The Impact of Virtualisation Techniques on Power System Control Networks

Friederich Kupzog,Peter Dorfinger,Ferdinand Von Tüllenburg,Ulrich Pache,Oliver Jung,Oliver Langthaler,Reinhard Frank,Alexander Heinisch,Armin Veichtlbauer

doi:10.3390/electronics9091433

Abstract

Virtualisation is a concept successfully applied to IT systems. In this work, we analyse how virtualisation approaches, such as edge computing, brokerage and software-defined networking, can be applied in the area of electricity grid management and control systems. Power system information and communications technology is currently subject to significant changes. Networked power grid components including renewable energy units, electric vehicles and heat pumps need to be integrated into grid management systems. We studied how virtualisation techniques can support system operators in increasing an energy and communication system’s dependability and situational awareness, and how manual (mostly field-level) configuration and engineering efforts can be reduced. Starting from a working hypothesis, three concrete use-cases were implemented and the performance enhancements were benchmarked to allow for well-informed answers to the questions above. We took a close look at application-protocol-independent redundancy, grid-based routing and online system integrity control. In these study cases, we found significant improvements could be achieved with virtualisation in terms of reduced engineering effort, better system management and simplification in high-level system architecture, since implementation details are hidden by the virtualisation approach.

Highlights

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a key role in the integration of renewable energies into existing power grid infrastructures
In order to systematically assess the potential benefits of virtualisation approaches in the context of power system ICT, we studied the following three use-cases and implemented new solutions for them: Application protocol independent redundancy: Virtualisation supports the openness of existing infrastructures for new protocol stacks and the integration of non-IP traffic, including legacy protocols
We argue that the engineering effort implementing use-cases on the application plane can be reduced using virtualisation techniques because the control-plane layer encapsulates the complexity of the lower-level systems

Summary

Introduction

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a key role in the integration of renewable energies into existing power grid infrastructures. Electronics 2020, 9, 1433 new requirements for existing energy systems are evolving, such as the need for sector coupling and efficient implementation of energy communities [2] This includes the integration of a large number of new system components either into the core infrastructure control systems, or into networks of grid-connected entities such as energy communities or virtual power plants. Under these circumstances it seems grossly insufficient to merely scale up the existing ICT systems of today’s distribution grid operation and enhance them with a state-of-the-art security concept [3].

Objectives

Results

Conclusion