GridQube – GridQube

GridQube was established in 2019 to commercialise the Distribution System State Estimation (DSSE) system developed by the Solar Enablement Initiative (SEI). (ARENA project “Increasing Visibility of Distribution Networks”, https://arena.gov.au/projects/increasing-visibility-of-distribution-networks/)

It is a software only company that continues to develop the capabilities of better network management through network analysis, including power system state estimation, constraint analysis and other automated network performance assessments.

The core team is made up of power engineering academics and software developers with experience in network optimisation.

The development approach has been to utilise a number of statistical approaches to develop load flow and state estimation outcomes. GridQube utilises whatever data sets are available from the utility to perform state estimation and develop network constraints made available to 3^rd party systems such as DERMS or Market Systems for action.

The focus is to build analytical capability so that better near real time decisions can be made on the operation of the network.

What’s The Solution?

The solution is made up of 3 parts:

Capacity Constrained Optimisation (CCO) engine – these are the rules associated with DOE
Constraint Analysis (CA) engine – this manages the physical and operational constraints of the network
Distribution System State Estimation Engine (DSSE) – this determines the underlying network output (performance) and can utilise a wide variety of “incomplete” data from the network to do its analysis

GridQube DSSE is currently in large-scale deployment at two Australian DNSPs and has been successfully tested at two more.

GridQube does not operate under a platform model, but provides customers with the software and support needed to operate their own instances, on private hardware of in cloud environments. GridQube has designed its software for unsupervised operation, automatically interacting with other third-party IT systems.

GridQube uses data on known parameters of the network, transformer set-points and outputs of power flow meters and telemetry devices, in conjunction with with statistical data about the typical network utilisation. From these thousands of pieces of data, GridQube in near real time creates a more complete understanding of the current operational state of the network including dynamic operating envelopes, then has ever been possible before. This creates customer benefits by increasing access to available capacity, reduced risk, enhanced network benefits and augmentation reduction.

Queensland electricity distributors Ergon Energy Network and Energex (part of Energy Queensland) have been named the 2021 Energy Network Industry Innovation Award recipient.

The winning project is an Australian-first implementation of a digital system to generate a complete and consistent picture of the operational state of the grid. This supports the integration of distributed energy resources (DER) like rooftop solar PV so more customers can export solar, voltage impacts on the grid can be mitigated and power quality can be improved. “This ground-breaking project will help Energex and Ergon deliver more for customers while reducing the network expenditure needed to manage DER impacts, improve power quality and help our transition to a decarbonised electricity system,”. “Our focus has been on increasing solar opportunities for customers while supporting the safe, reliable and equitable operation of the grid and keeping costs down,” EQL CEO Rod Duke said.