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GridBeats: What’s Next for Grid Automation Solutions

Author Mital Kanabar

GE Vernova’s Grid Automation business recently announced GridBeats – an innovative software-defined automation solutions portfolio. The announcement came live from DTECH 2024 in Orlando, FL, amid topical industry themes. The portfolio is designed to streamline grid digitalization, improve grid resilience, and empower utilities to manage their networks remotely, particularly in the face of the energy transition.

There’s no doubt that the power industry is facing significant changes: a new level of grid automation is required amid aging infrastructure, increasing energy demand, growing integration of renewables, a larger introduction to artificial intelligence and machine learning, and pressure towards decarbonization objectives (to name a few). And with that shift, power operators are turning their attention to software-based solutions and services. Why? Now, more than ever, we understand that customers are looking for more than just a piece of the puzzle (which in this case is a product) and hoping that they’ll obtain other pieces and ultimately integrate them. Instead, they’re looking into the digital space where the grid is confronting challenges in terms of resiliency and reliability. Ultimately, utilities are looking for more holistic solutions that address their pain points. Which is why the focus of this portfolio comes down to the customer experience.

Traditionally, grid automation systems were (and still are) based on vendor-specific hardware platforms. Moving to vendor-agnostic hardware with real-time software applications that are scalable, flexible, and ready to interface with new artificial intelligence or machine learning apps will improve visibility across the grid.

The GridBeats portfolio includes five main solutions:

GridBeats: Integrated Digital Substation
This solution uses software-defined protection and control and advanced wide-area
applications for rapid deployment ultimately future-proofing the grid. In this use-case, it can be used for software-defined applications such as substation automation, protection, and control, with contemporary top-down engineering tool and advanced wide-area applications. This solution helps reduce time to value through fast deployment, increased reliability, and better flexibility.
 

GridBeats: EnergyAPM
Predictive monitoring and diagnostics via a live data feed and Digital Twin technology reduce downtime and costs. This asset performance management (APM) application reduces downtime and maintenance costs through predictive and prescriptive diagnostics that utilize online and offline operational data and physics-based digital twins of the grid assets.
 

GridBeats: Device Management
This bracket increases visibility across the entire fleet with technologies such as auto-detection, remote provisioning, and health monitoring. It also provides reduced O&M costs, hence increased system reliability.
 

GridBeats: Network Management System
Allows you to monitor and take action on multi-vendor networks through enhanced network devices. This application maximizes your telecommunication network’s return on investment by increasing system throughput and uptime. It also improves the utilization of networked devices and acts on a multi-vendor network system.
 

GridBeats: Zonal Autonomous Control
This allows users to split their network(s) into autonomous sections, allowing these zones to recover at faster speeds should a disruption occur, hence improving reliability. This is real cutting-edge application allows distributed grid edge intelligence by splitting the grid network into autonomous zones, enhancing resilience and reliability and allows for adaptive, self-managed, and resilient sufficient zones.


GridBeats helps improve monitoring, control, and communications both within substations and across substations. The acceleration of the transmission, distribution, and industrial grid's digitalization journey is made possible through: 1) an increase in resilience and reliability, through faster control applications, federated grid models and AI/ML based advanced automation applications; 2) better visibility from the area-level down to the individual asset level with accurate sensors and reliable communications infrastructure including cybersecurity applications; and 3) advanced flexibility that is enabled by software-defined automation applications.

For more information about this portfolio, watch the live announcement on LinkedIn Live here. This is the future, but we can help you today.

About the Author

Dr. Mital Kanabar is the Senior Director of Innovation at GE Vernova’s Grid Solutions’ Grid Automation business in Toronto, Canada. He has more than 15 years of power industry R&D experience, holds more than 20 international patent applications, and has published more than 50 articles. Mital is also serves as a Chair and Vice-Chair of three Working Groups at the IEEE PES Power System Relaying Committee. Mital focuses on customer-centric innovations and collaboration to accelerate Technology Readiness Levels and validate Cost-Benefit Analysis. He has led R&D efforts in digital substation and software systems, renewables integration algorithms, synchrophasor applications, distributed energy resources, and microgrids. He holds a Ph.D. from Western University and degrees in electrical engineering from Sardar Patel University and the Indian Institute of Technology.

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