2018 IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference

Improvements in rural load management by electric

cooperatives through an effective SCADA system, and
distribution connected generation
Srikanth Madala* Adam Herink Matt Robinette Tim Ramaekers
Bluestem Energy Solutions Bluestem Energy Solutions Bluestem Energy Solutions Loup River Public Power District
Omaha, NE, USA Omaha, NE, USA Omaha, NE, USA Columbus, NE, USA
smadala@bstem.biz aherink@bstem.biz mrobinette@bstem.biz tjr@loup.com

Roy Palk Dan Brewer

New Horizons Consulting RBC Consulting
Bradenton, FL, USA Sarasota, FL, USA
roypalk@me.com danbrewer3@gmail.com

Abstract—In the rural regions of the Midwestern United been steadily over 51% since 1945 [1]. From Figure 1, it is
States, agricultural and irrigation loads comprise a large portion noticeable that the contribution of midwestern states to the
of the daily loads encountered by rural electric cooperatives; United States agricultural sector has been steadily increasing
especially during the growing seasons of Spring and Summer. An
over the years despite a decrease in the cultivated acreage since
effective load monitoring & control is imperative to efficiently
1982.
manage electrical energy demand & supply. This current research
elaborates on applying an effective SCADA system as a load
management solution to monitor and control agricultural and
irrigation loads. Besides, monitoring and controlling loads during
peak electrical energy demand hours, the distribution connected
generation (solar, wind, CHP etc.) can also be implemented in
contributing towards serving the peak demand. The distribution
connected generation (DCG) can contribute to fill in for the
demand and supply difference. Consequently, a realistic recovery
in the lost energy sales during the days of load control is expected
to be anywhere between 20% and 43% using both the SCADA
system and DCG. This directly impacts the agriculture sector
which is the most commonly load controlled sector.

Keywords—SCADA, Midwest agriculture, irrigation load Figure 1. The consistent contribution of the midwestern states towards United
control, distribution connected generation, solar, wind, CHP. States agricultural sector since 1945

1. INTRODUCTION Agricultural sector consumes direct primary energy in the

form of electricity, gasoline, diesel, and natural gas, and
According to the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the
indirect primary energy as energy-intensive inputs such as
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the twelve
fertilizers and pesticides. Miranowski detailed the energy
Midwestern states classified as the Lake States, the Corn Belt,
consumption in the US agricultural sector [2]. According to
and the Northern Plains comprise about 58% of the total
ERS statistics, in 2014, the agricultural sector accounted to
agricultural cropland in the United States. This contribution has
1714 trillion BTU of primary energy out of which 60% was

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DOI 10.1109/REPC.2018.00024
consumed directly. 17% of this primary energy is electrical and commercial customers increased slightly over the 3-year
energy. According to the USDA 2012 census, over 57,000 period as well.
farms constituting about 2.7% of the total number of farms in
the US are actively engaged in producing and consuming
renewable energy. Additionally, about 10,000 farms leased
their land for wind power generation by a third-party. So, the
majority of the farms are still dependent on the local rural
electric utility (REU) for their electric energy needs.
In this research, we are going to evaluate and quantify the
benefit of distribution connected generation (DCG) and a
SCADA system in an irrigational load control scenario. We
consider two real-life cases where both SCADA and DCG are
implemented by one rural electric utility (REU-II) while neither
are implemented by the other (REU-I). This comparison will
Figure 2. Rural Electric Utility-I annual energy sales over the last three years
allow the reader to see the overall picture.

