CALIFORNIA – GE Digital is partnering with its customer UK Power Networks on a smart substation project Constellation, designed to facilitate the rise of renewable energy generation across the UK.

Constellation is an innovation project designed to leverage advances in software engineering, machine learning and system optimization to make substations interoperable and secure. The project aims to release 1.4 GW of capacity, enough to power more than 700,000 homes. It is forecast to save more than 17.8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A key aspect of Constellation is the installation of GE Digital’s technology that distributes intelligence and control to the substation and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) connections to complement the existing central control, providing resilience and continuity of DER operation when communications links are unavailable.

The solution uses data analytics and machine learning (ML) to incorporate data from periods when communication and the network is managed normally. This then “trains” Machine Learning models centrally and then distributes the models to the local renewable generation controls, so they are ready to go live if/when communications are lost, the manufacturer said in a press release.

The Constellation project is expected to develop a model that can be used to help UK Power Networks with an anticipated increase in distributed energy resources and to move the country closer to its 2050 target for zero carbon electricity.

Renewable power generation and DERs like electric vehicles and solar, connected to regional networks, are forecast to grow tremendously by 2050. By accessing data regarding the operations of various distributed grid devices, UK Power Networks aims to leverage analytics to match its changing energy demands with generation, and in turn, be able to expand its portfolio of renewable energy resources and energy flexibility capacity for grid reliability and improved customer services.

Source: GE