Power grid monitoring sensor network launched in New York
The initiative is designed to increase efficiency and productivity, and improve resiliency of New York’s statewide public power network. The goal, says NYPA, which is the largest state public power organization in the U.S., is to transform its operations and electric grid infrastructure to become the nation’s first full-scale, all-digital utility.
The statewide sensor deployment initiative also supports New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV4NY) strategy for building a statewide energy system that is clean, resilient, and affordable for all state residents. The strategy’s goals for 2030 include a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels, 50% of electricity coming from renewable sources, and a 23% reduction in energy consumption of buildings from 2012 levels.
“The Power Authority is taking the lead in deploying new technologies to modernize our state energy system and build the next generation utility,” says NYPA Board of Trustees Chairman John R. Koelmel. “These sensors will help us proactively predict potential problems so that we can reduce unplanned downtime, lower maintenance costs, and minimize potential operational risks. These digital enhancements will help us keep our finger on the pulse of our power infrastructure so that we can continue to lead the way in meeting the needs of a 21st-century sustainable, energy-driven economy.”
The sensor program follows closely on and builds upon the opening late last year of NYPA’s Integrated Smart Operations Center (ISOC), intended as a cutting-edge digitized power asset monitoring and diagnostic center at NYPA’s headquarters in White Plains. As part of the sensor deployment program, sensors will be installed on equipment – such as transformers, reactors, turbines, generators, breakers, battery banks, cables, and capacitors – throughout the organization’s statewide network of 16 power plants and 1,400 miles of transmission lines.
The sensor system will feed data such as temperature, power loads, vibrations, pressure, emissions, and moisture into the ISOC hub in near real time. The organization already has sensors feeding approximately 26,000 points of data to the ISOC from across its power system. With the addition of 50,000 sensors installed through the new sensor deployment program, NYPA aims to have a total of 75,000 points of data or more feeding into the ISOC by the conclusion of this program.
In a recent meeting, NYPA’s Board of Trustees approved expenditures of $9.3 million in support of the first phase of the sensor deployment program. The multi-phase program is ultimately expected to have a total estimated cost of $55 million. The installation work is expected to begin this spring and is estimated to take approximately four to five years.
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