2. LOAD PORTFOLIOS OF RURAL ELECTRIC UTILITIES B. Case (ii): Rural Electric Utility-II (REU-II)
The two rural electric utility cases considered for this
On the other hand, Rural Electric Utility-II has implemented
research have slightly different customer load portfolios as
a SCADA system for load management and control. They are
described in the following sections.
also served by wind power of about 13.7 MW capacity through
A. Case (i): Rural Electric Utility – I (REU-I) a power purchase agreement. This power purchase agreement
is enabled within the carve-out administered through the “all
Rural Electric Utility-I is a typical rural electric utility
requirements contract” with their wholesale power provider.
without load management and control through a SCADA
The customer profile mix of REU-II is as shown in Figure 3.
system. Besides buying power from their wholesale power
REU-II has a comparatively larger number of residential and
provider, they neither own nor have a power purchase
commercial customers. The irrigation load is classified under
agreement in place for distribution connected renewable energy
commercial load by this rural utility. The fall and rise of
or other electric energy self-generation. The customer profile
industrial load as seen on Figure 3 can be attributed to the
mix of REU-I is as shown in Figure 2. If observed, for REU-I,
decrease and increase of an industrial customer. However, the
all other customer loads, except irrigation and small
same is not true for the irrigation load which is embedded
commercial loads, are on the decline over the past few years as
within the commercial load. In fact, the number of commercial
indicated by the trendlines on Figure 2. This emphasizes the
customers have been slightly increasing over the years. The
importance of these two customer bases in a rural economy. An
distribution connected generation went online in December
efficient load control and management system ensures better
2015. This is one of the reasons for increase of energy sales
productivity in these sectors and, therefore, helps in retaining
from 2015 to 2016. DCG enabled REU-II to effectively sell
these customers in the long run. The decrease in demand by the
more kWhs that the irrigation and commercial customers
residential sector can be largely attributed to improved energy
needed. Furthermore, similar to the case of REU-I, the decrease
efficiency measures as the number of customers has, in fact,
in demand by the residential sector can be largely attributed to
increased over the 3-year period. Numbers of both irrigation

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improved energy efficiency measures as the number of
residential customers increased over the years too.
Master station assists with the data storage and retrieval
process. The rural utility extracts this data from the SCADA
Master station, and sends it to a SQL database using a trending
client via multispeak interface. The multispeak interface
communication between trending client and the master station
happens every 5 minutes. The trending client is also used to
analyze the data and view it graphically. A pictorial depiction
of the SCADA system architecture is shown on Figure 4.

Figure 3. Rural Electric Utility-II customer profile over the last three years

3. SCADA SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The SCADA system architecture described in this section is

implemented by REU-II. This system enables the rural utility
to carry out an effective load control and management plan. It
also allows complete utilization of their DCG (Wind power).

A Remote terminal unit (RTU) is a hardware in the field that

communicates with multiple intelligent electronic devices
(IED) such as revenue meters, breaker controls, etc. Customer
load data is transmitted to an RTU through the local area
network (LAN) or through serial communication at the
substation-level. RTUs use distributed network protocol Figure 4. Pictorial representation of SCADA System Architecture

(DNP3), Modbus, or legacy protocols on this LAN 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION – DISTRIBUTION CONNECTED
communication. The load data collected at the RTU from the GENERATION, AND LOAD MANAGEMENT
IEDs is eventually transferred to the Master station through
Irrigation loads were the only type of loads that were
communication interfaces such as fiber lines, data radio, or
subscribed for control by both rural electric utilities. In the year
wireless cellular providers. This data transfer from RTUs in the
2017, there were two weeks of load control implemented during
field to the Master station occurs at an average of every 5
the peak summer month of July by both the aforementioned
seconds. The rural utility has the capability to know their load
rural electric utilities – I & II. The following discussion will
information at the sub transmission level (34.5 kV) at a 5-
show, in detail, how implementation of SCADA and DCG will
second frequency. The SCADA Master station is the central
benefit REU-I, and are already benefitting REU-II during these
piece of the control & management architecture of rural electric
two weeks when load control was implemented.
utility-II. It has active and stand-by servers. The SCADA

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A. Load Management and Renewable Energy at REU-I of this energy sales loss can be recovered using two methods
The load fluctuations experienced by REU-I during the (refer to equation (1)):
weeks of load control can be seen on Figure 5 and Figure 6. In i) An effective SCADA system
week 1, there were approximately 31.25 hours of load control, ii) Distribution connected generation.
and in week 2, there were approximately 49.25 hours of load
control experienced by the irrigators. These two weeks Daily Daily Energy
Energy Sale generated
accounted to a total energy sales loss of 3545.5 MWh to REU-  + =
Recovery by DCG
I which is calculated by quantifying the load control troughs due to SCADA during Load Control
that are shown on Figure 5 and Figure 6. Potential Daily Energy
Sales Recovery during  (1)
Load Control

