News release from Burns & McDonnell:

Burns & McDonnell dedicates new Smart Grid Laboratory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Burns & McDonnell has significantly expanded and upgraded its Smart Grid Laboratory as a result of a move into a new larger testing and development facility equipped with more than $1 million in state-of-the-art diagnostics and testing equipment. The new facility was formally dedicated during a Jan. 27 open house for employee-owners and clients. The new testing facility is now open and available for the exclusive use of Burns & McDonnell clients.

Located in a 600-square-foot space within the Burns & McDonnell World Headquarters, the lab incorporates the technologies clients are using to modernize the power grid. These include:

• IEC 61850 - GOOSE, MMS, and Sampled Values messaging for both control and process bus implementations
• DNP 3.0
• Protective relaying over packet networks
• Network technologies including SONET, Ethernet, IP, and MPLS
• Fiber and wireless communications technologies
• Substation automation logic controllers
• SCADA Remote Terminals
• Data Concentrators
• Fault Recorders
• Metering equipment measuring power quality and harmonics
• GPS and IEEE 1588 time synchronization.

The laboratory is intended to demonstrate how advanced information technologies can be integrated with power delivery equipment as the industry moves toward highly automated, "self-healing" distribution systems. The lab allows Burns & McDonnell engineers to work with clients to configure and test solutions during design and installation, therefore improving project success and speed of deployment.

The Burns & McDonnell Smart Grid Laboratory was first built in 2007 as testing facility for select clients who were interested in demonstrating interoperability of software, two-way communications equipment and other automation equipment in preparation for deployments of Smart Grid projects. In addition to the latest technologies and devices, the lab is capable of simulating two complete substations and varying power conditions. It has the equipment many utilities have been deploying, enabling testing of interoperability between multiple vendors and vintages of equipment.

Equipment and systems in the lab can test advanced substation and distribution feeder automation using IEC 61850 and DNP 3.0 testing applications between multiple vendors and relay types. It can also stage demonstrations of high speed tripping using GOOSE messaging, HMI interoperability, substation visualization and automation systems. Communications with deployment of Ethernet, IP, and MPLS technology can focus on a converged networking platform for security, automation and protection.

Another issue facing Smart Grid deployment is interoperability of legacy and advanced equipment. By demonstrating how legacy and advanced equipment can be integrated together in a unified design, investments in IED relaying incorporating the latest technologies can be justified. The lab has successfully demonstrated solutions such as tying IEC-61850 to the power line carrier and integrating advanced protection and control systems with legacy equipment using RS-232 and DNP interfaces.

Additionally, security tests can be implemented through firewalls and gateway devices with card access and physical security sharing a converged network. These tests have been helpful in showing how to integrate security into substation design.

Linear Fresnel Technology

News release from NREL:

Linear Fresnel Technology added to System Advisor Model's Capabilities

Now utilities can get detailed information on siting, performance and finances

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

 A promising Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology that uses a stationary receiver tube and an array of mirrors mounted near the ground can now be accessed within the System Advisor Model (SAM), which predicts annual energy production, hourly performance and return on investment.

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) teamed with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) of Palo Alto, Calif., to develop a new direct-steam-generation (DSG) linear Fresnel model in SAM.

CSP technologies use mirrors to reflect the sun toward a receiver that absorbs heat and transfers it to a working fluid. The hot liquid boils water to produce steam which drives a turbine, producing electricity. CSP is a utility-scale technology that is ideally suited for sunny climates such as the American southwest, arid sections of Spain, the Middle East, and North Africa.

The linear Fresnel technology uses an array of low-profile rotating mirrors that reflect sunlight to a fixed receiver. The mirrors and receivers are arranged in series, and each collector loop may be a kilometer or more in length. The low-profile reflector architecture enables high concentrated flows while reducing wind loads and structural cost.

"The first linear Fresnel design modeled in SAM is a direct-steam system", said NREL's Mike Wagner, who co-wrote the software program. Soon, a linear Fresnel system that uses high-temperature molten salt for storage will be added to the SAM repertoire.

