National Grid's approach to commissioning of smart grid pilot devices

National Grid is currently in the final stages of the implementation of its Smart Grid Pilot in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. The deployment required the installation and commissioning of 188 devices including 65 advanced distribution switching devices, 44 advanced capacitor controls, 13 remote fault indicators and 34 monitoring devices. Such task required the creation of commissioning processes that could accommodate the features and characteristics of equipment that, in some cases, was to be installed for the first time in National Grid's territory. The present work will describe the philosophy, experience and learnings that National Grid gained during the development and implementation of the commissioning processes used in the deployment of the grid facing portion of the…