The recovery in energy sales strengthen the case for these

technologies, and will also count towards expediting their
payback periods. A summary of the energy sales impact by
potentially implementing both SCADA and 14.4 MW of
distribution connected generation is shown on Figure 7. The
simulated renewable energy generation from 7.5 MW of Solar
and 6.9 MW of Wind during load control hours of week 1 and
week 2 for REU–I are shown on Figure 7. The MWh sales lost
(negative number) during the load control hours for each day
are also quantified on the same figure. For the duration of the
Figure 5. Load fluctuation experienced by REU-I during load control week 1
two weeks, an estimate of about 31% of the MWh sales lost will
be recovered using both SCADA and DCG. Implementation of
the SCADA system contributes to about 17% of this recovery
while DCG assists in 14% of this recovery. TABLE I and
TABLE II give further details of both the load control weeks
in terms of MWh sales lost, energy sale recovery due to
SCADA and DCG etc.

TABLE I. Load Control Hours and Energy Sale Loss for REU-I

Load Energy Load Energy

Date Control Sale Date Control Sale
Hours Loss Hours Loss

7/10/2017 10 1/6 -454.20 7/17/2017 8 2/3 -376.05

Figure 6. Load fluctuation experienced by REU-I during load control week 2 7/11/2017 12 -404.41 7/18/2017 9 -390.09
7/12/2017 7 -277.86 7/19/2017 6 1/6 -296.43
Not all this energy sales loss can be recovered by the utility 7/13/2017 0 0.00 7/20/2017 8 -418.46

due to contractual obligations and current billing practices from 7/14/2017 0 0.00 7/21/2017 9 2/3 -471.74

their wholesale energy provider. However, a substantial portion 7/15/2017 0 0.00 7/22/2017 7 2/3 -377.51
7/16/2017 2 -78.75 7/23/2017 0 0.00

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Figure 7. Rural Electric Utility-I: Summary of impact by SCADA and DCG (Wind & Solar) during both the load control weeks. Also shown are MWh sale lost
(negative number is used to signify loss) during summer load control hours (almost all this load control is through irrigation load control)

TABLE II. SUMMARY TABLE FOR REU-I

Energy Sale
Number of Estimated Simulated 7.5 Simulated
Recovery Due to Total Recovery
Load Control Energy Sale MW Solar 6.9 MW Wind
SCADA* (SCADA + DCG)
hours Loss* (MWh) Energy* (MWh) Energy* (MWh)
(MWh)

WEEK 1 31.25 -1215.23 318.75 79.10 87.37 485.22

WEEK 2 49.25 -2330.27 285.30 197.08 127.83 610.21

TOTAL 80.50 -3545.50 604.05 276.18 215.20 1095.43

*during load control hours

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B. Load Management and Renewable Energy at REU-II

The load fluctuations experienced by REU-II during the

weeks of load control are very minimal and can be seen only on
closer inspection of Figure 8 and Figure 9. In week 1, there were
approximately 5.25 hours of irrigation load control, and in week
2, there were approximately 15.75 hours of irrigation load
control experienced. However, the load control is very selective
and minimal as reflected by the small amount of lost energy
sales on TABLE III and TABLE IV. These two weeks
accounted to a total energy sale loss of 31.66 MWh to REU-II
which is calculated by quantifying the load control troughs
Figure 8. Load fluctuation experienced by REU-II during load control week 1
below 175 MW during load control hours without accounting
for wind generation.

Since REU-II is already endowed with SCADA system and

Wind power generation, a substantial portion of this energy
sales loss that would have otherwise been incurred is already
recovered. The only other potential energy sales recovery
option for REU-II is to use solar PV and/or battery storage
technologies to sell more MWh during their current load control
hours. The recovery in energy sales strengthens the case for PV
and battery storage technologies, and will also count towards
expediting their payback periods. A summary of the energy
sales impact by already implementing both SCADA and 13.7
Figure 9. Load fluctuation experienced by REU-II during load control week 2
MW of wind power generation is shown on Figure 10. The
MWh sales lost (negative number) during the load control
TABLE III. Load Control Hours and Energy Sale Loss for REU-II
hours, and the simulated solar energy generation (7.5 MW of
Load Energy Load Energy
Solar) during load control hours of week 1 and week 2 for Date Control Sale Date Control Sale
Hours Loss Hours Loss
REU–II are also represented on the same figure. For the
duration of the two weeks, an estimate of about 0.06% of the 7/10/2017 2 2/5 -3.37 7/17/2017 1/3 -0.50

