Design for grid service-based future power system control centers

Abstract

The power system control center has evolved over the years into a complex communication, computation, and control system. The traditional control center, called EMS, was built to automate control functions in electric utilities. With the expansion and interconnection of power systems and the advent of electric power deregulation, electric utility organizations require the integration of control functions with business processes beyond corporate boundaries. The requirement needs the support of the new generation control centers, which should be more decentralized, integrated, flexible and open. Grid technology offers dependable, consistent, and pervasive access to resources irrespective of their different physical locations or heterogeneity, using open standard data formats and transport protocols. It has been utilized to design the future distributed power system control centers, to achieve desired features of comprehensive decentralization, integration, flexibility and openness. This paper gives a brief introduction of the current control centers, and analyzes the challenges it is being confronted with. A design for the grid service-based future control centers is discussed. The suggestions for the further research are also included. (6 pages)