WHITE PAPER:
CONSERVATION VOLTAGE REDUCTION DURING PEAK LOADING TIMES
Contributed by Chris Mullins & Brandon Horne,
October 2011
ABSTRACT
The Johnson City Power Board is an electric
power distributor located in Johnson City, Tennes-
see, serving over 75,000 customers in 5 counties.
JCPB operates and maintains over 2000 miles
of 13KV distribution lines and over 120 miles
of 69KV transmission. The peak system load on
JCPB’s system is 550 MW. JCPB has 30 distribu-
tion substations with over 100 distribution feeders.
JCPB purchases power from the Tennessee Valley
Authority. In March 2010, TVA converted their
billing structure to include demand power charges
for each distributor. Therefore JCPB decided to
implement a conservation voltage reduction plan
during peak loading times in order to save on peak
demand charges.
CONTEXT
Conservation voltage reduction is a process by
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which distributors lower the voltage on their
system for a short duration. Lowering the voltage
on a system will temporarily lower the power de-
manded by the loads connected to those circuits.
JCPB is charged a demand component for each
kw demanded by the system in its entirety. Thus,
lowering the demand of the system as a whole
during peak times will reduce the demand charge
from TVA.
Typical factors for percent load reduction are 0.5
to 1.2 for every percent of voltage reduced. ANSI
C84.1 allows for a minimum voltage at the end
customer’s metering point to be no less than 114
volts during normal operation. JCPB needed to
find a way to measure the voltage at the end of the
line in order to maintain minimum voltage at the
customer’s billing point and achieve the maximum
reduction in voltage at the substation. Figure 1. Custom dashboard
showing station loading,
PROBLEM DEFINITION end of line voltages, and
voltage reduction status. 17
JCPB operates an unlicensed 900 MHz radio sys- Boomerang devices are online
tem for communication with substations and some at the time of the screenshot.
WHITE PAPER:
CONSERVATION VOLTAGE REDUCTION DURING PEAK LOADING TIMES
field devices. Because they are unlicensed, the
power output of the radios is restricted to 1 watt.
Line of sight is required for these radios to com-
municate reliably with one another. JCPB’s system
is in the hills of the Appalachian Mountains and
has many hills and valleys where line of sight
communication is difficult. In many cases, multi-
ple repeaters were required to achieve the line of
sight between the radios. In order to communicate
with any end of line voltage devices using these
radios, a large investment would have been needed
in radios and repeaters. Additionally, as JCPB’s
system grows and changes are made to the feeders
and substations, the point on each feeder with the
lowest voltage may change. This would require
additional investment in radios and repeaters.
Installing 900 MHz radios and repeaters to com-
municate with an end of line voltage sensor would
be time consuming and expensive. Each month
that JCPB is not receiving the end of line voltages
from critical feeders lessens the amount of demand
reduction that JCPB can achieve.
GOALS OF EQUIPMENT APPLICATION
System automation is required to eliminate any
human error in a voltage reduction program and
achieve maximum benefit. There is a need to
acquire near real-time measurements to adequate-
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Figure 2. Monthly load
profile with voltage reduction
initiated only during peak
time of the month.
ly bias the voltage regulation devices to achieve
maximum benefit. Many products, such as AMI
systems, record and report the voltage back to
their servers. Often there is a latency between the
measurement and the time that it is reported. This
could cause either an underperforming system
or the voltage to be below the minimum voltage
range. In addition to the latency, many AMI ven-
dors do not have an application to allow a SCADA
system to access this voltage information. The
equipment selected to report the voltage would
have to do so with a high degree of accuracy, in
near real-time, and be able to interface with our
SCADA system.
SOLUTION
JCPB selected the Power Monitors Boomerang
device to report the end of line voltages back to
JCPB’s SCADA system. Each Boomerang oper-
ates over a GSM cellular network and has a static
IP address. There is a DNP protocol interface
for each device that allows SCADA communica-
tion. Since the communications infrastructure is
already in place with these devices, there was no
need for JCPB to purchase and install additional
radios and repeaters. JCPB used a model of the
power system to determine which feeders on each
substation would have the lowest voltages during
WHITE PAPER:
CONSERVATION VOLTAGE REDUCTION DURING PEAK LOADING TIMES
peak loading. Using this model, one or two feeders
out of each station had the highest load or the
longest line that resulted in the lowest voltage out
of that station. The ends of these feeders were se-
lected to install a Boomerang device to report the
voltage. JCPB personnel visited each feeder with
a powered Boomerang device to verify communi-
cations. Once communications were verified, the
Boomerang devices were installed on the lines and
programmed into the SCADA. Voltage measure-
ments for the ends of those lines were now avail-
able in SCADA for achieving maximum benefit of
the voltage reduction program. Custom scripts for
the SCADA system were then written to automate
the voltage reduction program. These scripts are
programmed to bias the regulators from the end of
line voltages and maintain peak performance from
the voltage reduction program. Many other scripts
were written to automate the entire system, result-
ing in the voltage reduction program to be called
upon only when a new monthly peak is going to
be achieved. As the JCPB’s system changes over
time, the Boomerang devices are easily relocated
without the expense of installing additional com-
munication infrastructure. Hence, the Boomerang
devices and custom automation scripts provide
JCPB with an efficient and reliable solution for
achieving conservation voltage reduction.
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Figure 3. Zoom of
voltage reduction showing
approximate 7 MW
reduction in load
CONCLUSION
The Johnson City Power Board installed 27
Boomerang devices on the system to maximize
the benefit of conservation voltage reduction
while maintaining above minimum voltage on
the customers’ point of service. The conservation
voltage reduction program will lower JCPB’s cost
of providing power, therefore driving rates down.
The Boomerang solution allows for accurate and
real-time measurements of end of line voltages
and is easily relocated at minimum cost as the
system changes. The conservation voltage reduc-
tion program in conjunction with the Boomerang
devices allows JCPB to operate its power system in
a more efficient manner, serve the customers better
by keeping rates low, and help the environment by
reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning
generation plants.
Brandon Horne, PE, MBA
System Design Engineer
Johnson City Power Board
www.jcpb.com
Chris Mullins
VP of Engineering and Operations
cmullins@powermonitors.com
https://www.powermonitors.com
(800) 296-4120