1. Smart Grid Developments in Alberta
Electricity and Alternative Energy Division
Department of Energy

2. Agenda What does Alberta Government want to see for Smart Grid?
What will Smart Grid do for Albertans?
What characteristics are needed?
Wrap-up

3. Provincial Energy Strategy
Vision:
“A global leader, recognized as a responsible world-class energy supplier, an energy technology champion, a sophisticated energy consumer, and solid environmental citizen.” (PES, p.20)
Desired outcomes:
clean energy production;
wise energy use; and
sustained economic prosperity.

4. Smart Grid: Expected Outcomes
reliability;
security;
efficiency;
environmentally supportive;
safety
economic.

5. Key Characteristics: self-healing; attack resistance; power quality;
asset optimization; and
enabler of markets and consumers’ participation.

6. Self-healing
System design allows elements to be automatically isolated and restored to service with minimal operator intervention.
Key features: avoidance of high risk situations, problem prediction and pre-emption, load forecasting, real-time data, protection and control.
Alberta’s transmission system has many of the Smart Grid’s self-healing attributes:
network topology;
automatic reclosing schemes;
zone protection schemes; and
substation automation.

7. Self-healing Distribution system not as advanced as transmission.
Distribution business case presents barrier.
Far reaching benefits:
reliability;
safety;
power quality;
the environment; and
security.

8. Resists attack
Designed to withstand cyber and physical attacks, and natural disasters
Bill 50 includes enforceable reliability standards
Substation Automation and other elements must be designed with security in mind.
Challenges with deployment:
Significant number of grid participants
Increased use of open systems
Increases operational readiness and grid reliability.
Attack deterrence.

9. Power quality
System supplies high quality power and mitigates power quality events.
Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) technologies mitigate poor power quality.
In Alberta, shunt compensation is commonly used to alleviate voltage sag.
Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and smart meters can be used to identify power quality issues.
Alberta has a sufficient number of PMUs to effectively monitor power quality issues.
Avoids losses incurred by poor power quality.

10. Asset optimization
Smart Grid must accommodate all types and sizes of generation.
Accommodation will require coordination between the industry, the regulator, the participant / consumer, and government.
In January, 2009, the Micro-generation Regulation was introduced to encourage and facilitate Albertans to produce their own environmentally friendly energy.

11. Asset optimization
Accommodation of all types and sizes of generations:
increases operational flexibility;
reduces vulnerability;
mitigates fuel dependency;
enables consumers participation;
encourages retail electricity markets;
allows operators to optimize grid assets; and
encourages small clean distributed sources.

12. Empower Consumers
The fully functioning Smart Grid will allow consumers to interact directly with electricity markets.
Consumers will become an integral part of the electric power system.
The government is moving ahead with the advanced metering initiative (AMI).

13. Empower Consumers What happens when you empower consumers?
increase operational flexibility;
Reduce fuel dependency;
encourage retail electricity markets;
provide customers with real-time information;
encourage small clean distributed sources;
allow customers to participate with demand response; and
Improve consumer education.

14. Wrap Up …
Alberta is already well on our way toward smart grid implementation – we’re not starting from zero.
New technologies are being considered and deployed prudently in Alberta.
GOA will continue to implement policy to support the development and deployment of “smart grid” technologies.