CON EDISON
Con Edison: Estimating Power Loads wit h
Progress® Object Store®
CASE STUDY
CHALLENGE
As the fifth largest utility in the
U.S., Con Edison must manage
its distribution network to ensure
that it has sufficient capacity to
meet highly variable demands.
SOLUTION
Con Edison developed a Remote
Monitoring Estimator (RME)
application built on top of
Progress® ObjectStore®.
WHY PROGRESS® SOFTWARE
ObjectStore helps ensure that
the data to be used for load
flow calculations is as accurate
and up-to-date as possible.
BENEFIT
Con Edison now has a
comprehensive, real-time
understanding of how the
network is performing; it has
the ability to respond quickly
to changing circumstances to
ensure system integrity and
maintain a high level of service
reliability for its customers.
Electricity is one of the things we have come to take for granted. But, when you are a
public utility company and responsible for providing electricity, there is nothing you
can take for granted. Demand for energy never ceases and a public utility is on
call—24 hours a day, seven days a week—to ensure that power is available for its
customers. Only with a power outage does our fundamental dependence on the
availability of power become noteworthy.
When Consolidated Edison of New York (Con Edison) needed to monitor the operation
of its power distribution system to ensure it was meeting the demands of its customer
base, it faced some real challenges. Electrical service delivery standards are important
to Con Edison since its rate structure provides both incentives for good execution and
penalties for poor performance. The fifth largest utility in the U.S. must manage its
distribution network to ensure that it has sufficient capacity to meet highly variable
demands. And for a key element in that operation Con Edison turned to
Progress ObjectStore.
THE ENVIRONMENT
Con Edison services millions of customers in New York City’s five boroughs, as well
as Westchester County—a territory that encompasses more than six hundred square
miles and 8.7 million people. The Con Edison electrical grid includes approximately
27,000 km of primary distribution cables, supplying 24,000 network transformers in
63 secondary networks. Managing such an extensive operation requires a
comprehensive, up-to-the-minute understanding of how the network is performing. It
also requires the ability to respond quickly to changing circumstances in order to
insure system integrity and maintain the high level of service reliability their customers
have come to expect.
Con Edison’s 63 secondary networks deliver power to specific geographies within its
service territory. By some estimates Con Edison has half the electrical distribution
networks in the world. Each network is supplied by high voltage “feeders” coming
from local substations. Transformers connected to these feeders are dispersed
throughout the networks to support the low voltage grid from which many of their
customers draw their power.
The performance of the power feeds, transformers, and cabling are critical operational factors
in determining how the network is performing under all operating conditions and where
problems may occur. Sensors installed on each of the 24,000 network transformers help
Con Edison manage their complex secondary networks. These sensors provide important,
up-to-date load and status information that is collected at the network level and downloaded to
Con Edison regional headquarters for use in operating the network systems. This telemetry
data feeds a variety of applications that help Con Edison manage their networks and provide
customers with extremely reliable electric service.
Remote Monitoring Estimation and Load Flow Calculation at Con Edison
DYNAMIC ESTIMATION WITH OBJECTSTORE
Key to leveraging the data gathered from these thousands of sensors is an estimating
application powered by Progress. For a variety of reasons related to their underground
locations, the transformer sensors can fail to issue a legitimate reading for a particular
transformer, either failing to report or providing incorrect data.
Accurate, timely readings are critical to Con Edison’s electric “load flow” application. Results
of load flow calculations guide a utility in understanding how the network is currently
operating and how the network will supply the future peak demand expected, given the variety
of factors that influence both. Load flow calculations are dynamic, near real-time
determinations and they require accurate, timely information.
To ensure that Con Edison has the most accurate data available to support its load flow
application engine, it developed a Remote Monitoring Estimator (RME) application that
was built on top of ObjectStore. The ObjectStore solution reviews the telemetry data from
the sensor units collected at each network collection point to determine if any readings
are inaccurate or missing. The RME application replaces the missing or bad data with an
estimate that it derives from calculations executed in ObjectStore.
Thus, ObjectStore helps Con Edison ensure that the data to be used for load flow
calculations is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. The result is an accurate picture of
the network’s status under current and projected operating conditions.
CON EDISON DELIVERS WITH THE HELP OF PROGRESS OBJECTSTORE
Con Edison requires timely and accurate information. ObjectStore helps it deliver.
> ObjectStore allows Con Edison to accommodate “dirty data.” Transformers operate in
difficult operating conditions and sensor readings are subject to interference that can
obstruct or distort the data readings. With ObjectStore, Con Edison can better
accommodate the vagaries of these readings to deliver an accurate portrayal of what
is happening in the network.
> Transformer data is continuously picked up by specialized applications from each
network collection point. This represents a constant refresh of the data that must be
delivered to the load flow calculation application. With the ObjectStore-powered
Remote Estimation Engine, the utility is able to quickly validate/correct the incoming
data. In effect, ObjectStore acts as a front end processor that delivers the timely data
needed for the load flow analysis.
> The sensor data gathered and analyzed by ObjectStore is also used by Con Edison
engineers to support reinforcement and maintenance decisions. Engineers can use
historical transformer load data from the previous electrical peak season as a basis for
their load flow analysis to predict how the system will perform during the next peak
period and whether reinforcement will be required.
ABOUT PROGRESS SOFTWARE
Progress Software Corporation
(Nasdaq: PRGS) provides application
infrastructure software for the
development, deployment, integration
and management of business
applications. Our goal is to maximize
the benefits of information technology
while minimizing its complexity and
total cost of ownership.
www.progress.com
Worldwide Headquarters
Progress Software Corporation, 14 Oak Park, Bedford, MA 01730 USA
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