MWh sales is lost. Already existing SCADA and Wind energy 7/11/2017 2 2/3 -2.86 7/18/2017 3 3/7 -4.82
7/12/2017 1/6 -0.14 7/19/2017 1/2 -2.25
are playing an important role in keeping the energy sale loss in
7/13/2017 0 0.00 7/20/2017 2 3/4 -3.87
check (Refer to TABLE III and TABLE IV). Potential
7/14/2017 0 0.00 7/21/2017 6 1/3 -9.61
implementation of solar power and/or battery storage would
7/15/2017 0 0.00 7/22/2017 2 2/5 -4.25
even eliminate those minuscule losses. 7/16/2017 0 0.00 7/23/2017 0 0.00

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Figure 10. Rural Electric Utility-II: Summary of impact by DCG (Solar) during both the load control weeks. Also shown are MWh sale lost (negative number
is used to signify loss) during summer load control hours (almost all this load control is through irrigation load control). Wind and SCADA are already
enabling REU-II to incur minimum load control losses

TABLE IV. SUMMARY OF RESULTS FOR REU-II

Energy Sale
Number of Estimated Simulated 7.5 Existing
Recovery Due to Total Recovery
Load Control Energy Sale MW Solar 13.7 MW Wind
SCADA* (SCADA + DCG)
hours Loss* (MWh) Energy* (MWh) Energy* (MWh)
(MWh)

Already
Already 13.98 implemented 13.98
WEEK 1 5.25 -6.37
implemented
10.33
Already
Already
WEEK 2 15.75 -25.29 62.61 implemented 62.61
implemented
24.90
Already
Already
TOTAL 21 -31.66 76.59 implemented 76.59
implemented
35.23

*during load control hours

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5. CONCLUSIONS
The two summer weeks of load control have accounted to
about 12% or 3545 MWh in energy sale loss due to inefficient
load control and management as well as the lack of behind the
meter generation for REU-I. The energy sales losses were about
1215 MWh and 2330 MWh for REU-I during load control
week 1 and week 2 respectively. REU-I can potentially benefit
from implementing SCADA system and DCG. Simulated solar
energy generation during the load control hours were 79 MWh
and 197 MWh during week 1 and week 2 respectively,
accounting for a potential loss recovery contribution of 7.8%
during both the weeks. Simulated wind energy generation
during the load control hours were 87 MWh and 128 MWh
during week 1 and week 2 respectively, accounting for a
potential loss recovery contribution of 6.1% during both the
weeks. Installing an effective SCADA system can potentially
allow REU-I to sell 319 MWh and 285 MWh during week 1
and week 2 respectively, accounting for a potential loss
recovery contribution of 17% during both weeks. All in all, both
the strategies (SCADA and DCG) in conjunction would
potentially recover 40% and 26% of the energy sale losses in
week 1 and week 2 respectively.
On the other hand, the REU-II has both SCADA monitoring
& control, and Wind power generation which helped the utility
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minimize their energy sales loss to only 0.06 % or 31.7 MWh.
The energy sale losses were about 6.4 MWh and 25.3 MWh for
REU-II during load control week 1 and week 2 respectively.
Besides Wind and SCADA system which are already in place,
a simulated 7.5 MW solar energy generation during the load
control hours is estimated to be generating 14 MWh and
62.6 MWh during week 1 and week 2 respectively, accounting
for a potential loss recovery contribution of 242% during both
the weeks. Using a battery storage system to store wind power,
and disseminate it as needed during load control would be a
better solution for REU-II.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the technical support
provided by Bluestem Energy Solutions, LLC., and Loup River
Public Power District.
REFERENCES
[1] U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Economic Research Services,
“Major Land Uses,” <https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-
products/major-land-uses/> Accessed date: 19-Dec-2017.
[2] J. Miranowski, “Energy consumption in US agriculture,”
in Agriculture as a Producer and Consumer of Energy,
Oxfordshire, UK: CABI, 2005, pp. 68–111.