GE

Grid Solutions

PowerNode:
Load Shedding
PowerNode is GE’s advanced industrial electrical solution for industrial and power generation sites. With the
ability to trigger load shedding in less than 15ms, our cost-effective solution optimizes generation; it increases
PowerNode:
a plant’s reliability, availability, maintainability, and performance (RAMP) in a flexible, integrated monitoring Fast Load Shedding
and advanced automation solution. • Trigger load shedding in less than 15ms
Industrial load shedding enables facility electrical system stability in critical situations such as a sudden loss • Shed minimal amount load needed to
of available power, to balance load power consumption due to grid power restrictions (Demand Response) or compensate for lost generation (Dynamic)
to limit power consumption during peak hours (Peak Shaving). • Supports up to 128 load shed groups
PowerNode offers a variety of applications that can be adapted to existing or new installations including Fast • System Scalable to 1000’s individual loads
Load Shedding, Electrical Stability Load Shedding, Demand Response and Peak Shaving. • Utilizes IEC61850 GOOSE to achieve high-speed
operation

Facility Challenges OPERATING MODES

Industrial facilities often have multiple sources of power to support their operational needs which can • Dynamic Load Shedding
include on site generation, as well as, power being supplied by the utility. When a plant experiences a loss of • Static Load Shedding
one of these power sources, the remaining power generation may not be able to support the existing plant
loading, and result in an unplanned shutdown. These unplanned shutdowns can have a very significant
impact in the plant’s productivity and availability, causing significant losses in revenue when they occur. Secondary Load Shedding
• Under-frequency Load Shedding
Additionally, cost reduction, financial incentives, and/or grid compliance can require a facility to shed
loads. Participating in Demand Response scenarios or limiting the Peak energy consumption of a facility • Under-voltage Load Shedding
can have financial implications for plant operations. • Overload Load Shedding
• Demand Response

GE’s PowerNode: Load Shedding Solution • Peak Shaving

GE’s PowerNode: Load Shedding (LS) solution is a real-time operations platform to combine all load
shedding functions together with advanced monitoring and control. Solutions & Services
• System study of plant load characteristics
Key Benefits • Development of Load shedding system
• Reduces unplanned downtime: With operating times of less than 15ms, GE’s Load Shedding solution • System validation and Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)
significantly reduces unplanned downtime, associated loss of production, potential equipment damage, testing
and environmental impact.
• Site Integration and commissioning
• Scalable: Can be utilized in a wide range of installations - from systems with a single sheddable load
• Customized operator HMI
through to facilities consisting of thousands of different loads. Utilizing up to 128 different groups of
loads, GE’s LS solution can support changing the load shed priority of these groups to match current • Cybersecurity evaluation & deployment
plant conditions. • Long term maintenance and support
• Flexible: Utilizing the embedded HMI, local operators can easily monitor and change the priority of any
load group in real time.
• Vendor Agnostic: GE’s Load Shedding solution uses IEC61850 GOOSE messages and other standard
protocols available in existing protection and control relays to minimize installation time and cost of the
overall solution.
• Easy Future Expansions: Additional loads can be easily added to GE’s Load Shedding solution to
accommodate future facility or system expansions.
• Cybersecure: System is designed to follow IEC 62443-4-2 cybersecurity guidelines.
PowerNode: Load Shedding

PowerNode: Fast Load Shedding Solution Generator 1 Grid Grid Generator n

Infeed 1 Infeed n
GE’s PowerNode: Fast Load Shedding (FLS) solution will maintain electrical
system stability after a plant experiences a loss of one or more of its
generation or utility sources. Pulling real-time information from the plant loads
and generation sources, GE’s FLS solution can detect a generation contingency
and trigger actions that will shed the minimal amount of load needed to
compensate for the lost generation. Using IEC61850 GOOSE messages, GE’s
FLS can initiate load shed actions within 15ms of the contingency detected.

GE’s FLS solution utilizes existing protection relays distributed across the
facility.

