National Grid (United States)

This paper explores the quantification and forecasting of reserve capacity from electric trains for participation in power system ancillary service markets. We first map train electricity consumption – traction and non-traction – to suitable reserve products, considering operational and regulatory constraints. Using historical data from the Danish railway operator DSB, we estimate the available flexibility for frequency containment reserves, focusing on controllable non-traction loads such as heating and air conditioning. To support market participation, we develop a low-resolution stochastic forecasting model based on conformal prediction, capable of estimating reserve availability for both day-ahead and hour-ahead horizons. Results show that a fleet of approximately 60 active trains can provide up to 10 MW of downward regulation and 1.5 MW of upward regulation from non-traction loads. Additionally, traction power from 25 trains can provide up to 5 MW of upward reserve in certain time periods. The findings demonstrate a viable pathway for integrating electric trains into flexibility markets, offering new revenue opportunities for operators and enhancing grid stability. • Demonstrates the feasibility of using electric trains to provide Frequency Containment Reserve. (FCR-D). • Introduces a forecasting framework using conformal prediction to meet regulatory P90 compliance. • Quantifies reserve capacity from real-world Danish railway data under operational constraints. (data specificity). • Shows minimal impact on schedules and comfort when participating in ancillary service markets. (market readiness). • Advances sector coupling by integrating railway operations into future energy flexibility systems.

This paper presents a physics-informed AI digital twin framework for real-time voltage monitoring and corrective control in distribution networks. By combining a neural network surrogate with AC power flow constraints, the system predicts bus voltages, detects violations, and automatically adjusts loads. Validation on the IEEE 33-bus system demonstrates high accuracy (MAE ≈ 0.070 pu) and rapid computation, enabling reliable and scalable grid operations.

A conceção de coberturas de grande vão em estádios contemporâneos constitui um problema multidisciplinar que exige uma conjugação equilibrada entre a expressão arquitetónica, a racionalidade estrutural e os critérios de desempenho ambiental. A complexidade deste tipo de projeto advém da necessidade de acomodar grandes massas de público, garantindo simultaneamente condições ótimas de visibilidade, uma identidade formal distintiva e uma resposta estrutural adequada perante condições de carga complexas.

India’s power system is facing growing challenges of ramping due to the increasing share of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources such as solar and wind. As net load profiles become steeper and more volatile, particularly during solar generation drops due to cloud cover and evening peaks, the ability to manage ramping, defined as the rate of change in generation output, has become critical in maintaining grid stability. A comprehensive analysis of state-wise ramping behaviour using hourly data for the year 2023 reveals that opposing ramp directions between states occurred in 30%-50% of time blocks, challenging the net national ramp and complicating system-level balancing. Despite these challenges, India possesses sufficient ramping capability, particularly from thermal generators, but lacks a mechanism to harmonize ramping efforts of generators across state as well as regions. The paper proposes a layered Security-Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) framework, which combines intrastate optimization with a national-level coupling layer to align state-level ramp vectors without disrupting existing contractual structures. The paper also includes the recommendations e.g. regulatory recognition of ramping, improved data transparency, and incentivization of flexible generation to support integration of renewables reliably in a cost-effective manner.

This paper highlights the experience of Indian power system operator in managing reactive power in transmission grid near renewable energy complex. States of Western, North-Western and Southern India have concentrated renewable generation complexes. In recent time, significant decrease in voltage control is observed during switching-in of 765kV shunt reactors at the nodes located in close proximity to Renewable Energy Source Generating (RES) plants. During these switching-in operations, the shape of voltage curve in the time series (observed by using phasor measurement unit) is also found different from other nodes directly connected with load or thermal generation. This paper aims to establish the relation between reduction of effective voltage control gained by switching-in a shunt reactor with the reactive resources installed at RES plants connected to same or surrounding nodes. Authors have also shared observations of real-time / live system trial operation that confirm the reactive resources installed at RES plants as a source of additional reactive power supply that is causing reduction of voltage control.

