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Two Programs: Electricity 101: Fundamental Concepts of Electricity. Electric Utilities 101: Electricity 101
This interactive course teaches fundamental concepts about electricity that everyone working for or with today’s electric utilities should know.
The problem with most courses offered is that they often discuss terms and concepts as if they are already known, which can cause people to struggle with topics before these theories are well-understood on a foundational level. This course is a low stress, safe, and entertaining opportunity to learn at your pace, ask questions, and really understand the terms and concepts of electricity and how it works. While this course does have a scheduled outline of what you “need to know”, it is less about “the presentation” and more about the questions and information you would like to know in order to be successful and be comfortable initiating and participating in in-depth conversations and projects revolving around how electricity works, how it’s made, and how it’s distributed.
Learning Outcomes
- Discuss the smart, transformative technologies that are changing the game like renewable energy, storage, demand response, EMS, ADMS, distributed grids, etc.
- Review advanced terms and concepts such as power factor, VARs, harmonics, ABC phases, induction, EMF’s, capacitance, frequency, and circuits
- Explore the technology behind current commonly used acronyms (ADMS, SCADA, EMS DR, DER, VAR, PV, HVDC, QF, DG, RPS, AMS, )
- Analyze how electricity developed and expanded into our modern electrical grid and where it is going next
- Appreciate how voltage, current, and resistance interact and how they affect the grid
- Identify key electrical components (i.e., breakers, fuses, switches, reclosures, cutouts, insulators, cables, etc.)
- Compare and contrast the differences between alternating current and direct current, energy and power, megawatt and kilowatt, 50hz and 60hz, radial and looped feeders, and single phase and 3 phase
- Explore the concept of balancing the grid for the only product that needs to be produced at the exact moment its consumed
- Recognize the main grid transitioning advancement being focused on right now, how they work, and their effect on infrastructure and current policy
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2022
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central Time
What is Electricity?
- Discovery and evolution
- How a KWH and a food Calorie are related
- What does electricity look like?
- How electricity travels
- War of the Currents (Edison, Tesla)
- Direct and alternating current
- Why electricity was adopted so quickly as an energy source
- How energy is converted to make electricity
- What is energy vs. power and the difference between kwh and kw
- How to calculate your electricity cost
- How a plug logger works
- Metric system (KW, MW, GW)
How Electricity is Made
- How a generator makes electricity
- What is frequency and why we standardized on 50/60 hz
- What are phases, why do we need them, and how do they work?
- Why 3 phase has more power than 1—and why not 4?
- Overview of the complexities of balancing the grid
- The need for and the current energy storage technologies
- How solar works and how it is related to LED’s and diodes
- Wind power, how it works, and where it’s going
- What are distributed energy resources?
- ADMS and EMS
- Demand response
The Components of Electricity
- How voltage, current, and resistance interact together and effect the grid
- How does Ohms Law apply to an electrical grid?
- Power equation wheel
- Voltage and its discovery
- Why more voltage needs more insulation
- Why the US uses a different voltage than most countries
- Outlets in the US and other countries
- Pros and cons
- Converting V and Hz
- Current and its discovery
- Why more current needs more conductor
- Which is more dangerous: voltage or current?
- What is resistance
- How to use a multi meter
What is the Grid?
- What is “the grid” and what is “the smart grid”
- How the grid evolved to what it is now
- What are the main grid advancements being focused on now?
- Acronyms of transformative and new tech and concept behind them (ADMS, SCADA, EMS DR, DER, VAR, PV, HVDC, QF, DG, RPS, AMS)
- What is generation, transmission, and distribution?
- What is a substation, circuit, and feeder?
- What is a series, parallel, loop, and radial circuit?
- Underground vs. overhead; right of way vs. easements
- Bluestaking and how to read it
- What are the types of conductors (OH & UG) and insulators?
- What are EMF’s and are they harmful?
- What causes an outage and how are they restored?
- How outages are prevented using breakers, fuses, switches, reclosures, etc.
Advanced Concepts
- What are transformers and induction?
- What is meant by primary and secondary wires?
- How 120 and 240 gets to a home wiring
- What is power factor and VARs, and why do we install capacitors?
- What are harmonics and why are they so bad?
Course Recap and Other Topics of Interest from the Participants
Electric Utilities 101
October 13-14, 2022 | Online
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central Time
This course is targeted toward increasing the knowledge of non-technical staff who work or have an interest in the electric utility industry. Participants who are not familiar with utilities and electric power systems can significantly benefit from attending. Since this is a basic seminar, a prior background in electric utility systems or engineering is not expected or required.
