Infrastructure Adequacy Structural capacity to verify that electricity distribution is adequate and there is redundancy.
Structural capacity to verify that electricity distribution is adequate and there is redundancy.
The electric power distribution system must be able to supply all the electric power demand for the different load levels and improving system redundancy is an important enhancement to increase reliability.
Electrical power supply and distribution infrastructure design is conceived to minimize impact due to contingencies, to comply with service standards(quality and continuity) and to renew supply and distribution system elements that take into account the risk of impact on service continuity. In this way, distribution network design criteria exist that considers the quality of the supply and distribution of electrical energy. Hence, planning and operation of the infrastructure adopts criteria to prevent risk of service interruption and unintended variations in quality (voltage, frequency, capacity, and others).
In planning, the utilities must use the criterion called N-1, that is, the electricity supply must be maintained even if 1 equipment fails in the system, for some customers with high criticality, it is possible to use N-2 criteria. In the operation, with communication and metering technologies, reconfiguration, and islanding schemes of Distributed Generation ( DG ) are possible methods that can help implement differentiated reliability.
For new assets, protocols exist to ensure the quality of electricity when integrating the new infrastructure to the system. Sometimes these new assets require for planned interruptions, if so, it is important that customers are notified in advance to minimize the impact of power outages.
Smart meters can also provide certain quality measurements and control features, without an excessive price increase for customers, such as the capabilities of voltage quality monitoring.