The power industry is in a state of rapid change, and generation and distribution operations are changing alongside. The cost of renewables assets has reduced dramatically, making it common for modern power generators to harness a wide array of technologies to meet their needs.
Further complicating the industry is the fact that it’s not just power plants generating electricity for the grid these days. Solar panels and wind turbines on homes, farms, and on the property of industrial manufacturers are adding power to the grid, and grid operators must respond to ensure safety and consistency.
Emerson’s Rick Kephart, in a recent article in Power magazine, explores the many ways grid operation has become more dynamic. He theorizes that most of the new challenges facing power organizations can be better met when companies focus on data mobility. Rick explains,
“Today’s most forward-thinking power organizations are providing this data mobility by pursuing a boundless automation vision across their automation investments— leveraging seamlessly integrated systems to break down data silos. Seamless connectivity and data mobility empower operations teams to increase productivity and operational performance with fewer resources. This type of strategy is the foundation upon which the most successful companies will build the smart grids that will dominate the future of power.”
Effectively accessing data
The problem isn’t that organizations don’t have data—they do. However, much of that data is siloed, trapped in historians at the local level. Sometimes this happens due to bandwidth limitations, and other times it is because many control and reliability technologies are difficult to interconnect. In the worst cases, renewables control systems operate as black boxes, significantly limiting the data operators can access and keeping the rest behind OEM paywalls. But for teams to accomplish effective grid management, they need to bring all their data together where it can be consumed quickly and easily to generate insights. In fact,
“It has become increasingly necessary to find ways to move more control to the edge for improved grid management. With increased networking capability and improved remote monitoring functions, operators are using data in real-time to build models and machine learning applications they can use to help edge devices in remote locations make critical decisions.”
So how do they accomplish this? Not by waiting for personnel to manually collect data from many disparate sources, evaluate it, and then send it back. They need faster insights to be able to react to constant fluctuations in weather and markets if they want to be competitive. They are instead focusing on implementing highly integrated control technologies built on a boundless automation vision.
Integrated solutions like Emerson’s Ovation™ Green portfolio feature integrated industrial software built specifically for the energy industry using decades of deep expertise in the power industry. They break down silos of data by bringing data from all an organization’s assets together into a single pane of glass and displaying critical KPIs in a standardized, easy-to-consume format navigable and understandable by operators and technicians of any experience level.
Wide-ranging control, from anywhere
One situation in which the seamless integration of tools like those in the Ovation Green portfolio are particularly useful is to improve remote operations.
“Teams are focusing on installing control solutions at the edge that are not inscrutable black boxes. Instead, they are favoring controllers that send comprehensive data back to the remote operations center, where it can be rendered on intuitive visualizations using green energy asset management software. Armed with critical data from the field, a small group of expert personnel can monitor and control a wide array of sites across a vast geographical area.”
This flexibility for remote monitoring and operation is particularly useful for organizations that are struggling to find qualified workers. When they can easily access and understand the data, a small group of experts can manage a wide range of operations over very long distances without the need to travel to every site. Small teams can be more effective, and operations can improve to better meet ever-changing needs.
Rick shares even more detail and examples in the full article, including a view into how AI is likely to change the way power producers operate in coming years. Head over to Power to read all Rick’s insights.
