New Oracle system offers snapshot views of grid activity

Oracle Utilities has extended its smart-grid capabilities with the release of Oracles Utilities Network Management System 1.11, which offers new features to help electricity companies improve distribution grid management.

The new offering enables utilities to get a real-time view of grid activity to better align electricity generation with demand. Its modeling and analysis features help electricity providers understand potential outcomes under multiple possible conditions, including storms, extreme temperatures and fluctuations in commercial and consumer usage. That understanding, in turn, can help utilities improve contingency plans to maintain continuous operations through events that previously resulted in outages.

The new modeling helps:

• Analyze the effects of customer loads — electric vehicle (EV) recharging, for example — in different locations and identify where off-peak recharging is needed due to grid capacity constraints.
• Incorporate into the grid electricity from renewable resources like solar roofs and backyard windmills, allowing utilities to use local generation to meet renewable resource targets. Using power from multiple sources could help utilities improve demand management and lessens the likelihood of disruptions.
• Use stored electricity as another source of energy.

“Around the world, customers and utilities are choosing new ways to use, generate and store electricity,” said Brad Williams, vice president of industry strategy at Oracle Utilities. “Incorporating these new technologies into a real-time model of the grid is vital to utilities’ ability to manage network activity.”