Power management company Eaton has announced a new software tool designed to help utilities of all sizes efficiently and accurately integrate distributed energy resources without adversely impacting reliability and power quality. The Integration Capacity Analysis module is one of the latest additions to Eaton's CYME™ software platform that provides customized electrical system studies that address customers' unique applications to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve performance.
“Today’s utilities are faced with growing energy demand amid accelerated distributed energy resource deployment and process interconnection requests,†said Daniel Desrosiers, general manager of CYME solutions at Eaton. “Our new CYME Integration Capacity Analysis module delivers accurate assessment of distribution system generation and load hosting capacity to quickly provide utilities with the knowledge needed to simplify current and future infrastructure growth challenges.â€
The CYME Integration Capacity Analysis module is designed to reduce labor and human error by allowing engineers to run simulations without the use of manual tools. A minimum number of parameters, such as the maximum capacity to consider and the peak and minimum load conditions, are required before the assessment can be performed on a complete or partial model of the distribution system.
The maximum hosting capacity is then determined based on a set of user-defined thresholds referring to a list of criteria that includes thermal overloads, reverse power flow, abnormal steady-state voltages, transient voltage variations (flicker), reduction of protection reach and sympathetic tripping. The powerful reporting capabilities of the CYME software enable users to publish color-coded hosting capacity circuit maps to help customers and developers determine suitable locations for distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection projects.
Using its CYME software tools, Eaton’s engineering team is providing turnkey solutions – from basic to complex, specialized studies – that rapidly identify the parameters critical in the design of specific installations or complete networks. Turnkey solutions include network modeling, initial network performance diagnostics and a wide range of power engineering studies, ranging from transient phenomenon to strategic investment plans.
Through electrical system studies, Eaton also provides recommendations for opportunities in asset and load management, reliability improvements and voltage and losses optimization. Using simulations, Eaton is also providing customers with a cost effective way to assess the potential impact of new technologies on their networks.
