TVA's synchronous condenser levels steel plant's arc-furnace voltage sags.

While anticipating the Nov. 19 report on the causes of the Aug. 14 Northeast blackout, electric transmission experts have continued searching for ways to make the nation’s transmission system "smarter" and less prone to breakdown. One promising solution is to use information technology to create a "self-healing" grid that responds to line problems in real time.

This kind of technology would give operators the means to control power flows for maximum efficiency. But the "smart grid" also may reduce the need for conventional construction solutions.

A report by the Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif., emphasizes the need to achieve digital control of the power delivery network and "heal" the grid with minimal operator intervention. Such smart grids also would include wide-area monitoring and control systems to give system operators greater ability to run the grid, says EPRI.

Retrofitting digital control technology to existing systems would be much less costly than grid expansion, says Lefteri Tsoukalas, head of the nuclear engineering department at Purdue University. He says the U.S. could add up to 30,000 miles of new transmission lines to its existing 157,000-mile system to improve reliability, but it would cost about $2 million per mile for new lines. "We will have to do more with less and that means do it smart," he says.

Suppliers in the market are cautious. Adoption of smart-grid technology will be "evolutionary," says Randy Schrieber, vice president of strategy at ABB Inc., Norwalk, Conn., which provides advanced static VAR (volt-ampere-reactive) compensation units that automatically regulate grid voltage. While utilities have shown more interest in smart products since 2000, "they are still reluctant to try technology that involves direct control of high-voltage power," he says.

More upbeat is Greg Yurek, president of American Superconductor Corp., Westborough, Mass., which makes advanced SUPERVAR condensers and storage units to provide real-time control of grid voltage. He says utility confidence in digital controls has risen over the past three years. His firm has just installed a prototype dynamic synchronous condenser at a Tennessee Valley Authority substation in Gallatin, Tenn., to control flicker caused by a steel plant’s electric-arc furnace. TVA has options for five more units.

Myles Godfrey, head of global transmission and distribution business for Acres International Ltd., Oakville, Ontario, claims smart-grid technology is "still in its infancy." At maturity, five to 10 years from now, it will slow development of new transmission, he says.