Page 11 - CE JOURNAL FEB 2024 ISSUE 20

6. System Protection – Additional energy disrupts feeder loading and challenges fuse coordination.
7. Customer Service and Field Operations – As a result of power quality concerns, existing customers
have been frustrated. In addition to this, we have an increased number of truck rolls as a result of
responding to these trouble calls.

Quantifying the number and location of Self-Generators on the Grid can be a very tedious process if attempted
manually, especially for unlicensed Self Generators. To add fuel to the fire, tracking the impact to the Grid such
as the power being contributed as well as determining those customers who are in breach of the regulations
set forth by the Ministry are all tedious tasks as well.

MONITORING SOLUTION

Figure 2. Screenshot showing the home page of the Self Generator Dashboard.

The Jamaica Public Service Co. Ltd has spent significant time, money and human resources to upgrade its
Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Approximately 60% of its customers have been upgraded to smart
meter usage, with the intention of bringing that number to 100% by the end of Q4 2024. These smart meters
can collect a lot more data in real time, thus allowing for more detailed analysis. We are in an age where Smart
Grid is a hot topic and this solution is a direct result of efforts made to make the grid smarter.

This AMI infrastructure has been leveraged to create the Real Time Monitoring of Self Generators Dashboard.
In addition to the AMI infrastructure, various other tools have been leveraged to create the dashboard and
provide meaningful results. These tools include Customer Suite, a Customer Relationship Management tool
and a Geographic Information System.

The monitoring solution developed can perform
several tasks. These include but are not limited to:
1. Quantifying the number of Self Generators exporting
power back to the Grid
2. Quantifying the amount of Power and Energy which
Self Generators are exporting
3. Quantifying and Locating Unlicensed Self Generators
4. Quantifying and Locating Auxiliary Connections
in breach
5. Detecting Inverted and Tampered Meters
6. Analyzing Power Quality Readings
Figure 3: Interconnection of Data Sources
for Self-Generator Dashboard.

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