SMART GRID

COMMUNICATIONS AND
MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY
By Dr. Lopamudra Mitra
• Ultimately, high - speed, fully integrated, two - way
communication technologies will allow the smart
grid to be a dynamic, interactive mega -
infrastructure for real - time information and
power exchange.

• Moreover, open architecture ’ s plug - and - play

environment will provide secure network smart
sensors and control devices, control centers,
protection systems, and users.
Possible wired and wireless communications technologies can
include:

1. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS): high - performance

telecommunications networks for data transmission
between network nodes

2. Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax):

wireless telecommunication technology for point to multipoint
data transmission utilizing Internet technology

3. Broadband over Power Lines (BPL):

power line communication with Internet access

4. Wi-Fi: commonly used wireless local area network

Additional technologies include optical fibre, mesh, and
multipoint spread spectrum.

The five characteristics of smart grid communications

technology are:

1. High bandwidth
2. IP - enabled digital communication (IPv6 support is
preferable)
3. Encryption
4. Cyber security
5. Support and quality of service and Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP)
Local Area Network
It consists of two or more components and high – capacity disk storage (file servers), which
allow each computer in a network to access a common set of rules.

LAN has operating system software which interprets input, instructs

network devices, and allows users to communicate with each other. Each hardware device
(computer, printer, and so on) on a LAN is a node.

The LAN can operate or integrate up to several hundred computers. LAN combines high
speed with a geographical spread of 1 – 10 km. LAN may also access other LANs or tap into
Wide Area Networks.

LAN with similar architectures are bridges which act as transfer points, while LAN with
different architectures are gateways which convert data as it passes between systems.

LAN is a shared access technology, meaning that all of the attached devices share a
common medium of communication such as coaxial, twisted pair, or fibre optics cable.

A physical connection device, the Network Interface Card (NIC), connects to the
network. The network software manages communication between stations on the system.
The special attributes and advantages of LAN include:

• Resource sharing: allows intelligent devices such as storage devices, programs,

and data files to share resources, that is, LAN users can use the same printer on
the network; the installed database and the software can be shared by multiple
Users

• Area covered: LAN is normally restricted to a small geographical area, for

example, office building, utility, campus

• Cost and availability: application software and interface devices are affordable
and off - the – shelf

• High channel speed: ability to transfer data at rates between 1 and 10 million
bits per second

• Flexibility: grow/expand with low probability of error; easy to maintain and

operate
LAN has three categories of data transmission:
1. Unicast transmission: a single data packet is sent from a source node to a destination
(address) on the network
2. Multicast transmission: a single data packet is copied and sent to a specific
subset of nodes on the network; the source node addresses the packet by using
the multicast addresses.
3. Broadcast transmission: a single data packet is copied and sent to all nodes on the
network; the source node addresses the packet by using the broadcast address
LAN topologies define how network devices are organized. The four most common
architectural structures are:
1. Bus topology: linear LAN architecture in which transmission from network
station propagates the length of the medium and is received by all other stations
connected to it
2. Ring bus topology: a series of devices connected to one another by unidirectional
transmission links to form a single closed loop
3. Star topology: the end points on a network are connected to a common central
hub or switch by dedicated links
4. Tree topology: identical to the bus topology except that branches with multiple
nodes are also possible.

