ARRA SGDP Southern California Edison Company (Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration)

Southern California Edison (SCE) conducted an end-to-end demonstration of numerous Smart Grid technologies necessary to meet state and federal policy goals for the year 2020. The Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration (ISGD) project was to investigate the use of phasor measurement technology to enable deep, substation-level situational awareness. The project was also to evaluate the latest generation of distribution automation technologies, including looped 12 kV distribution circuit topology utilizing universal remote circuit interrupters. Advanced Volt/VAR Control capabilities were also to be used to demonstrate customer energy consumption savings through conservation voltage reduction. The project scope included customer homes, where the integration, monitoring, control, and efficacy of home area network devices such as energy management systems, smart appliances, energy storage, and photovoltaic systems were to be demonstrated. The impact of device-specific demand response (DR), as well as load management capabilities involving energy storage devices and plug-in electric vehicle charging equipment was also to be assessed. DR events were to use the protocol standards being adopted by Advanced Metering Infrastructure programs such as Edison SmartConnect®. The project results was also to demonstrate the next generation of Substation Automation (SA-3), an automation and control design based on the open standard IEC-61850. This was expected to provide measurable engineering, operations, and maintenance benefits through improved safety, security, and reliability.