Network Readiness
The uptake of electrical demand will create unprecedented levels of demand growth, and this provides both challenges and opportunities. Perception Consulting is here to help prepare your company for the energy transition. In areas such as network design, LV modelling, load forecasting or flexibility services we help to uncover clear and no-nonsense steps to prepare for the often-dynamic future.
Network Design Architecture – Peer Review
It is the way your network assets and services are structured to serve the needs of energy consumers. Contained in formal documentation; such as design and material standards and informally in ‘common practice’, network architecture is the way your company has agreed to build and manage your network. Of course, this changes with time, but with long life assets, and gradual renewal, the network architecture of today is the network of tomorrow.
A peer review or audit of your network architecture will help to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your future network to future demand increases. It will give you assurance of things that are right and bring clarity and articulation to areas that could improve. Cost/benefit analysis will identify the low hanging fruit and provide engineers and managers with the confidence to action effective steps to network readiness.
For example, a peer review could cover areas such as
fuse size and type selection,
designer capacity allocation
distribution transformer design and capacities
cable & line size allocation
settings applied to LV modelling software.
LV backfeeding rules and capacity allocation
A peer review of one EDB’s network helped them to make informed changes to their design standards. This EDB was able to prepare for high levels of EV uptake and normal network growth without significantly increasing the cost.
Long Team Load Forecasting
A load forecast forms the base for all serious planning. For long term forecasts the main questions often are: how long and how much. Answering these questions helps to put ‘flesh on the bones’ of an otherwise loosely defined problem. It is a fact that long term forecasts change with time, as more information becomes available. However, simply putting upper boundaries on the demand size and timing can be invaluable.
Perception Consulting can help with putting numbers to your forecasts. What is the impact of EV demand on the residential network? How fast could it come? What are the uptake forecasts? What is the impact the electrification of industrial process heat?
Design Capacity
When designing expansions to the network, or renewing old assets, designers will rely on estimates of the expected maximum demand. These demand estimates often take into account the diversity of many convergent loads or after diversity maximum demand (ADMD). The ADMD of a network sets the capacity allocation in the design and being often conservative, allows for some future growth.
Perception Consulting can help your company take control of capacity allocation. What level of demand growth will be accounted for? How does this relate to EV uptake? How is LV back-feeding considered? What is the true ADMD of residential consumers today? What about ADMD estimates for groups of light commercial consumers?