Distribution
Planning

Quanta Technology provides services for the development and implementation of utility distribution BESS installations, including Design and Engineering support, Product Selection and Specifications, Commissioning and Testing, and Operation, Maintenance and Condition Monitoring. Our experts are actively participating and leading development of industry standards and recommended practices for energy storage systems with IEEE, Cigre, IEC, and local jurisdictions (NERC/FERC/NFPA, etc.). These activities combined with our hand-on experience with some of the highest-visibility BESS projects to-date, enables our utility clients to save time, budget, avoid risks and achieve successful projects.

Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) reside at the core of Grid Modernization strategy as DER impacts almost all facets of distribution planning and operations. Quanta Technology has over a decade of experience supporting utilities to navigate this evolution. We have assembled a team of industry experts and thought leaders equipped to help utilities plan, justify, select, and integrate DERMS solutions to be scalable and expandable as integration of DER penetration increases and technology evolves. In addition, our capabilities include not only front-end services but also support the implementation, operations and maintenance of DERMS.

Quanta Technology offers a comprehensive approach in supporting our client partners to address electrification challenges. Our team of experts can provide detailed, model-based engineering analyses which yield plans that are technically robust, yet pragmatic. Our technical foundation is coupled with commercial and business expertise enabling Quanta Technology to perform services such as business case development, road mapping and strategy and benefit-cost analyses. For implementation of EV devices, we offer performing testing services.

Quanta Technology has experience leading several utility communications projects. These projects included supporting, executing, evaluating, and consulting for various types of communications requirements. The communications are associated with deploying distribution automation schemes, enhancing SCADA systems, implementing distributed PMU applications, and managing DERs. Quanta Technology has a team of industry experts and thought leaders ready to help utilities plan, justify, select, and implement various type of communications.

Quanta Technology offers innovative products and software applications with focus on testing and performance enhancement of grid-edge applications to address a wide range of technological challenges for system integration and project success, and to mitigate gaps in existing grid-edge tools and solutions. These products consist of testing devices, software platforms, and behind-the-meter innovative battery energy storage systems. The Quanta Technology Grid Edge products includes: BESSTI™ - Battery Energy Storage Testers, The EVMT™ - EV Sub-metering Tester, Mobile Energy Storage System (MBESS™), and Site Controller and DER Aggregator.

Distribution systems planning is a vital activity for the successful modernization of the grid. Modern distribution planning is expected to become an even more complex activity, largely due to the need to integrate DER and new technologies. Grid Performance Planning is the foundation of a modern distribution plan and it combines forecasts of both loads and DER, including weather normalization, transformer loading, feeder loading, urban re-development, regression models, and spatial land-use models. Quanta Technology has assembled a team of leading experts from the utility industry and developed state of the art tools to deliver a rigorous and comprehensive approach to address modern distribution planning system challenges.

Quanta Technology performs hosting capacity studies to determine the ability of a utility to accommodate and integrate future distributed energy resources (DER) on its grid. The results of these studies are used to develop hosting capacity maps for the utility’s service territory and its distribution feeders. In general, hosting capacity analysis considers the effect of DER proliferation, specifically photovoltaic distributed generation, on thermal limits and voltages of distribution feeders. We also have experience with hosting capacity studies that consider additional variables in creating develop hosting capacity maps; these variables may be incorporated progressively into the calculation process to increase result accuracy and comprehensiveness. Quanta Technology also supports our client partners with creating general guidelines that identify areas of the distribution system that are more vulnerable to the potential effects of DER adoption based on further analysis of capacity maps. We can also support updates to hosting capacity maps, periodically and automatically, to account for actual changes in DER penetration levels (driven by new interconnection requests), changes in system configuration, customer load growth, etc.

Quanta Technology has extensive industry experience conducting Distributed Generation (DG) integration and planning studies for Transmission and Distribution (T&D) systems, including identifying and evaluating the severity of impacts and proposing mitigation measures. Our team performs interconnection, impact and engineering studies (steady state, dynamic and transient analyses, protection, power quality, insulation coordination, arc flash, etc.) of DG and battery energy storage plants for many major utilities and developers. We work with major solar PV inverter manufacturers, wind turbine vendors and energy storage suppliers to develop and verify computational models of emerging DG technologies for use in various transient analyses. We also review and update utility standards, guidelines and procedures for DG interconnection to T&D systems.