The program unpacks basic concepts related to the history of the industry, how electricity works, generation, transmission, distribution, substations, balancing, storage, and ancillary services. It will review the different types of generation and how they work, the Grid, common acronyms, underground vs. overhead distribution, and the components of a substation. Attendees will gain a full understanding of balancing authorities and energy markets, as well as energy storage technologies and distributed energy resources. All will leave with an appreciation of renewable energy, goals, challenges, and new mechanisms to balance its variability with reliability.
The seminar is presented in a professional manner which is not stressful. No one will be called on to participate; however, it is delivered in a way which encourages questions and interactive discussions between the attendees and the instructor on the issues they are facing and the things they want to learn. Come with questions and leave armed with a solid foundation of the intricacies of how Electric Utilities work.
Learning Outcomes
- Review the history of the industry and the fundamentals of electricity
- Appreciate the diversity of electricity generation and the reasons for the use of each in the electric system (i.e., solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, gas, coal, and what’s next)
- Discuss transmission and distribution, including differences between underground and overhead, right-of-way, outage causes, and more
- Explain what substations are used for and their components
- Analyze the major technological changes occurring with bulk storage, distributed energy resources, resiliency, and more
- Study renewable integration goals, challenges, tools, and mechanisms to achieve the goals
- Identify the different organizations to generate and sell electricity such as Direct Access, Electric Service Suppliers, Qualifying Facilities, and Independent Power Producers
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022 : CENTRAL TIME
History of the Electricity Industry
- AC vs. DC and “The Battle of the Currents”
- How the grid evolved
- Why was electricity adopted almost overnight as an energy source?
- Types of Electric Companies
- Voltage, current, and resistance
- Electricity measures
- Real and reactive power; power factor
- Single phase and three phase
- How a generator makes electricity
- Frequency; why 50/60 hertz?
- How energy is converted to make electricity
- Energy vs Power, kilowatt-hours vs kilowatts
Electricity
- What does electricity look like and how does it travel?
- How to calculate your electricity cost
- How are a KWH and a food Calorie related?
- How a plug logger works
- Metric system (KW, MW, GW)
Generation, Renewable Energy
- How Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Gas, and Coal plants work
- Baseload vs. peaker plants
- Future types of power generation
- Renewable integration
- Decoupling incentivizes renewable energy goals
- Direct Access, Electric Service Suppliers, Qualifying Facilities, and Independent Power Producers
- Vertically integrated utilities
- Integrated resource plans
- Community choice aggregates
Balancing
- Balancing Authorities
- How energy markets balance a grid
- Demand curves and system peak demand
- Duck curve, surplus capacity and ramp rate
- Who and what are FERC, NERC, ISO (Independent System Operators), PP (Power Pools), BA (Balancing Authorities), RTO (Regional Transmission Operators) and Interconnections?
Energy Storage, Resiliency, and Ancillary Services
- Different energy storage technologies. ie, pumped hydro, batteries, electrolysis, etc.
- Distributed Energy Resources and decentralized generation
- Frequency response
- Microgrids and resiliency
- Flexible renewable generation and flexible load.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2022 : CENTRAL TIME
Transmission & Distribution
- What is ‘the Grid’, ‘the Smart Grid’ and the current advancements towards ‘Grid 2.0’?
- What is the difference between ‘Generation’, ‘Transmission’, ‘Distribution’?
- Acronyms of transformative and new tech and concept behind them (ADMS, SCADA, EMS DR, DER, VAR, PV, HVDC, QF, DG, RPS, AMS)
- Primary vs Secondary
- Underground vs Overhead
- Right of way vs easements
- Bluestaking
- Type of overhead and underground conductors.
- Recognizing the nuts, bolts, parts and pieces of the distribution grid that is all around us.
- EMF’s (electromagnetic fields and their effects)
- Outages causes and restoration
- The use of helicopters and drones.
- How breakers, fuses, switches, reclosures, and other new protection schemes protect the grid
- Harmonics
- How and why do homes have 120V and 240V.
- What are transformers and induction?
- How 120 and 240 gets to a home wiring
- What is Power Factor and VARs, and why do we install capacitors
Substations
- What are substations used for?
- What are the components of substation?
- Different types of circuits.
- Looped, radial and networked feeders.
- What is a feeder load profile?
- How transformers work & are made.
- What is phase imbalance?
- Delta / Wye transformers and systems.
- Capacitor banks and power factor
- What is Real, Reactive and Apparent Power?
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