Survey PaperCommunication network requirements for major smart grid applications in HAN, NAN and WAN
Introduction
The existing U.S. electric power grid was built over 100 years ago with the aim to deliver electricity from large power stations to customers [1]. In the past decade, blackouts and grid failures have become a noticeable problem, which can cause great damages and inconvenience to people’s daily life [2]. There is thus a need to make the current electricity network more reliable, efficient, secure, and environmentally friendly. This can be achieved by the next-generation power grid, i.e., the smart grid, which is characterized by a two-way flow of electricity and information, creating an automated, widely distributed energy delivery network. With an emerging smart grid, various intelligent and automated applications can be enabled. These applications are such as home/building automation, automated meter reading, distribution automation, outage and restoration management and integration of electric vehicles [3].
Today’s electric power grid has become a complex network of networks, comprising both power and communication infrastructures, and several thousands of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) [4]. Communication networks provide necessary infrastructure allowing a utility to manage these devices from a central location. In the smart grid environment, heterogeneous communication technologies and architectures are involved. Communication networks should meet specific requirements, i.e., reliability, latency, bandwidth and security, depending on smart grid applications. The complexity of the smart grid may lead to difficulties in choosing appropriate communications networks as many parameters and different requirements must be taken into account depending on applications and utility expectations.
Authors in [5] provide a comprehensive tutorial about capability and requirements that the smart grid needs from both power and communications perspectives. Authors in [6] summarize application characteristics and traffic requirements of the communication infrastructure in the smart grid, while authors in [7] present a brief survey of selected transmission grid applications in terms of their bandwidth and latency requirements. Although existing wired and wireless communication technologies can be applied to the smart grid, establishing smart grid standards and protocols is an urgent issue for some devices, i.e., smart meters [8]. In the literature, smart grid technologies and standards are discussed to provide an overview of the smart grid paradigm and integration of different communication technologies [9], [10]. Some studies focus on a specific standard or communication technologies, i.e., smart metering [11], power line communication (PLC) [12], and wireless communication [13], [14]. Authors in [15] evaluate the network performance for a long-distance distribution line and proposed a communication architecture for distribution level applications. Additionally, selection of communication technologies for transmission-level applications has been addressed in [16].
As data size, latency and reliability requirements for different smart grid applications vary widely and are not easily obtainable to practitioners, this paper presents a comprehensive compilation of information from various use cases and smart grid-related standards on potential smart grid applications and their associated communication network requirements. These are discussed in terms of typical payload, data sampling requirements, as well as latency and reliability requirements for smart grid applications deployed in a Home Area Network (HAN), Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and Wide-Area Network (WAN). Additionally, the paper also discusses, based on selected smart grid projects around the world, various communication technologies that have been implemented to support real-world smart grid applications. It is the objective of this paper to provide a comprehensive database of communication technology requirements for different smart grid applications implemented at generation, transmission, distribution and customer levels.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the smart grid communication network architecture, and compares various communication technologies that can be deployed in the smart grid environment. Section 3 discusses network requirements to support smart grid applications in HAN, NAN and WAN, as well as challenges in smart grid communications. Section 4 presents communication technologies used to support selected real-world smart grid projects.
Section snippets
Communication network architecture and various technologies for the smart grid
The smart grid is an interactive platform, consisting of a power system layer, a control layer, a communication layer, a security layer and an application layer. See Fig. 1.
This architecture represents how a smart grid can be implemented. In general, a smart grid comprises: (1) a power system layer, which refers to power generation, transmission, distribution and customer systems; (2) a power control layer, which enables smart grid monitoring, control, and management functions; (3) a
Smart grid applications, network requirements and challenges in smart grid communications
Smart grid is a platform consisting of different domains, including generation, transmission, distribution, customers, service providers, operations and markets, to enable various applications. The generation domain is responsible for generating electricity from other forms of energy, e.g., fossil fuels, water, wind, solar radiation and geothermal heat. The transmission domain is responsible for transferring of electrical power from generation sources to distribution systems over long distances
Smart grid projects for major smart grid applications
It is understood that a successful smart grid project starts with a well-designed communications network and systems architecture. Selecting the right communication technologies is the fundamental component of this success. In various real-world smart grid implementations to be discussed below, many different communication technologies are deployed. In practice, an electric utility chooses to implement communication technologies that best fit its requirements after having evaluated current
Conclusion
This paper compiles network requirements for major smart grid applications, ranging from home/building automation, smart metering, distribution automation, to wide-area monitoring, control and protection from a variety of smart grid use cases and selected standards. With respect to network requirements, communication technologies with low cost and power consumption are required for customer premises area network applications; those with high reliability and low latency are required for NAN/FAN
Acknowledgement
This work was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant ECCS-1232076.
Murat Kuzlu joined Virginia Tech’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a post-doctoral fellow in 2011. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Kocaeli University, Turkey, in 2001, 2004, and 2010, respectively. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a Global Network Product Support Engineer at the Nortel Networks, Turkey. In 2006, he joined the Energy Institute of TUBITAK-MAM (Scientific and Technological Research Council
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Murat Kuzlu joined Virginia Tech’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a post-doctoral fellow in 2011. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Kocaeli University, Turkey, in 2001, 2004, and 2010, respectively. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a Global Network Product Support Engineer at the Nortel Networks, Turkey. In 2006, he joined the Energy Institute of TUBITAK-MAM (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey – The Marmara Research Center), where he worked as a senior researcher at the Power Electronic Technologies Department. His research interests include smart grid, demand response, smart metering systems, wireless communication and embedded systems.
Manisa Pipattanasomporn joined Virginia Tech’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor in 2006. She manages multiple research grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, on research topics related to smart grid, microgrid, energy efficiency, load control, renewable energy and electric vehicles. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2004, the M.S. degree in Energy Economics and Planning from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand in 2001 and a B.S. degree from the Electrical Engineering Department, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand in 1999. Her research interests include renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, and the smart grid.
Saifur Rahman is the director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech where he is the Joseph Loring Professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment at the university. In 2013 he is serving as the vice president for Publications of the IEEE Power & Energy Society and a member of its Governing Board. He is a member-at-large of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee. Professor Rahman is currently the chair of the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering. Between 1996 and 1999 he served as a program director in engineering at NSF. In 2006 he served as the vice president of the IEEE Publications Board, and a member of the IEEE Board of Governors. He is a distinguished lecturer of IEEE PES, and has published in the areas of smart grid, conventional and renewable energy systems, load forecasting, uncertainty evaluation and infrastructure planning.