Electric Energy T&D - Index

Electric Energy T&D - EE Magazine March / April 2009 - Index

Smart Grid Takes Flight at Crow Wing Power
How a project to wirelessly connect rural substations helped one co-op deliver 2-way advanced meter
reading and discover a shared utility network, laying the foundation for future smart grid applications
By Todd O’Hotto, IT Manager | Crow Wing Power
Crow Wing Power, an electric cooperative
serving 36,000 members in rural north central
Minnesota, recently reached the one-year
mark in a project implementing a 700 MHz
licensed wireless broadband communication
network from Arcadian Networks. A project
that began with a simple push to update
infrastructure to support substation
automation communications, advanced
metering, and energy efficiency programs,
has grown into a smart grid movement among
rural electric co-ops belonging to Great
River Energy. By leveraging infrastructure
already deployed by Great River Energy,
Crow Wing Power has been able to address
current challenges and move its two-way
infrastructure communications technologies
to the forefront of smart grid readiness.
figure 1: Arcadian Networks’ “plug & play” equipment
was installed quickly to link 5 Crow Wing substations
Communications Challenges
Crow Wing Power faces obstacles familiar
to many rural electric co-ops throughout the
United States. In fact, statistically, Crow
Wing Power is the typical rural electric coop,
serving approximately seven customers
per line of power, which is the national
average, according to the National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
With most residents of Minnesota’s eleventhfastest
growing county depending on them
for reliable power, Crow Wing Power must
deliver electricity – and communicate – with
an infrastructure built on technologies put in
place more than seven decades ago, when
the co-op was formed following the Rural
Electrification Act of 1936.
The climate and terrain in the north central
region of Minnesota place further demands
on Crow Wing Power. Communications to
substations must be reliable, whether during
a February blizzard or an August scorcher.
Crow Wing Power delivers power across more
than 4,700 miles of lines.
While connectivity from substations to homes
was provided by a Landis+Gyr two-way
advanced metering solution, ensuring twoway
communications from those substations
back to the co-op control room remained an
obstacle in 007.
The Search for a Solution
Long interested in improving its load control
efforts, Crow Wing Power’s leadership began
to realize that the road to fulfilling their
smart grid aspirations lay in addressing
communications to their substations in the
field. The project began in earnest in August
007, as Crow Wing Power explored ways to
expand on its two-way advanced metering
programs while updating communications
with its rural substations. Major concerns
8 I March-April 2009 Issue
figure 2: Crow Wing County is located in the scenic, but
sometimes challenging, terrain of central Minnesota.
were security and reliability in distribution
substation system communications. Early on,
they had investigated a variety of alternative
communications technologies, including a
microwave system.
An Intriguing Offer
As the search continued, however, Crow
Wing’s power supplier (Great River Energy)
approached the utility with an innovative
proposition -- a solution already in use at
other Great River Energy members, including
Connexus, Todd-Wadena, and Agralite Electric.
The proposal would allow Crow Wing Power to
join a community of utility users deploying a
700 MHz licensed wireless communications
network. Great River Energy, already using
the network in their communications, would
allow Crow Wing Power to piggyback onto
its equipment. Crow Wing Power readily
welcomed the concept for several reasons.
In addition to the savings on equipment
and maintenance costs, they could expect
a further benefit – avoiding the expense