Facility Protection Relays are used to:

• Monitor the availability of all infeeds
• Measure the power input of all infeeds
• Supervise the status of all loads
• Calculate the amount of power consumed by each load
• Transfers information to Load Shed controller using Ethernet communications
– no hard wiring required
• Execute local tripping command provided by the Load shed controller

Load 1 Load 2 Load n-1 Load n

Fast Load Shedding Solution Operation

• P&C relays send load/infeed power measurements and their availability to • Based on the priorities set by the operator, the FLS algorithms will
the Load Shedding controller using IEC 61850 GOOSE messages or other dynamically shed only the loads groups needed to match the amount of
legacy protocols. generation lost.
• GE’s Load Shedding controller receives notification of a loss of an infeed • GE’s proven algorithms have been verified and validated to operate in under
from the P&C relays using IEC 61850 GOOSE messages. 15ms from the time the loss of infeed has been detected.
• For additional reliability, redundant Load Shedding controllers can be used.

Main GPG RT Controller Backup GPG RT Controller HMI, SCADA

Trip to initiate FLS

Backbone For FLS

Ethernet Network

SW 3 SW 4
Power
Substation 1 Measurement
SW 1 SW 2 and infeed/load
availability

GE or 3rd Party IEDs

GE’s Fast Load Shedding solution is a Protection Relay based system that uses high-speed communications to
minimize cost of deployment and maximize the scalability and flexibility of the system.

2 GEGridSolutions.com
PowerNode: Secondary Load Shedding Solution GPG RT Controller
The GPG RT Controller
In addition to Fast Load Shedding, the GE’s Load Shedding controller can also
makes load shedding
accommodate other secondary shedding requirements.
decisions and issues
Secondary industrial load shedding is focused on: shedding commands to the
relays
• Electrical stability: Customized load shedding solutions based on power,
frequency or voltage moving out of acceptable limits. Scenarios executed IEC61850
by the Load Shedding controller can operate with times from 100ms to
several seconds after the power instability was detected by the protection
relays. P&C Relays
Protection relays are used
• Demand Response: Due to the increasing instability of the grid caused
to measure frequency,
by renewable integration, grid operators are increasing the pressure on
industrial consumers to participate in load demand control scenarios. voltage and power outside
Demand Response solutions can help facilities generate revenue through their normal operation
market participation as well as comply with grid requirements. values
• Peak Shaving: Focuses on intelligently limiting utility peak power
consumption to reduce a facilities electricity bill.

GPG RT Controller
The GPG RT Controller is a real-time controller that hosts GE’s Load Shedding
Communication Protocols Supported
solution and other power system control applications. The GPG RT Controller
• IEC 61850 Server/Client Ed.1 and Ed.2 (MMS and GOOSE)
has been designed to be compliant with IEC 61850-3, which is an international
hardware standard for communication networks and systems in power • C37.118 and IEC61850-90-5 Synchrophasor Protocol.
substations. Supporting international cybersecurity standard, the GPG RT • IEC 60870-5-101/104 Server/Client.
Controller is the backbone of GE’s industrial power solutions that ensure • DNP3 Master/Slave RTU and TCP
reliable and secure operation for improving the reliability of industrial power • IEEE 1588, Irig-B and NTP client time synchronization
networks.
• Modbus RTU/TCP Master/Slave.
• IEC 6070-5-103 Master.
Hardware Specifications
• OPC DA & AE Server/Client.
• Certification: IEC 61850-3, IEEE 1613, CE, FCC Class A, UL, CCC
• OPC UA Server
• -20 to 70 degree Celcius operating temperature
• EGD Producer
• Mounting: 2U/19” Rack mount
• System Design: Fanless, with no internal cabling
• OS Support: RTOS VxWorks and Windows Embedded.
• Power Supply: Redundant 100 ~ 240 VAC (47 ~ 63 Hz) DC: 100 ~ 240 VDC
DC: 48VDC
• PRP & HSR Ethernet redundancy.
• Two expansion slots to increase serial and Ethernet port types and
quantity.

For more information please contact

GE Renewable Energy
Grid Solutions
Worldwide Contact Center
Web: www.GEGridSolutions.com/contact
Phone: +44 (0) 1785 250 070

IEC is a registered trademark of Commission Electrotechnique Internationale. IEEE is a registered

trademark of the Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers, Inc. Modbus is a registered trademark
of Schneider Automation. NERC is a registered trademark of North American Electric Reliability
Council. NIST is a registered trademark of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
GE and the GE monogram are trademarks of General Electric Company.
GE reserves the right to make changes to specifications of products described at any time without
notice and without obligation to notify any person of such changes.
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