Reliability and economic planning for the energy grid

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DNV’s Power System Advisory (PSA) team has expertise in all aspects of reliability and economic planning for generation, transmission, and distribution. Our team develops customized work plans, scenario development, and comprehensive technical analyses utilizing unique software and analytical platforms to deliver the best value to its customers, including investor-owned utilities, municipalities, co-ops and government-owned utilities, and developers.

Our services include:

Energy market analysis
Energy Market Analysis service line supports in conducting analyses related to ISO/RTO markets. The primary objective of this service is to conduct congestion/curtailment studies to help developers assess the financial risk associated with interconnection of generation projects by forecasting the price differentials between the project point of interconnection and liquid trading hubs. Our experts also conduct grid level economic studies for transmission, storage and non-wires alternatives including evaluation of the net present value of costs and benefits.

Resource siting, development and integration
Resource Siting, Development and Integration service line helps developers who are looking to develop new greenfield projects by conducting the grid injection studies and providing the geo-spatial information to determine the feasibility of interconnection. Below are some of the key service offerings:

• Determining the amount of MW that can be interconnected at a substation or on a transmission line
• Prepare and submit Generation interconnection applications into various ISO/RTO/Utility regions
• Review the RTO/ISO/Utility Study reports
• Perform shadow system impact studies per ISO/RTO process to identify risks ahead of time
• Perform cost sharing analysis for network upgrades triggered during the ISO studies.

Commercial and industrial electrical engineering
Commercial and Industrial Electrical Engineering service line specializes in performing power system analysis to evaluate transmission and distribution system needs and providing innovative and cost-effective recommendations to various customer groups like commercial, industrial, institutional, municipals, cooperatives, distribution within the United States and across the globe. Below are some of the key service offerings:

• Infrastructure evaluation & life cycle cost analysis 
• Reliability assessment and recommendations for system improvement, risk assessment 
• Data collection and model development
• Various power system studies including load flow/steady state analysis, power factor analysis, voltage drop analysis, short circuit analysis, protective device coordination analysis, arc flash analysis, motor starting analysis, contingency analysis, stability/transient analysis and breaker assessment analysis.

Transmission expansion
Transmission Expansion service line provides high level engineering expertise and innovative solutions to various clients ranging from transmission owners/developers, generation developers, and asset management companies. Transmission expansion studies cater to clients who are focused on expanding their current transmission footprint or establishing new ones, identify solutions to relieve congestion on transmission system. These studies are predominately reliability or economic driven.

ISO/RTO specific compliance
This service line supports customers by providing technical expertise in conducting interconnection impact studies focusing on the regional compliance and requirements applicable to each interconnecting ISO/RTO area. To date, DNV has worked on the interconnection of 200+ renewable interconnection projects across the U.S. Below are some of the key service offerings:

• Steady state system impact study
• Short circuit study/breaker adequacy assessment
• Dynamic stability study
• Voltage Ride Through (VRT) evaluation
• Facilities study
• Electro-magnetic transient (EMT)/PSCAD/PSSE/PSLF model development and studies.

Resource commissioning, testing and compliance 
With the issuance of NERC MOD (MOD-025/026/027/032 & 033) and WECC testing and validation guidelines, DNV has supported many clients across North America to perform on-site testing and model validations. DNV’s extensive experience includes support for conventional as well as renewable technologies.

NERC/FERC/WECC Compliance
This service line offers technical and advisory support to customers per applicable NERC/FERC/WECC compliance standard requirements. Some of the key service offerings include:

• TPL-001-4
• TPL-007-1 (GMD)
• CIP-014
• BAL-001-2 assessment
• FERC 715 filing
• Representation at various ISO/RTO working groups.

Distribution analysis and DER interconnection
Distribution Analysis and DER interconnection service line provides various reliability and economic evaluations at the distribution voltage class. Some of the key service offerings include:

• Load forecast and allocation
• Distribution system design
• Mid- and long-term reliability assessments
• Voltage drop and contingency analysis
• Optimization of reactive device equipment
• Feeder optimization and phase imbalance studies
• Annual Capex and budget evaluations
• Distributed energy resource (DER) system impact studies
• Risk of islanding assessments for renewable generation resources.

Compliance program management and auditing
DNV’s Operational Excellence team supports utilities in assessing, mitigating, and setting up programs for NERC compliance. Mitigation tasks include processes and procedures for cyber and non-cyber standards. The Compliance Program services include definition, documentation, and implementation of a program in-line with FERC’s guidelines. The team manages projects associated with the transition to ISO mode of operation, which includes ISO interfaces, settlements, EMS interfaces, and associated procedures. In addition, we also offer administrative functions include writing specifications and proposals, negotiating vendor contracts, managing system start-ups, and hiring and supervising teams of technical and engineering personnel, NERC Compliance Audits, CIP V6, and compliance programs.

Offshore grid analytics
At DNV, we use our industry-leading advisory expertise to help offshore wind projects increase performance. We believe success relies on understanding the dependencies between different parts of the offshore wind value chain – therefore, we take a full lifecycle approach to managing risks and reducing costs. Our customers come to us with varying requirements during the different stages of the project lifecycle. We support owners, developers and operators, as well as lenders and investors, globally through industry-leading advisory services to offshore wind projects.

Regulatory filings and Expert Witness services
DNV has served as an expert witness and/or provided oral and written testimonies for various customers and supported in regulatory filings under various Public Utility Commissions (PUC’s)/State Agencies. If you’d like to learn more about our services, please download our brochure. For more information on how we can help you with your projects, please contact us.