- Power system automation
It is not generally known by most users of
electricity to what extent power system automation is being used - that is until there is a blackout.=Overcurrent protection=All lines and all electrical equipment must be protected against prolonged
overcurrent . If the cause of the overcurrent is nearby then automatically that current is interrupted immediately. But if the cause of the overcurrent is outside the local area then abackup provision automatically disconnects all affected circuits after a suitable time delay.Note that disconnection can, unfortunately, have a cascade effect, leading to overcurrent in other circuits that then also must therefore disconnect automatically.
Also note that
generators that suddenly have lost their load because of such a protection operation will have to shut down automatically immediately, and it may take many hours to restore a proper balance between demand and supply in the system, partly because there must be propersynchronization before any two parts of the system can be reconnected.Reclosing operations (only once) of
circuit breakers usually are attempted automatically, and often are successful during thunderstorms, for example.=Supervisory Control=Some power stations can control other stations via communication links over long distances.
Remote switching,
telemeter ing of homegrid s (showing voltage, current, power, direction, consumption inkWh , etc.), even automatic synchronization is used in some power systems.ee also
*
Net metering
*Demand response
*Distributed generation
*Virtual power plant
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