Utilities are installing their own weather monitoring stations to more accurately predict power demand and avoid penalties for incorrect predictions. Industrial-grade weather stations from Texas Electronics provide precise data on conditions and seamlessly integrate into utility systems. This allows utilities like Austin Energy and Owatonna Public Utilities to optimize operations by monitoring demand drivers like temperature, wind and clouds at a local level. Utilities can then safely operate transmission lines at full capacity and accurately forecast gas needs to avoid pipeline penalties.

1. Utilities Jump into the Weather Business
Industrial-grade weather sensors automatically relay climactic conditions
into the grid nerve system to facilitate smart grid operations.
H
ow can you accurately determine a
community’s need for electrical
power if you don’t have precise data?
Facing higher penalties for
inaccurately predicting the usage of power and
gas, many local utilities are asking themselves
that very question.
With fluctuations in weather being
one of the more significant factors affecting
the amount of power a community demands,
an increasing number of utility companies
now opt to rely on their own industrial-grade
weather stations that monitor conditions on a
very local level, and they are saving
themselves significant money in the process.
Enabling this micro control are
modern industrial-grade stations that not only
monitor weather parameters to exacting
standards, but now act as sensors to provide
analog or digital input directly into a utility’s
business/operating system to provide greater
control.
“Accurate weather monitoring has a
direct economic impact,” affirms Dr. Luis Z.
Cabeza, a power systems consulting engineer
for Austin Energy, the nation’s eighth largest
community-owned electric utility. “It’s very
valuable to your engineering approach.”
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2. Weather takes on a bigger role
“On August 7, Electricity consumption
reached a new record for 2013 with 67,180
megawatts of load in the 5 p.m. hour.” So
reported an opening paragraph in the Dallas
Business Journal two days later, citing
figures from the Electric Reliability Council
of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT), the system
operator for the state’s bulk transmission
grid.
No matter the cause, global
warming’s impact on utility operations can
no longer be ignored. System operators need
to carefully and continuously monitor
climactic conditions in order to keep tight
rein on apportioning system demands.
“ERCOT allows dynamic ratings for
transmission lines, depending on
temperature,” continues Cabeza. “Before
2010 we only had to worry about zones. But
now we must focus on critical transmission
lines, congestion rights and nodal analysis to
determine power losses, and weather comes
into play.”
“If the weather reporting isn’t
accurate you can put the utility in a situation
where you run into high cost penalties on the
pipeline,” adds Ryan Deering, a substation
and generation supervisor for Owatonna
Public Utilities—a community-owned
supplier serving 11,300 electric, 10,000
natural gas and 9,400 water customers in
Minnesota. “On really cold days, for
example, the pipeline company may not let
us increase our gas volumes in real time
because the pipe is already full from other
customers increasing their gas loads. At that
point, we’d have to look at our gas supplier
for other options and help to stay balanced
on the pipeline for that day.”
Avoiding such financial hits
requires far more localized monitoring than
the nearest TV station or Weather.com can
provide.
“When clouds come, they block the
sun in that particular area of the city and the
difference in solar penetration shows up in
your generation demands,” notes Cabeza.
“Or we might notice that
in one part of the city that the temp dropped
down to 85. What happened? But you look
at your data from your own
weather station and realize there was an
isolated rain shower there. Things like that
help you understand what’s going on and even
help predict power demands.”
Higher risk requires higher quality
monitoring
Whether too hot or too cold, meteorological
micro analysis can only be achieved through
high quality industrial grade monitoring
stations. Covering all the parameters requires a
complement of sensors that monitor wind
speed, wind direction, temperature, barometric
pressure, humidity, rainfall and even solar
radiation. All must deliver unerring accuracy
and be durable enough to stand up to harsh
conditions without failing in the field.
“Weather station accuracy represents
an important piece of the process here,” says
Owatonna’s Deering. “We installed our first
weather station in the mid-eighties. Of course,
we now have upgraded to a modern station but
we continue to use the Texas Electronics
weather sensors because their units have been
very reliable.”
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3. Dallas-based Texas Electronics, Inc.
has been a pioneer and innovator in the field
of quality meteorological instrumentation
since 1956. The company offers individual
gauges or complete weather stations that
utilize high quality, research-grade sensors
protected by corrosion resistant enamel
coatings─all warranted to last three years
and all meeting National Weather Service
requirements.
“In an application like ours,
accuracy can’t be trusted to a low quality,
consumer-grade unit like you’d get from a
big box store,” adds Joe Green, a director at
Owatonna Public Utilities.
“Even knowing the exact wind
speed and direction is a big factor when we
order gas for the upcoming gas day”
continues Green. “Increased wind will suck
the heat out of homes, especially poorly
insulated homes faster and they burn more
gas in their furnaces to keep the house
warm. This is especially the case when the
wind is out of the north, so we must take
into consideration the wind and direction to
order the correct volumes ahead of time.”
“We used to feel comfortable
working with transmission line ratings based
on a temperature variance of five degrees
F,” says Cabeza, “but the goal is to be more
stringent in the future. We installed Texas
Electronics weather stations at six of our
substations to more closely monitor
conditions at each location. Additionally, we
are an ISO9000 certified company so our
work needs to be calibrated and certified
every year. We must maintain accurate
instrumentation.”
Seamless integration is vital
Aside from the high quality of data gathered,
industrial-grade sensors now allow seamless
integration into existing utility digital
control systems. Standard industry outputs
include 4-20 mA, but signal conditioners
allow interface to virtually all data
acquisition systems.
“Our weather station incorporates an
internal interface to automatically convert its
SCADA data to feed directly into the DNP3
protocol we use at our utility,” says Cabeza.
“The weather station plays into a
script in our SCADA master system,” explains
Deering. “The temperature and wind chill data
are gathered at our substation where a remote
transmitting unit brings that info back into the
headend. This feed goes into our internal
‘compute’ to help us figure how much gas we
need to order that day.”
Better data acquisition pays off
Tight monitoring of local weather conditions
benefits both utilities and customers.
“If you know that the temperature, and
hence demand, is not going to get too high,
then you can push more amps through the line
without worrying about things like line sag,”
says Cabeza. “Having the ability to use the full
capacity of the transmission lines benefits the
utility as well as the rate payers.”
“Keeping close tabs on weather
conditions helps us determine how much gas
we have to order each day,” says Deering.
“There are risks of expensive penalties from
the pipeline if your percentage of daily gas
orders are way off-order. We lessen that risk
with our weather sensors.”
“We also incorporate the Texas
Electronics weather station results into the
billing statements we mail to our customers,”
adds Green. “This allows consumers to see the
temperature difference between one year and
the next. It helps them understand whether the
price of gas went up, or if they simply used
more, thus reducing calls to our customer
service department with bill complaints.”
For more information contact Texas
Electronics, Inc.; 5529 Redfield Street; Dallas,
TX 75235; 800-424-5651; (214) 631-2490;
(214) 631-4218 Fax;
info@texaselectronics.com;
or visit www.texaselectronics.com.
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