Dive Brief:
- Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) has developed its own conservation voltage reduction (CVR) software to help the utility fine-tune the voltage leaving its substations and coming on to the distribution grid.
- The software will enable BGE to reduce voltage by using a capacitor bank-based control system that will ensure voltage is at the minimum level required across BGE's feeders. The voltage will then be checked when it reaches the customer's smart meter.
- BGE's efforts are designed to help meet Maryland's state efficiency target of 15% energy savings by 2015.
Dive Insight:
BGE's new initiative takes demand response and load reduction beyond the smart meter. Though the software has so far been piloted on only six feeders, it will be installed on 14 by year's end before it is eventually rolled out over the utility's entire service area.
"With approval, Baltimore Gas and Electric's CVR deployment will rival the largest projects in the United States to modernize monitoring and control of voltage and reactive power,” said Ben Kellison, director of grid research at GTM Research. "Moving sensors and intelligence further into the grid will certainly become a greater asset with time as the growth of distributed solar in BGE's territory will alter feeder characteristics, requiring more granular modeling and control of each phase on a feeder."