The devices and software used in LAN utilize a standard protocol such as Ethernet/
IEEE 802.3, Token Ring/IEEE 802.5 or 880.2
Home Access Network is a LAN confined to an individual home. It enables
remote control of automated digital devices and appliances throughout the house.
Smart meters, smart appliances and Web - based monitoring can be integrated into this
level.
Neighbourhood Area Network (NAN) is a wireless community currently used for
wireless local distribution applications. Ideally, it will cover an area larger than a LAN.
Some architectural structures will focus on the integration and interoperability of
the various domains within the smart grid. Domains consist of groups of buildings,
systems, individuals, or devices which have similar communications characteristics:
• Bulk generation: includes market services interface, plant control system, and
generators; this domain interacts with the market operations and transmission
domains through wide area networks, substation LANs, and the Internet
• Transmission : includes substation devices and controllers, data collectors, and
electric storage; this domain interacts with bulk generation and operations
through WANs and substation LANs; integrated with the distribution domain
• Distribution: this domain interacts with operations and customers through Field
Area Networks
• Customer: includes customer equipment, metering, Energy Management
Systems (EMS), electric storage, appliances, PHEVs, and so on
• Service Providers: includes utility and third party providers which handle
billing customer services, and so on; this domain interacts with operations and
customers primarily through the Internet
• Operations : includes EMS, Web Access Management System (WAMS), and
SCADA; this domain can be sub - divided into ISO/RTO, transmission, and
distribution
• Market: includes /ISOs/RTOs, aggregators, and other market participants
Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS)
WAMS are designed by the utilities for optimal capacity of the transmission grid
and to prevent the spread of disturbances. By providing real - time information on
stability and operating safety margins, WAMS give early warnings of system
disturbances for the prevention and mitigation of system - wide blackouts.

WAMS utilize sensors distributed throughout the network in conjunction with GPS
satellites for precise time stamping of measurements in the transmission system.

The integrated sensors will interface with the communication network. Phasor
Measurements are a current technology that is a component of most smart grid
designs.
Phasor Measurement Units (PMU)
Phasor Measurement Units or Synchrophasors give operators a time - stamped snapshot
of the power system.

The PMUs consist of bus voltage phasors and branch current phasors, in addition to
information such as locations and other network parameters.

Phasor measurements are taken with high precision from different points of the power
system at the same instant, allowing an operator to visualize the exact angular
difference between different locations.

PMUs are equipped with GPS receivers which allow synchronization of readings taken
at distant point. Microprocessor – based instrumentation such as protection relays and
Disturbance Fault Recorders (DFRs) incorporate the PMU module with other existing
functionalities as an extended feature.

The IEEE standard on Synchrophasors specifies the protocol for communicating the
PMU data to the Phasor Data Concentrator.
PMUs ensure voltage and current with high accuracy at a rate of 2.88 kHz. They
can calculate real power, reactive power, frequency, and phase angle 12 times per 50
hertz cycle. The actual sampling rate used to achieve this output is 1.4 MHz .

Recent trends now require fast controls and online implementations for mitigating
voltage collapse in the shortest, least - cost time [8] . Over the years, researchers and
engineers have found PMUs are suitable for monitoring and control of voltage stability
PMUs.

Offering wide - area situational awareness, phasor measurement work to ease

congestion, bottlenecks and mitigate — or even prevent — blackouts. When integrated
with Smart Grid communications technologies, the measurements taken will provide
dynamic visibility into the power system. Adoption of the Smart Grid with real time
measurement will enhance every facet of the electric delivery system including
generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption. It will increase the
possibilities of distributed generation, bringing generation closer to those it serves.

Additional utility monitoring systems include dynamic line rating technology,

conductor sensors, insulation contamination leakage current, backscatter radios
technology, electronic instrument transformers, and monitors for circuit breaker,
cables, batteries, temperature, and current frequency and so on.
Smart Meters
 Smart meters have two functions: providing data on energy usage to customers
(end -users) to help control cost and consumption; sending data to the utility
for load factor control, peak - load requirements, and the development of
pricing strategies based on consumption information and so on Automated
data reading is an additional component of both smart meters and two - way
communication between customers and utilities. The development of smart
meters is planned for electricity, water, and gas consumption .
 Smart meters equip utility customers with knowledge about how much they
pay per kilowatt hour and how and when they use energy. This will result in
better pricing information and more accurate bills in addition to ensuring faster
outage detection and restoration by the utility.
 Additional features will allow for demand - response rates, tax credits, tariff
options, and participation in voluntary rewards programs for reduced
consumption. Still other features will include remote connect/disconnect of
users, appliance control and monitoring, smart thermostat, enhanced grid
monitoring, switching, and prepaid metering.