"One of the drivers for starting with the direct-steam model is that it operates at temperatures that integrate well with existing coal-fired power plants," said Wagner, a mechanical engineer who is the project leader for power-tower research and development at NREL. "Utilities are very interested in how this technology performs compared to other CSP technologies."

NREL and Sandia National Laboratories developed SAM – originally called the Solar Advisor Model – and made it available to the public for the first time in 2008. SAM uses information on weather, system design, geography, cost and many other variables so utilities and their potential financiers can know in detail the best places to site the technologies, the amount of energy they produce, and the likely return on investment. The quasi-steady-state model in SAM allows users to investigate energy and fluid flows, operating temperatures, and pressure drops.

The new linear Fresnel tool in SAM is designed to provide useful information, including full performance and financial results in seconds per simulation, for utilities, policy-makers, and researchers on the linear Fresnel. The model was developed with involvement from the linear Fresnel industry to ensure realistic and useful output that applies to current and future technology solutions.

The new linear Fresnel model is available in the current SAM release at sam.nrel.gov/content/downloads.
The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI, www.epri.com) is an independent, nonprofit, organization which conducts research and development to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, health, safety and the environment, for the benefit of the public.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
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Grid Side Energy Efficiency Solution & Development Alliance

News release from Dominion:

Dominion and Lockheed Martin Announce Grid Side Energy Efficiency Solution and Development Alliance

RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today the availability of the EDGE(SM) Grid Side Efficiency solution for utilities.  EDGE is the first of several smart grid applications to be delivered through a joint marketing and development alliance between the two companies.

EDGE is a modular and adaptive conservation voltage management solution enabling utilities to deploy incremental grid-side energy management that requires no behavioral changes or purchases by end customers. The EDGE product suite provides significant and sustainable energy savings through integrated planning, execution and validation of grid side energy efficiency management.  

"EDGE marries two strong companies, Dominion and Lockheed Martin, to make it easy to bring and validate savings to utilities and their customers," said Mary C. Doswell, Dominion senior vice president-Alternative Energy Solutions. "Lockheed Martin brings its unique strengths as a system-of-systems integrator and developer of mission-critical command and control systems to make EDGE work seamlessly with a utility's existing distribution management software."

"Dominion, with its 100 years of electric distribution experience, has a keen knowledge of distribution network operations and has proven substantial energy savings in its conservation voltage management deployment," said Roger Flanagan, Director, Lockheed Martin Energy Solutions. "Together, we will provide a program-based solution that helps our utility customers better manage their grid and meet their energy efficiency targets."

Under the terms of the agreement, Dominion and Lockheed Martin will provide EDGE integration, software support and maintenance services to smart grid solutions partners, as well as end user utility customers.  In addition to working with Lockheed Martin, Dominion will also partner with BRIDGE Energy Group, Elster, Landis+Gyr, and Silver Spring Networks to bring these solutions to market.

"Each of our channel partners offers a unique set of products and services that are enhanced by our EDGE products," said Doswell. "We believe that these partnerships allow the product to be delivered to the utility customer seamlessly, either by integrating into their existing AMI and Distribution Smart Grid systems or as part of a full end-to-end solution for those deploying new Smart Grid applications."

Lockheed Martin and Dominion will be demonstrating EDGE in booth #217 at the DistribuTECH industry conference Jan. 24-26 in San Antonio, Texas.

Dominion, headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,000 megawatts of generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,300 miles of electric transmission lines.  Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. For more information about Dominion and its EDGE product, visit the company's website atwww.dom.com/edge.

Lockheed Martin Energy Solutions is part of the Corporation's Information Systems & Global Solutions-Civil business. IS&GS-Civil is responsible for a wide array of information technology systems and technical services in areas such as energy, health care, transportation, information and cyber security, citizen protection and space exploration. Lockheed Martin's smart grid solutions portfolio combines expertise in systems-of-systems integration, service oriented architectures, cyber security and mission-critical systems development with utility-specific functionality.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.