports/installation-summary-technology/installation-summary-technology
Solar
Transmission and Regulation
Lake Mic
higan
57
85
Biomass 197
Hydro 264
Other 268
Wood
Methane
n
ro
Hu
PJM
Renewable
Transmission
and Regulation
Energy Projects
L.
Ontario
Lake
Canada
ie
e Er
Lak
The Hudson HVDC Project
753
ILLINOIS
INDIANA
Atlantic
Ocean
USA
TENESSEE
NORTH
CAROLINA
2,734
Storage 3
Nonrenewable 43,885
Wind
PJM zones
Source: http://www.pjm.com/renewables/default.html
PJM in Numbers
Serves a population of
61 million
(16 % of USA)
Serves an area covering
630,447 km
2
Transmission lines:
100,674 km
Regional transmission
organization that
coordinates the movement
of wholesale electricity in all
or parts of 13 states and
the District of Columbia
Includes more than
Has approved
900 members
transmission additions
and upgrades totaling nearly
with a cumulative
generating capacity of
US$29 billion since 1999
183,604 MW
Illustration: Mariela Bontempi
Gulf of Mexico
more than 140 transmission lines and
tripped 40 generators offline.
New Jersey was the hardest-hit state
in the PJM network, with many outages resulting from flooded substations.
PJM was able to manage the grid successfully thanks to a number of features provided by the Advanced Control Center. Boston says that perhaps
the greatest advantage the Advanced
Control Center offers is its intelligent
alarm processing, which allows operators to prioritize tasks and better interpret patterns to more rapidly address potential weaknesses in the grid.
“When Sandy came through, the biggest problem we had was high voltage because the distribution systems
came out before the transmission,
so we had to take some lines out of service manually to hold the voltage
down in the system,” Boston says. “But
we got balance pretty quickly.”
He notes that while local distribution
systems were severely damaged by
the hurricane, the bulk electric system
remained stable throughout the storm.
In addition to Hurricane Sandy, the
Advanced Control Center managed record heat in 2011 that brought the
temperature to 42 degrees Celsius
(approximately 107 degrees Fahrenheit), in New Jersey, and in the same
year a storm known as a derecho that
was 322 kilometers wide and nearly
1,000 kilometers long, with peak winds
of 161 kilometers per hour.
New Jersey holds a special place in
the PJM network, and not just because
of its location and leadership in renewable energy. The company’s history
dates back to 1927, when the chief executive officers of three utilities in
New Jersey and Pennsylvania formed
The Hudson project, a back-to-back HVDC installation completed in consortium with Prysmian, for
the Hudson Transmission Partners, was completed
in summer 2013. This project connects power
from New Jersey to Manhattan through a 7.5-mile
(12-kilo­meter) underground and underwater cable.
It is capable of providing 660 megawatts of reliable
power to New York City, approximately 5 percent
of the city’s peak demand. In addition to the reinforcement of power supply, the project also provides New York City with access to renewable resources throughout the PJM network and includes
significant upgrades and reinforcements to the
transmission system in New Jersey.
the world’s first continuing power
pool. The idea was that by planning
transmission and optimizing dispatch, they could save significant
amounts of money and pass those
savings on to stockholders as well as
to consumers.
Today’s PJM network is substantially
larger and more complex, but the
fundamental advantages that make
collaboration appealing remain.
“That same economy of scale applies
today,” Boston says. “Dispatching
the system over a large service territory and having a larger diversity
of resources and weather provides
benefits to consumers.” p
Sameh Fahmy is a freelance technology
journalist based in Athens, Georgia, USA.
“Perhaps the greatest
advantage the
Advanced Control
Center offers is its
intelligent alarm
processing, which
allows operators
to prioritize tasks
and better interpret
patterns.”
Terry Boston
Living Energy · No. 12 | July 2015 25