11 - Wireless MEMS for smart grids

Abstract

A smart grid (SG) can be described as the next generation power grid, in which not only generation, transmission, and distribution of power but also utilization and management aspects of the grid are upgraded to improve the grid's reliability, efficiency, flexibility, scalability, safety, security, and environmental friendliness. Different from the traditional power grid, the SG relies on a two-way communication infrastructure and its overall performance is optimized using a number of existing and emerging technologies, including wireless sensor networks and other communication technologies, smart sensor devices, automation systems, monitoring, computers, and renewable energy solutions. As the SG relies on a set of core and aiding systems and software applications with different communication and quality of service requirements, heterogeneous communication technologies are required for facilitating communications and data sharing between its applications. Continuous and real-time monitoring and enhanced control capabilities are extremely important for SG applications. However, complex and harsh power system environments pose great challenges in the reliability of wireless communications, and hence wireless links exhibit widely varying characteristics over time and space. As a result, typical wireless communication issues, such as high bit error rate, retransmissions, variable link capacity, variations in latency, multi-path and fading, are commonly experienced in SG environments. In this respect, new solutions considering the requirements of SG applications are highly demanded. In this chapter, we mainly focus on the use of wireless micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) for SG applications and present its advantages. Moreover, we investigate the challenges and open research issues of wireless MEMS to provide insight into future research opportunities for the use of wireless MEMS in power system environments.