The evolution of substation automation is driven by the need for enhanced performance, interoperability, and flexibility in power distribution networks. This paper presents findings from comprehensive tests aimed at evaluating the performance and interoperability of various Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) within digital substations, including the concept of a Modular Merging Unit (MMU). The tests, conducted by Alliander and Grid to Great, utilized 30 sampled value streams generated by Current and Voltage Measurement Stand Alone Merging Units (CMS and VMSs) [1] processed by a centralized protection and control system (CPC). The primary goal was to assess the compatibility, integration, and usability of a MMU concept and traditional Merging Units (MUs) with centralized IEDs compared to conventional IEDs. The results demonstrate that digital solutions, including centralized protection and control systems and different merging units, are reliable and perform as well as conventional protection systems. Our tests confirm that digital solutions, prove to be a viable alternative to the conventional IED approach.

In Japan, smart meter deployment had begun around the early 2010’s, and the penetration rate will reach 100% as of the end of March 2025. It is a quite unique approach that the ministry has been leading and pushing the related discussion and the implementation. One utility company had launched the R&D activities about smart meter system focusing on the labor safety and the work efficiency at the early 2000’s. After the big earthquake in 2011, reflecting upon the rolling outage in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, the discussion about the deployment of smart meter was launched by the ministry, pushing 10 electric power utilities to launch the implementation of smart meter system and complete it within around 10 years. This article shows the history, characteristics and specifications of the smart meter system in Japan, and the current status and future prospects of the second-generation smart meter system, hereinafter “#2 System”.

In medium-voltage systems, busbars are often protected by directional short-circuit functions (ANSI 67) with reverse blocking, as differential protection is impractical due to the high number of outgoing bays. However, the reliability of such protection can be compromised when generators are connected. During near short-circuits, generators accelerate due to a power imbalance caused by the drop in terminal voltage, potentially altering current phase angles and reversing fault direction evaluation. This study assessed the reliability of directional busbar protection under these conditions. Laboratory tests were conducted with a DC machine emulating a turbine, a synchronous generator, and an RLC network to replicate realistic scenarios. The results revealed unexpected behaviour: rather than a reduction in active power during the voltage drop, the generator experienced a power surge of up to three times nominal power within the first 10–50 ms. This transient response caused initial rotor deceleration, followed by acceleration. The initial power spike, often overlooked in fault ride-through calculations, significantly impacts directional protection reliability. The findings highlight a real risk of protection failure for busbars and generator feeders. To mitigate this, alternative busbar protection systems or modifications to directional protection are recommended. A potential modification to improve reliability is also proposed.

With the continuous upgrading of industrial structure, the demand for electricity in high value-added industries represented by biopharmaceuticals continues to rise. Such enterprises have strict requirements for production environment control, and the ventilation and air-conditioning system has become a major source of energy consumption. Taking the cleanroom of a biopharmaceutical enterprise as the research object, this paper analyzes the coupling relationship between the environmental control system and the production process, constructs a multi-system synergistic optimization model integrating the production, energy storage and ventilation and air conditioning systems, and achieves coordinated control by considering the thermal and cleanliness inertia of the environmental regulation system. The results show that under the premise of meeting the environmental requirements of the cleanroom, coordinated scheduling of the power consumption behavior of each subsystem through the construction of the optimization model can effectively reduce the overall operating costs, improve the system operating efficiency, and provide a feasible path for the enterprise to save energy and reduce consumption.

Although the protection and control panels of different substations may look materially similar, it is not their construction, but the specific, precise, calculated and carefully selected information found inside those devices, that ensures safe control operations and selective protective trips. This information includes the firmware image of the devices and their configuration, including the published messages that they will send and receive from other devices. It also includes its protection settings, which determine how faults are detected and how COMTRADE and COMFEDE files are stored in the event of system failures. Maintaining current protection and control devices is much more likely to involve more work in terms of modifying the protection configuration, changing a configuration file, or updating a firmware image, than it is to perform secondary injection tests. The settings must be optimized based on real world feedback about a system disturbance, and it is necessary to change the configuration due to the addition of an adjacent bay or the replacement of the IED.The optimal functioning and management of the protection and control system can only be achieved when all this information is easily accessed and managed remotely with proper organization, traceability, and security to comply to regulations and increase operational efficiency. If the most important asset within PAC systems is their information, the main cost of their owners is the time spent defining, changing, and testing this information. This paper aims to conceive the usage of Device Management systems to be responsible for the secure remote connectivity with devices giving capabilities to reliably perform changes in firmware, configuration, setting, sending, and getting data which enables the capability to automate a series of activities, especially tests, reducing SAT tests or in-person maintenance.