The Rise of Smart Circuits

Smart grid deployments come in many different forms across the United States and around the globe. Avista is addressing distribution reliability and energy efficiency because these are important issues for state governments and consumers in its operational region, the Pacific Northwest. System and customer efficiencies are still sufficient to manage peak demand. In addition, Washington state has enacted a renewable portfolio mandate, requiring utilities to meet renewable energy and conservation standards.

Transmission & Distribution World magazine's December issue features an article on how Avista is deploying distribution automation to reduce system losses and improve reliability. Like most utilities, Avista has to be notified of an outage either by a customer call-in or from a substation breaker alarm before dispatchers can begin identifying outage areas. It takes time to identify the full scope of problems, and fault locations may not be known until line patrols are conducted. As part of Avista's smart circuits deployments, a distribution management system (DMS) will take real-time load and fault information from intelligent end devices to identify the faulted sections of a line when a circuit breaker locks open.

Avista is also gaining system efficiencies by actively managing the reactive power flows and voltage regulator settings on its distribution circuits. Another important aspect of Avista's smart circuits project is its approach to interoperability, which the article also addresses.

The feature, contributed by Josh DiLuciano, smart grid project manager for Avista Utilities, also covers new standards, network topology, new resources, and best practices. Avista's smart circuits project is scheduled for completion in 2012 with the final distribution upgrades and DMS being brought on-line.