GIS Integrated Automation of a Near Real-Time Power-Flow Service for Electrical Grids

Electrical grid's modernization and the need for sustainable sources of energy lead to changes in physical infrastructure and subsequent operations of the grid, such as penetration of renewables and local power generation from them. There is a shift in paradigm from remotely concentrated generation toward distributed generations that are local to the loads. To meet the objective of sustainability, the local generations must include renewable energy conversions. This requires power-flow management of power variability arising from the spatial and temporal characteristics of the renewables like solar energy. Such management must require least human intervention, and it is achievable through fast and reliable automations. This paper presents geographic information system integrated automation of a noniterative power-flow method known as holomorphic embedded power flow (HEPF), thereby providing local grids the ability to manage themselves. Since HEPF reliably guarantees the solution and reaches it very fast through constructing the solution, it is an ideal candidate for near real-time updates of the electrical states of a power system. The role of the HEPF as a key enabler for the services of a power-flow manager, that performs optimizations for a cluster of buildings, is then illustrated.