P&D’s Michael Thesing, manager of SCADA engineering, discusses SCADA LIGHT with RE Magazine’s John Vanvig as a pilot solution to provide Dixie Electric Power Association in Laurel, MS with real-time access to information needed to prevent problems or…
When was the last time a complete sectionalizing study was developed for your distribution system? Does your utility only “update” its coordination plan from year to year, or work plan to work plan? Do you…
We all know the devastating impact natural disasters have on power systems. When these disasters occur, the first priorities are ensuring public safety and rebuilding of the power facilities as quickly as possible. This requires…
By Steve Conover Joint-use agreements between power companies and telephone/cable companies have been around for many years. Nearly all old joint-use contracts contain at least some verbiage that has become outdated over the years, and…
Retail rate setting has become much more challenging in recent years in response to time-differentiated wholesale rates and demands by consumers for more rate options. These challenges have only been exacerbated by seasonal weather variations,…
What is a Geomagnetic Disturbance (GMD)? A GMD is a disruption of the earth’s magnetic field caused by sunspots. Sunspots are places on the sun where a magnetic dipole field pokes through the sun’s ambient…
CVR? VVO? VVC? What do these letters stand for and what is all the hype and fanfare about? Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) has been around for decades and known by many different terms. It is…

By Steve Conover In recent years, there has been an unprecedented focus on grid-tied renewable energy systems and other distributed generation (DG). With ever-growing concerns about the conservation of natural resources, pollution, dependence on foreign…
By Mike Kline Recently P&D installed a 100 kW DC solar photovoltaic (PV) plant on top of our roof at our Norcross, Georgia headquarters. The array consist of 334 ReneSola America 300 watt solar panels,…