LF Energy and the pursuit of a modularised grid
In pursuit of creating an entirely new, modular, flexible and resilient power grid, LF Energy has launched its Digital Substation Automation Systems initiative.
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USA, California, San Francisco: In pursuit of creating an entirely new, modular, flexible and resilient power grid, LF Energy has launched its Digital Substation Automation Systems (DSAS) initiative.
The initiative looks to make interoperable substations that are both hardware and software agnostic, through the use of standardised, open-source software. Open-source refers to the source code of a certain program being made freely available for any user to edit, modify or improve it.
“What a digital substation does is it de-aggregates hardware and software, so you can use commodity hardware in order to run software, which decreases cost,” LF Energy Executive Director Shuli Goodman said. “Eventually, I think we will be able to abstract the hardware by creating software-defined hardware,” meaning that the hardware used in a substation will not matter, because all hardware will be compatible with the same, open-source, software, essentially creating plug-and-play substations.
The idea is to take generation assets like a PV system and think about their generation less from a control perspective and more from an orchestration perspective. This, as well as a reduced reliance on specific hardware and software for orchestration, is what Goodman sees as being key to a modular power grid.
These substations form crossroads of the grids, connecting grid users and grid voltage levels. By deploying open-source technology, digital substations can more efficiently adjust to changes in power supply and demand through expanded dynamic protection settings, better data management capabilities and adaptive automation functions.
Source: PV Magazine