With governmental assistance, large - scale deployment of smart meters has begun
throughout the country. Academic participation in the research and development
of metering tools and techniques for network analysis enhancement and the use of
smart meter outputs for voltage stability and security assessment and
enhancement have been proposed.
Smart Appliances

Smart appliances cycle up and down in response to signals sent by the utility. The
applicances enable customers to participate in voluntary demand response
programs which award credits for limiting power use in peak demand periods or
when the grid is under stress. An override function allows customers to control their
appliances using the Internet.

Air conditioners, space heaters, water heaters, refrigerators, washers, and dryers
represent about 20% of total electric demand during most of the day and
throughout the year . Grid - friendly appliances use a simple computer chip that can
sense disturbances in the grid ’ s power frequency and can turn an appliance off for
a few minutes to allow the grid to stabilize during a crisis.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
AMI is the convergence of the grid, the communication infrastructure, and the
supporting information infrastructure. The network - centric AMI coupled with
the lack of a composite set of cross industry AMI security requirements and
implementation guidance, is the primary motivation for its development.

The problem domains to be addressed within AMI implementations are

relatively new to the utility industry; however, precedence exists for
implementing large - scale, network - centric solutions with high information
assurance requirements.

The defense, cable, and telecom industries offer many examples of

requirements, standards, and best practices that are directly applicable to AMI
implementations.
The functions of AMI can be subdivided into three major categories:
• Market applications: serve to reduce/eliminate labour, transportation,
and infrastructure costs associated with meter reading and maintenance,
increase accuracy component of both smart meters and two – way
communication between customers and utilities. The development of smart
meters is planned for electricity, water, and gas consumption of billing, and
allow for time - based rates while reducing bad debts; facilitates informed
customer participation for energy management.

• Customer applications: serves to increase customer awareness about load

reduction, reduces bad debt, and improves cash flow, and enhances
customer convenience and satisfaction; provides demand response and
load management to improve system reliability and performance.

• Distribution operations: curtails customer load for grid management,

optimizes network based on data collected, allows for the location of
outages and restoration of service, improves customer satisfaction, reduces
energy losses, improves performance in event of outage with reduced
outage duration and optimization of the distribution system and distributed
generation management, provides emergency demand response.
GIS AND GOOGLE MAPPING TOOLS

GIS is useful for managing traditional electric transmission and distribution and
telecom networks. It can also help to manage information about utility assets for data
collection and maintenance.

Google ’ s free downloadable Google Earth software offers geographical contextual

information in an updated user - friendly platform that facilitates inquiry - based
study and analysis. Users can create and share many types of dynamically - updating
data over the Internet. Keyhole Markup Language (KML) allows them to overlay basic
data types such as images, point data, lines, and polygons .

Through satellite imagery, maps are available from space to street - level. The
integration of GIS with Google Earth or other mapping tools will aid in understanding
the relationship of the grid network to its surroundings, for example, determining the
optimal location of rights of way, placement of sensors and poles, and so on. GIS
technology will provide partial context to operators and planners, for example, real -
time sensors that collect the data needed to reconfigure networks for reducing
outages and equipment failures.
The trends in the development of the electric power system and the
expectation of future demand suggest the following needs:

1. Reducing outage time

2. Preventing power theft which causes signifi cant unaccounted losses
3. Effective system for collection and billing system
4. Expanding services for customers
5. Effective asset management
6. Improving reliability such as SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration
Index) and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) for
distribution
Networks
7. Improving analysis of customer complaint logs
8. Enhancing load flow power quality analysis and fault study for current and
anticipated problems
9. Scheduling of actions such as load shedding and vegetation control
MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS (MAS) TECHNOLOGY
MAS are a computational system in which several agents cooperate to achieve a
desired task. The performance of MAS can be decided by the interactions among
various agents. Agents cooperate to achieve more than if they act individually.