Quanta Technology experts have helped utilities and developers perform technical studies and real-time testing for proof-of-concept projects and implementation of functional specifications and control requirements in several microgrid and advanced automation applications. Our testing capabilities include an RTDS for digital controls and protection, power level and performance evaluation for solar PV, energy storage, and wind inverters, smart inverter testing, and EV charger testing.

Load forecasting is now part of grid performance planning which is the foundation of a distribution plan. Without a good load forecast, it is likely that unnecessary projects will be funded and needed projects will go unfunded. Our experts have experience in all aspects of load and DER forecasting, including weather normalization, transformer loading, feeder loading, urban redevelopment, regression models, and spatial land-use models. We have helped many utilities in the U.S. and around the world refine forecasts, develop forecasts, and institute improved load forecasting and grid performance.

Quanta Technology has a broad portfolio of services related to the development and implementation of microgrids. Our experience includes supporting utilities with some of the most complex microgrid installations to-date. As a result, we are equipped to address a wide range of questions and challenges, from big picture considerations such as systematic evaluation of microgrid alternatives versus conventional distribution planning solutions to detailed technical aspects of integration such as updating distribution standards and practices and controller functionality.

PROMIS® is a portable energy storage system primarily designed for emergency energy supply to single- and three-phase customers. It is designed for frequent relocation and fast interconnection at a new site using a standard generator terminal box with Cam-lok™ plugs. PROMIS is a clean replacement for emergency (portable) diesel generators. Furthermore, it operates in grid-connected mode for grid support functions. The PROMIS platform is equipped with integrated microgrid technology and an onboard controller that provides comprehensive sets of autonomous controls, optimization schemes, and supervisory capability for ease of remote operator access and integration with the Dispatch Center for overall grid coordination.

Quanta Technology understands the challenges of operating a safe and reliable electric grid, and realizes that due to the proliferation of distributed energy resources, such as solar PV and battery energy storage there may be unintended consequences resulting from the time-varying impacts of these technologies. Using our experience and expertise in this area, we can analyze the grid using computational models to look at steady and transient impacts from all the devices connected to the grid. This includes protection analysis that looks closely at frequency and voltage ride through, assessing the impact of islanding conditions on protection systems and DG operation, evaluating the severity of Temporary Over Voltages (TOV), and studying how sudden connection / disconnection of DG plants affect T&D system operation and protection systems.

Integrating energy storage systems (ESS) with new or existing solar PV plants has become increasingly popular in recent years due to the significant benefits as an alternative to gas-fired peaking plants and other applications. In order to receive the investment tax credit (ITC) for solar, a BESS must be charged solely from the PV system. Quanta Technology has developed a data-driven approach using best-in-class tools that have been developed specifically to optimize the ratings and DC/AC topology.

Non-Wires Alternatives (NWAs) represent investment alternatives and operating practices to defer or avoid traditional T&D projects, such as installing new wires and transformers and is a key driver for future grid requirements. Quanta Technology experts have been leading the industry charge in NWA through direct collaboration with key utilities and our industry recognized thought leaders. Quanta Technology has developed customized tools that are applied in the following framework: Develop forecast scenarios, benchmark conventional grid investment alternatives, analyze the costs and value of applied DER on an hourly basis, and perform cost-benefit and risk analyses. Our distribution tool incorporates automation and computational efficiency and can be seamlessly incorporated into utility distribution planning processes.

Optimal volt/VAR control is critical for ensuring utility customer power quality and system efficiency. The proliferation of intermittent distributed generation such as photovoltaic and wind introduces new challenges such as rapid voltage fluctuations and reactive power flow variations that need to be studied using computational models and simulation tools. Quanta Technology has extensive experience in this area and can aid utilities to solve these issues via the implementation of modern volt/VAR control schemes and technologies.