ABB Review Special Report - ABB - ABB Group

the past. An increasing number of customersoperate businesses today thatare sensitive to reliability and the qualityof service. It is therefore importantfor utilities to have the tools to systematicallyanalyze cost/performance tradeoffswithin the financial constraints imposedon them. Similarly, the benefits ofavailable funds should be maximized.This often implies changes to standards,guidelines and procedures.Interpreting such changes and developingnew optimization methods andstate-of-the-art software to assist utilitiesin meeting these challenges is whereABB has vast experience. In just the lastfive years, new methods for optimizingperformance costs have been developedthat allow the domain competence ofconsulting experts and software tools tobe integrated in a web-based data warehousingtool. These new methods let usfocus on the most cost-effective waysto obtain maximum performance for asystem and utilization of assets.The following two examples show howABB’s experience can be the key factorin creating optimal, cost-effectivesolutions for customers based on keyperformance indicators.Reuniting BerlinOn March 5, 1952, as a result of thepolitics of the time, the electrical supplysystem of Berlin was divided into twosections, one for the eastern and onefor the western zone. Now, five decadeslater, the two networks, like the twohalves of the city, are reunited, havingbeen incorporated in the German interconnectedgrid. For Berliner Kraft- undLicht (Bewag) AG, the utility responsiblefor running the network in thewestern half of the city, joint operationof the two networks posed certainproblems. Besides the obvious need forstandardization – different systemphilosophies had developed over theyears – it was also apparent that a conceptwas needed for the city’s electricitysupply in the longer term.Investigations were carried out to findan optimal concept for the reunited distributionnetworks of Berlin that tookall factors into account. Bewag andABB formed a joint planning group todevelop the approach. Its main objectivewas to make the two networksmore compatible so that the city wouldbe able to cope with future electricitydemand.One of the issues looked at especiallyclosely was the reliability of the downtownarea networks, and at ways toincrease it without making any basicchanges to the supply concept. In particular,it was necessary to find out if,and what, additional investments mightbe required to achieve the goal ofhigher reliability.With the help of advanced mathematicalmodeling of the system componentsand special programs for the calculations,certain system components wereloaded beyond their conventional nominalpower. This showed which componentscould be utilized more economically.As a result of this study, Bewagdecided to increase the capacity oftransformers and underground cablesused in the networks.Utility gets resultsThe second example involves an electricalutility company providing powerto several regions in Europe. In order tobenchmark some of their guidelines,practices and power quality indexes,they wanted a comparison with utilitiesin Germany and the United States thatwould identify ‘best practices’. To thisend, studies were carried out in theareas of maintenance, transmission anddistribution planning, and engineeringand operations.In addition to providing a benchmarkfor these four areas, ABB undertookreliability calculations for the utility’spower distribution system. This wasdone to obtain a baseline for its distributiondesign practices at the time, aswell as an on-site diagnosis of certainfacilities.Distribution transformer density data, imported from a utility’s transformer load managementprogram and used in load forecastingABB found differences between the utility’spractices and typical practices inGermany and the USA, especially in themaintenance area. It was seen that achange in procedures could result in30Special ReportABB Review