Joint engineering project to focus on power-system reliability

POTSDAM - Clarkson University is working on an engineering project with two area power companies with the ultimate goal of improving the reliability of electric service throughout the state.

Clarkson is working on the project with National Grid and the Massena Electric Department, a municipally owned electric utility with 9,000 customers in the Massena area. The more than $258,000 study is being funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Clarkson.

The study will examine how various upgrades to electrical transmission systems affect reliability, explains Thomas Ortmeyer, a professor of electrical engineering at Clarkson and chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Power companies often have multiple ways they can improve their transmission systems, Ortmeyer says. For example, they could trim trees away from lines or improve insulation in them.

The goal of the study is to help power companies determine how each of those actions will affect reliability.

"We want to provide information as to which of those is the better investment," Ortmeyer says.

So one part of the project will focus on how various actions like tree trimming or upgrading power-line insulation affects outages. Ortmeyer says he's still talking with the companies involved on exactly how they'll accomplish that task.

Another focus of the study will be the data itself. It's quite likely, Ortmeyer says, that system designers have an intuitive feel for how various actions will affect reliability, simply from experience.

Ortmeyer says he hopes to give those designers better hard data to use in discussions with their superiors.

"Some run into trouble when trying to present these projects to upper management," he says. "We want to try to help them there."

Power outages in the United States cost consumers about $150 billion a year, according to Clarkson.

"We're all concerned about reliability," says Clayton Bums, project manager in National Grid's technology group. "This is kind of a new idea as far as doing design based more on reliability."

Burns says National Grid will provide Clarkson with information on their existing practices for installing overhead and underground power lines. One reason the company was interested in the project was to be in at the start if Clarkson finds ways to improve designs.

The ultimate goal is to come up with the best designs for transmission systems possible.

"If they come up with something, we can roll it right in," Burns says.

He's also hopeful that because the project is coordinated through NYSERDA, power companies throughout the state will be able to compare notes on how they do things and glean some new best practices.

"This collaboration between government, higher education, and public and private utilities will enable us to tap into the knowledge and experience of a diverse set of experts for this essential endeavor," Andrew McMahon, superintendent of the town of Massena Electric Department said in a news release.

2008 Central New York Business Journal Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.