Multi-agent Specifi cations

In this section, the specifi cations of a control agent, a distributed energy resource
(DER) agent, a user agent, and a database agent in the Intelligent Distributed
Autonomous Power System (IDAPS) MAS are defined.
1. Control agent: responsibilities include monitoring system voltage and frequency to
detect contingency situations or grid failures, and sending signals to the main circuit
breaker to isolate the IDAPS microgrid from the utility when an upstream outage is
detected; receiving electricity price ($/kWh) signal from the main grid, which may
be obtained from AMI, and publishing them to the IDAPS entities.

2. DER agent: responsibilities include storing associated DER information, monitoring

and controlling DER power levels and connect/disconnect status; DER information to be
stored may include DER identification number, type (solar cells, micro-turbines, fuel
cells), power rating (kW), local fuel availability, cost function or price at which users
agree to sell, DER availability, that is, planned maintenance schedule)
3. User agent: acts as a customer gateway that makes features of an IDAPS microgrid
accessible to users; responsibilities include providing users with real –time
information on entities residing in the IDAPS system; monitors electricity
consumption by each critical and noncritical load; allows users to control the
status of loads based on user ’ s predefined priority.

4. Database agent: serves as a data access point for other agents as well as users;
responsibilities include storing system information, recording messages and data
shared among agents.
Multi-agent Technique

An agent of a MAS may be defined as an entity with attributes considered useful in a

particular domain. In this framework, an agent is an information processor that
performs autonomous actions based on information. Common agent attributes include:

• Autonomy: goal - directedness, proactive and self - starting behaviour

• Collaborative behaviour: the ability to work with other agents to achieve a common
Goal

• Knowledge - level communication ability: the ability to communicate with other

agents with language resembling human speech acts rather than typical symbol -
level program - to - program protocols

• Reactivity: the ability to selectively sense and act

• Temporal continuity: persistence of identity and state over long periods

MAS can be characterized by:

• Each agent has incomplete capabilities to solve a problem

• No global system control

• Decentralized data

• Asynchronous computation

An example of MAS architecture in action is a power failure on board a ship

that is caused by an internal system error, an external contingency from battle,
and so on.
6LoWPAN
6LoWPAN stands for IPv6 over Low-power Wireless Personal Area Network, a
communication stack based on IPv6 protocol for low power devices.

6LoWPAN PROTOCOL STACK AND ARCHITECTURE:

The 6LoWPAN architecture is made up of low-power wireless area networks

(LoWPANs), which are IPv6 subnetwork. It means a LoWPAN is the collection of
6LoWPAN nodes, which share a common IPv6 address prefix (the first 64-bits of an IPv6
address).

LoWPAN nodes may play the role of host or router, along with one or more edge
routers, as seen in Fig. 1. There are three types of LoWPANs which are Simple
LoWPANs, Extended LoWPANs, and Ad hoc LoWPANs .

A Simple LoWPAN is connected through one LoWPAN Edge Router to another IP

network. An Extended LoWPAN consists of multiple edge routers along with a
backbone link to interconnect them. An Ad hoc LoWPAN is not connected to the
Internet and operates without an infrastructure.
 6LoWPAN only supports IPv6, for which a small adaptation layer
(LoWPAN) has been defined to optimize IPv6 over link layers.

Although 6LoWPAN is not bound to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard,

it is designed to utilize it.
Zigbee Smart Energy Features
Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (SEP2.0) adopts the IPv6 architecture and the use of
communications technology entities will no longer be limited to the IEEE 802.15.4. It
supports IEEE 802.11.

Power-line technology, is a breakthrough in the development of network management

and features original number of devices and the transmission speed of the problem,
effective power systems and energy use in series end, and the smart to meet the
power system control function planning.

SEP2.0 supports the same physical layer (Physical Layer, PHY) specifications for a
variety of network, such as wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) and Power Line Communication (PLC),
etc., and can communicate with each standard room, and further expand the smart
grid control, as shown in the following functional description of each layer.