GridOS^® AEMS

An Advanced Energy Management System (AEMS) is a sophisticated software platform used primarily by transmission system operators to enhance the management, control, and optimization of electrical power systems. AEMS is designed to ensure the efficient, reliable, and secure operation of the transmission grid.

Key benefits of an Advanced Energy Management System:
• Real-time Monitoring and Control: AEMS provides operators with real-time data and control capabilities over the transmission network, enabling them to maintain grid stability and reliability.
• Energy Forecasting and Scheduling: The system supports accurate load forecasting and generation scheduling, which are crucial for balancing supply and demand, optimizing resource utilization, and minimizing costs – especially amidst increased renewables integration.
• Grid Optimization: AEMS includes tools for optimizing the operation of the grid, such as minimizing transmission losses, managing congestion, assessing real-time line ratings via Digital Dynamic Line Rating (DDLR) technology, and optimizing voltage levels.
• Renewable Energy Resource Integration: AEMS facilitates the integration of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, by managing their variability and ensuring their efficient use within the power grid.
• Advanced Analytics and Decision Support: AEMS leverages advanced analytics to provide insights and decision support, helping operators make informed decisions to enhance grid performance and reliability.
• Contingency Analysis and Security Assessment: The system conducts contingency analysis and security assessments to identify potential risks and prepare strategies to mitigate them, ensuring the grid's resilience against unforeseen events.

Overall, an Advanced Energy Management System plays a pivotal role in enabling the modern electric grid to operate more efficiently, integrate diverse energy sources, and deliver reliable electricity to consumers.

Key challenges addressed by Advanced Energy Management Systems:
• Integration of Renewable Energy: The increasing integration of intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, poses challenges in maintaining grid stability and reliability. These sources can cause fluctuations in power supply, requiring advanced management and control strategies.
• Aging Infrastructure: Many transmission grids are operating with infrastructure that is several decades old. This aging equipment can lead to increased maintenance costs and a higher likelihood of failures, impacting grid reliability.
• Grid Congestion: As demand for electricity grows, certain parts of the transmission grid may experience congestion, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. Managing congestion requires effective planning and investment in grid upgrades.
• Regulatory and Policy Challenges: Transmission grids must navigate a complex landscape of regulations and policies that can vary significantly across regions. Examples include the United States’ FERC 881 and the European Union’s ENTSO-E mandates. Aligning grid operations with regulatory requirements can be challenging and may impact investment and operational decisions.
• Demand Variability: Enormous fluctuations in electricity demand, driven by factors such as weather, economic activity, and the adoption of electric vehicles, require advanced demand forecasting and management strategies to ensure grid stability.
• Climate Change and Extreme Weather: Increasingly severe weather events and changing climate patterns pose risks to transmission grid infrastructure and operations, calling for better resilience planning and recovery measures.

Key benefits of an Advanced Energy Management System for electric utilities:
• Enhanced Grid Reliability: AEMS offers real-time transmission grid monitoring and control capabilities, enabling operators to maintain grid stability and quickly respond to issues, thereby improving overall reliability.
• Optimized Resource Utilization: By providing accurate energy forecasting and generation scheduling, AEMS helps optimize the use of available resources, reducing operational costs and improving efficiency.
• Improved Integration of Renewables: AEMS facilitates the seamless integration of renewable energy sources, managing their variability and ensuring they contribute effectively and sufficiently to the power grid.
• Advanced Grid Optimization: The system includes tools to minimize transmission losses, manage network congestion, and optimize voltage levels, enhancing the overall efficiency of the grid.
• Better Decision-Making: With advanced analytics and decision support tools, AEMS provides valuable insights that help operators make informed decisions to optimize transmission grid performance and reliability.
• Improved Resilience: AEMS features advanced power grid disruption recovery capabilities, increasing transmission network resilience to disruptive events.

Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) is an essential capability of AEMS. It involves assessing the capacity of transmission power grid lines in relation to given weather and environmental factors. Transmission grid utilities can use this information to ensure their existing infrastructure is being used at maximum capacity at all times, and that no energy is wasted. Calculating transmission line ratings is required by FERC 881.

GE Vernova’s Advanced Energy Management System offers a software- and analytics-based approach to line ratings called Digital Dynamic Line Rating (DDLR). This capability makes the process easier, faster, and more cost-effective than the traditional hardware sensor-based approach.