Abstract
The appeal for more reliable, efficient and resilient power grids has become indispensable with the recent technological development and ever-increasing demand for electrical energy. These goals might be achieved by introducing sensors and actuators in the power grid, with the purpose of enabling a smart control of the power network. All power devices must be connected using a reliable communication network, which should be able to operate even when the power grid fails. Currently, several communication technologies have been applied for supporting this new application scenario. This article aims for reviewing both academic and market use cases for technologies applied to the mission-critical, control networks and Smart Grid applications, such as teleprotection, self-healing, communication with control centers and field devices, among others. More specifically, the key aspects, potential technologies, main protocols and use cases of operating data networks in energy transmission, power distribution and smart grid environments, including circuit and packet switching technologies, are discussed into details. Furthermore, resilience and the main telecommunications technologies used in power grids, as well, the correlation among them, are exploited in practical point of view. The article provides a broad discussion on the best telecommunication options to build the emerging intelligent energy distribution systems, covering control networks, teleprotection, and smart grid applications.
Highlights
The power grid designed to supply energy for all sectors of modern society started to be deployed 100 years ago and has been constantly evolved during this time frame, providing consumers with large-scale power [1]
Concerning the works mentioned above, the main contributions of this survey include a deep update focusing on smart grids and mission-critical topics, delving into aspects related to communication technologies employed to enable the applications demanded by these scenarios
Neighborhood Area Networks (NANs) are employed in the power distribution industry and are responsible for communicating smart grid measurements, enabling the interconnection of Home Area Network (HAN), Building Area Network (BAN), and Industrial Area Network (IAN) with Wide Area Network (WAN) of the power utilities [74]
Summary
The power grid designed to supply energy for all sectors of modern society started to be deployed 100 years ago and has been constantly evolved during this time frame, providing consumers with large-scale power [1]. Modern lifestyle is based on a high level of power consumption and there is a clear pattern showing that this consumption will considerably increase in all sectors during the years Given this scenario, the incorrect operation of a protection device can lead to the interruption of large power blocks and cascading shutdowns, causing major damage to the network, resulting in fines for the operator, limitation of essential services, and economic losses like the interruption of working hours and losses for consumers [12]. The dynamic and flexible grid configuration and the fast response for mission-critical legacy systems will demand agility that is not supported by this approach This survey will focus on solutions that could be used to migrate the energy control networks from the current static approach to modern flexible, programmable, and self-organizing solutions.
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