GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Asian Regions Launch a Surge of 'Smart' Power Projects

Dennis McCafferty | Date: 12-07-10 | Comments

The biggest continent in the world wants to put a cap on outages and energy waste through a number of ongoing IT efforts with IBM.

With about 4 billion residents, Asia is the world's most-populated continent. The glut of people living there puts a strain on local power grids. Fortunately, Asian officials and IBM are working together on multiple fronts to make better use of local power resources. Here are four such efforts of note:

● IBM and Shanghai Electric Power have launched an "Integrated Distribution Outage Planner" (IDOP) system to minimize outages in the region. With Shanghai generating more than 20 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity every year, the region is seeking to reduce outages that can jeopardize network reliability and service quality. The grid system upgrade is especially critical for Shanghai Power, given that it's the top local supplier of electricity. The city is hosting World Expo 2010.

The Web-based, analytics-driven system allows the power grid to draw data and conduct analysis about indicators that are possibly contributing to the problems. One often-cited factor is the constant need for scheduled maintenance. Since maintenance is often performed manually, power loss can occur at a frequent rate. Shanghai Power, for example, performs 5,000 to 6,000 maintenance tasks and tests every month. IDOP is working to automate maintenance management so that outage risk is minimized.

To this end, IDOP can integrate data from relevant departments and manage the schedule of different types of needed tasks that can cause outages. This also helps reduce the amount of time spent on monthly coordination of scheduled power outages from half a month to just a few days. China's energy demand is expected to grow at about 5.5 percent per year through 2020, and the Chinese government has allocated the equivalent of $7.3 billion in U.S. dollars to reform its energy systems.

● Also in China, IBM has launched its first worldwide Energy and Utilities Solutions Lab in Beijing. The lab will combine analytics and expertise to help local utility companies improve energy delivery and optimize performance. The lab will focus on the development of distribution-network solutions to improve decision-making for energy savings, loss reduction and network reliability. This involves the building of an intelligent WebSphere-based IT platform to conduct analysis of possible factors causing excessive energy consumption and pinpoint effective strategies to reduce this waste. The lab effort also involves the launch of a wind and solar monitoring and power grid integration system that will monitor and control distributed wind and solar energy in a centralized way. The system will take advantage of increased weather and other data forecasting tools so that, for example, system operators can adjust the amount of wind energy supplied in case of a change in wind energy output.

● In South Korea, IBM is helping develop the nation's first renewable energy management system. With the resulting smart grid, the South Korean region is seeking greater energy security, sustained economic growth and reduced environmental impact. The project is intended to benefit IT companies in the country, as well as its steel, chemical and other industrial plants. The smart grid will allow for reduction of electricity using natural resources such as wind and solar, while being securely interconnected with existing power networks. It will take advantage of IBM business analytics software to make better, more informed decisions on power generation based on prior energy usage patterns. This will allow for more reliable forecasts of electricity demand to ensure the efficient and accurate production of power.

● A more predictive power grid is being established in India, as IBM researchers are working with local officials and students to install Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) on power grids. PMUs are new sensors that can collect data about supply and demand that can be analyzed to enable a more efficient system. IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur are working with IBM on the project, seeking to reduce stress on the grids through improved sensing, control and communications. IIT Kharagpur will be primarily involved in developing the new power system applications and software systems for the project. IIT Madras will focus on the networking architecture to ensure that the data collected from different locations is appropriately transmitted to one location. The demand for electricity in India is expected to increase 6.0 percent a year though the year 2030.