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NEW IEEE
STANDARD TO HELP UTILITIES TAP SURPLUS ELECTRICITY FROM ALTERNATE
SOURCES
IEEE 1547 Sets Technical Requirements for Interconnecting Electric
Power Systems with Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics, Microturbines and
Other Local Generators
Contact:
Richard DeBlasio, Working Group Chair
+1 303-275-4333, deblasid@tcplink.nrel.gov
Karen McCabe,
+1 732 562 3824, k.mccabe@ieee.org
For Release:
Immediate
PISCATAWAY,
NJ, 14 July 2003 How can the US meet the rising demand for
electricity? One solution is to bring surplus energy from fuel
cells, photovoltaics, microturbines and other local generating
technologies into the national grid. A new standard from the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE 1547 ™, gives
utilities the technical framework they need to integrate power
from such diverse sources.
IEEE 1547,
"Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with
Electric Power Systems" addresses the performance, operation,
testing, and safety of intercon-nection products and services,
such as hardware and software for distributed power control and
communication. The standard's criteria and resources also address
product quality, interoperability, design, engineering, installation
and certification.
"This
high-profile effort involved more than 350 participants from all
aspects of the power industry," says Richard DeBlasio, Working
Group Chair. "Members of the working group included those
from manufacturers of electrical components, fuel cells, photovoltaics,
wind energy systems, gas turbines, diesel generators, internal
combustion engines, switch gear, protective relaying and batteries,
as well as from utilities, energy service companies, universities,
government laboratories, and state and federal governments.
"The
number and range of participants is a good measure of how important
this standard is to the industry. Many of us see the ability to
access power from customer? sited generation facilities as essential
to modernizing the electric power system. This will be a serious
transformation for the electric power industry, as well as for
the electric grid which was not designed to accommodate alternative
power generation (i.e., two-way energy flow), store energy at
the distribution level, or allow distributed generators to supply
other customers."
The use of
decentralized distributed resources is expected to make the overall
electric power system more flexible and secure. Such resources
also promise to lower the cost of electricity, make electrical
generation cleaner and more-efficient, reduce transmission and
distribution line loss and congestion, and improve power reliability
and quality, among other benefits.
IEEE 1547
is the first in a family of IEEE interconnection standards for
distributed resources. Other standards in the family currently
underway are:
- IEEE P1547.1™,
which will provide the detailed test procedures to prove or
validate that interconnection specifications and equipment conform
to the functional and test requirements of IEEE 1547™.
- IEEE P1547.2™,
which will provide technical background and application details
to make IEEE 1547 easier to use. It will characterize various
distributed resource technologies and their associated interconnection
issues.
- IEEE P1547.3™,
which will aid interoperability by offering guidelines for monitoring,
information exchange and control among fuel cells, photovoltaics,
wind turbines and other distributed generators interconnected
with an electrical power system.
The IEEE 1547
family of standards are sponsored by the IEEE Standards Coordinating
Committee 21 for Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics, Dispersed Generation,
and Energy Storage.
About the
IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), a global standards-setting
body, develops consensus standards through an open process that
brings diverse parts of an industry together. It has a portfolio
of more than 870 completed standards and more than 400 in development.
IEEE-SA promotes the engineering process by creating, developing,
integrating, sharing and applying knowledge about electro- and
information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity
and the profession. For further information on IEEE-SA visit:
http://standards.ieee.org/.
About the
IEEE
The IEEE has more than 380,000 members in approximately 150 countries.
Through its members, the organization is a leading authority on
areas ranging from aerospace, computers and telecommunications
to biomedicine, electric power and consumer electronics. The IEEE
produces nearly 30 percent of the world's literature in the electrical
and electronics engineering, computing and control technology
fields. This nonprofit organization also sponsors or cosponsors
more than 300 technical conferences each year. Additional information
about the IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org/.
IEEE 1547,
P1547.1, P1547.2, P1547.3 are trademarks of the IEEE. All other
names or product names are the trademarks, service marks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.
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