CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB

www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org

NEXT Meeting (The Read House)_____________________________________________

Monday, September 13, 2004, noon, The Read House, Continental Room

Topic:  “Engineering & Technology Academy” - Robert Smith, Principal, and Joel Laney, Academy Coordinator/Change Coach, Soddy-Daisy High School

This week we will host Robert Smith and Joel Laney to tell us about the Soddy Daisy High School Engineering & Technology Academy which began this school year in August.  Its purpose is to expose interested students to the world of engineering and technology.  The nearly 100 students in this year’s first academy class had to apply and be accepted to the academy based on their past academic and discipline record and presently have an interest in a future career in a field of engineering or a field requiring a familiarity with today’s technology.  Project Lead the Way, a nationally recognized high-school engineering program, is the centerpiece of this academy with English, math, and science courses being tilted toward the engineering and technology areas.  Local business support is an essential ingredient to the ultimate success of this academy, and businesses have thus far been willing to join in preparing students for their eventual career.

Menu:  Creamed Chicken & Vegetables in a Puff Pastry, salad

OUR PREVIOUS MEETING________________________________________________

Topic:    “TVA Activities as a Result of the Northeast Blackout” - Tim Ponseti, TVA

Mr. Ponseti began with a brief history of how the individual transmission systems were originally designed and built to operate independently as “islands.”  After the northeast blackout in 1965, the transmission system owners decided to build stronger connections or bridges between the independent systems to use during emergencies.  If one system began to have a problem, then the surrounding systems could help to support it through these bridges.  However, the bridges are not large enough to carry all the power a system “island” would need if the “island’s” own generating plants are unavailable.  Investment in building new transmission lines began dwindling after the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and significantly dropped in 1996 around the time of the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) orders 888 and 889.  These bridges or connections between transmission systems are analogous to our state highways.  Currently these bridges (or connections like state highways) are being used to carry interstate highway loads.  The congestion has been building and operators have started using something called a TLR (Transmission Loading Relief) to drop non firm and firm deals from a transmission path to protect the reliability of a line during heavy congestion.

The blackouts have taught us that transmission control areas need to be watching beyond their borders (about two islands away) in order to protect their system reliability.  After the 2003 blackout, NERC decided to audit the 20 largest control areas in North America for their operational readiness. TVA was one of the 20 selected.   After TVA’s audit this past spring, the North American Electric Reliability Council audit team determined that TVA has the systems, tools, processes, and personnel to reliably operate its control area. The report cites TVA as a "best practice" industry leader in several areas.  The NERC readiness audit team found TVA to be very strong or outstanding in the following areas:

• Training
• Shift structure and design
• Backup facilities that are fully functional and staffed
• Monitoring and control of operating and support systems
• Maintaining a wide-area view of TVA’s and neighboring systems
• Documentation
• Overall organizational engagement, with a culture of reliability

In addition, the report says TVA is ready to meet the requirements of control-area operations in 12 areas, such as system restoration, outage coordination, capacity and energy-emergency plan, vegetation management and special procedures for nuclear plants.  The NERC report includes eight recommendations to TVA, two of which were already under implementation at the time of the audit – an operator-training simulator and a real-time network analyzer or “state estimator.” (A state estimator is a reliability tool that digests transmission and generation data from various sources and assesses conditions across the grid in real time.)

Some actions being taken by TVA and other utilities as a result of the investigations into the most recent blackouts include:

• Addition of under-frequency protection to select generators
• Addition of under-voltage load shedding relays for distribution feeders
• System voltage control protection
• Additional vegetation control
• Equipment capacity & rating updates into models
• Generation plant data updates into models
• Collection of time synchronized data

FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS_____________________________________________

September 20:  “Georgia Water Issues” - Napoleon Caldwell, Georgia Division of Natural Resources

TBD:  Nanotechnology, ORNL

TBD:  Fusion Technology, ORNL

TBD:  “Nuclear Proliferation and Security:  Keeping us safe at home and abroad” - ORNL

WHERE WE MEET _______________________________________________________

We meet at The Read House, and lunch is $11.  Parking is free at the Days Inn across MLK Blvd. but you’ll need a note in your windshield that you’re with the Engineers’ Club.  Valet parking (by AAA, the manager of the Read House Hotel parking garage) is $3 for lunch events.  The Read House Hotel garage entrance is now on Broad Street.

QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS? ______________________________________________

If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please call Tiffany Gibby at 423-751-3168 or email her at tjgibby@tva.gov. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site: www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org.