by Shane Henson — April 17, 2013—Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), a utility and energy delivery company serving millions of customer throughout the United States, recently finished digital upgrades to a substation that will help improve reliability for approximately 28,000 ComEd customers on the South Side of Chicago.
The Wallace “smart substation,” located in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, uses state-of-the-art technology to reduce the frequency and duration of power outages. It improves ComEd’s ability to monitor the electrical system and respond quickly to potential issues, rather than reacting to problems after they occur, says ComEd. The Wallace smart substation is equipped with sensors that can help prevent power outages by analyzing up to 1,500 pieces of information every two seconds and can alert ComEd system operators when, or even before, problems arise.
The Wallace facility is the first substation to be transformed into a smart substation under the Smart Grid law enacted by the Illinois General Assembly in 2011. ComEd says it plans to transform 10 substations into smart substations over the next five years.
Features of the facility include:
- An “Intelligent Substation Dashboard” that provides information on the overall health of the substation components and communicates directly to ComEd when something is wrong;
- Digital technology that makes it easier for ComEd to identify fault locations so that crews can be sent more quickly and directly to problem areas; and
- Technology that will help both customers and ComEd maximize the value of smart meters. Smart substations receive voltage data from the meters, which enables ComEd to better monitor, manage and respond to system issues. This connectivity also allows ComEd to view historical trends related to energy use and system performance, which will help the company plan for and manage during periods of extreme heat.
