Smart Grid: ICT Control for Distributed Energy Resources

Abstract

The fact that the electrical grid represents a critical and complex infrastructure has prevented it from experiencing major breakthroughs during decades. Therefore, some problems and inefficiencies have been carried around for a long while, up to the point that traditional electrical grid is far away from being prepared to face incoming challenges, such as properly integrating the foreseen high penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), mainly intermittent and stochastic renewable generation, electric vehicles and energy storage, or proactively controlling the energy demand bymeans of the so-called Demand Response (DR) programs. As a result, the electrical grid is currently undergoing slowly but surely its inexorablemetamorphosis under the new paradigm of the so-called Smart Grid. This metamorphosis basically entails evolving from a highly centralized and static system, where few energy generators supply electricity to a huge number of consumption points without exchanging information in real time, into a highly distributed and dynamic system, with many low capacity, geographically distributed generators, which are able to communicate with the consumption points in order to coordinate and optimize their operation. Ensuring the balance and stability of the electrical grid under this new paradigm requires the deployment of a vast number of sensors and actuators which will generate an unprecedented huge amount of data. Thus, highperformance, reliable, secure, and scalable communications networks and Information Technologies (IT) systems play a central role in the Smart Grid, which is driving the next wave of research and innovation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The aim of this special issue was to gather high-quality cutting-edge research papers addressing the use of distributed sensor and actuator networks in SmartGrids, including topics such as novel ICT architectures, wireless and wired communications technologies, interoperability and conformance testing, big data and analytics, and cloud computing, and applications such as Advanced Metering Infrastructures (AMIS), Demand Response (DR), Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS), or transportation electrification. The special issue has attracted the submission of 17 papers. After a thorough peer-review process, seven papers have been accepted for publication. The topics covered in these papers range from Advanced Metering Infrastructures and Demand Response to substation automation and smart lighting, including wireless and powerline communications networks and cybersecurity.