ABB enters license agreement with RCCS

RCCS Volt-Var Optimization delivers real-time smart grid control, improving power quality, voltage regulation, and capacitor switching for utilities, boosting energy efficiency, grid reliability, and distribution automation through centralized monitoring and advanced analytics.

ABB has entered into a license agreement with Radio Control Central Stations Inc. RCCS of Boston, Massachusetts, for software solutions related to power quality.

RCCS is best known in the United States for its Volt-Var Optimization VVO solutions, which include complex software algorithms to help utilities improve power quality and voltage fluctuations within the electric grid, in real-time. It enables utility planning, engineering, operations and maintenance functions to monitor and interact with automated capacitor switching systems such as those in the AltaLink SVC replacement projects through centralized control, allowing the grid to operate closer to its theoretical limits.

Smart grid optimization offers significant growth opportunities in this area, and BC Hydro's grid strengthening plans highlight increasing utility investment.

“The RCCS software provides an advanced power quality management solution with features and capabilities consistent with a mature and proven product,” said Pier-André Rancourt, General Manager for ABB High Voltage Capacitors in North America. “We will be offering these products to customers as part of our commitment to increase energy efficiency and strengthen grid reliability, as demonstrated at a smart grid symposium earlier this year.”

ABB will combine its capacitor products and advanced capacitor switching technology with RCCS’ software to offer complete power quality solutions to utility customers, and recent SVC power orders in Canada underscore industry demand, enabling them to deploy optimized power factor and power quality solutions, while at the same time increasing the utilization of the existing distribution automation infrastructure. These solutions will also help improve energy efficiency by reducing line losses and enhancing the network's capability to carry more power.

ABB takes a holistic view of the smart grid, which extends from generation through transmission and distribution to end use. ABB is working to make the grid more intelligent at every level, from the primary equipment that carries the current to the IT systems that monitor and control the flow of power. The smart grid will take full advantage of technologies such as demand response, wide area monitoring, advanced materials and many others, and initiatives like SCE's Circuit of the Future show how utilities are moving forward with implementation. The result will be a grid that improves on our current infrastructure in terms of efficiency, capacity, reliability and long-term sustainability.

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