Active Network Management
Authors: Ault Graham W. , Currie Robert A. F. 
Published: August 2016

The existing power distribution grid, including the new network assets being built today, can be generally but not exclusively characterized as passive, with very little in the way of monitoring and control. This is particularly true of the lower voltage levels of the public service distribution grids. The number of active components (e.g., generation, responsive demand, energy storage) being connected to distribution systems is increasing very quickly, giving rise to the new challenge of managing these increasingly “active” distribution networks, with a starting point of generally low levels of monitoring and control. Smart metering can provide greater visibility of customer loads and behaviors, but between the meter and the higher levels of the distribution grid there is currently a gap in terms of visibility, control, and operator situational awareness. This gap is unlikely to be closed in any substantial widespread manner in the near‐term and presents some fundamental challenges to the evolution of the smart grid and adoption of low carbon technologies, including the selection of algorithms, methods, and systems for control and decision making.

Near‐term and practical solutions for the smart grid must get to grips with the realities of working with a patchy and incomplete data set on the distribution system. It is appropriate to also characterize this data set as often erroneous and largely asynchronous. The investment required to address the visibility gap is in billions of dollars, meaning that a gradual progression toward a richer and more complete data set is not only the obvious best practice but also an unavoidable predicament for the incumbent distribution utility companies. If targets for network performance, decarbonization, and the cost‐effective adoption of increased distributed energy resources (DER) are to be realized, then new solutions that can tackle these issues and enable the transition are required.

Active network management (ANM) has emerged as a distinct group of different application areas and solution architectures for the control and management of DER. The emerging, deployed state of the art is more tightly defined as a direct and autonomous control method to be applied to the distribution grid that does not require resolution ofsystem‐widemonitoring and data issues, but instead involves the gradual layering of modern information and communications technology (ICT) to implement autonomous control over parts of the distribution grid. As will be shown in this chapter, ANM is now emerging as a leading solution for cost‐effectively increasing the ability of the distribution grid to host new technologies and DER.

This chapter describes the emergence of ANM and defines ANM with reference to the architecture, applications, and features being deployed at present. The chapter proceeds to analyze case studies of ANM implementation and the benefits and implementation challenges experienced and overcome. Requirements for ANM realization are set out and the implications of not meeting these requirements are reviewed. A checklist for ANM implementation is provided and the outlook and future pathway for ANM are set out.