The voltage/var problems associated with serving urban areas that import large shares of power during peak load hours have slowly been gaining recognition by the international electric power community. Affected urban areas have often been geographically distant; hence, they may not have been aware of similar problems faced by other areas and thought their situation [...]

There is a global trend toward adding dynamic reactive devices to serve urban load areas. A number of interrelated factors contribute to this increasing use of dynamic reactive devices, such as the following: > Many urban areas are experiencing a growth in load levels. These urban areas also see less generation close to the load [...]

“As technology gets smarter, we’ll have demand response; we’ll have control of the load. And controlling the load … is the end game in the smart grid,” said KEMA Regional Director Kevin Sullivan at DistribuTECH 2012.

Distributed generation (DG) is being implemented across the nation’s electric grid in ever-expanding ways. During the last few years alone, we have seen major increases in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) DG. Nearly 1 GW of installed PV capacity is now distributed across the country’s electric grid. The Solar Energy Industries Association reported that grid-installed PV capacity [...]

For decades, the energy market for electricity was represented with an inelastic demand curve. As this market adapts for smart grid operations and mechanisms develop for expanding consumer groups to change their consumption patterns, the market’s inelastic longevity wanes, and we must examine potential scenarios for effects on market prices.