Smart Grid Communication Technologies Research Articles

Integration of LiFi, BPL, and Fiber Optic Technologies in Smart Grid Backbone Networks: A Proposal for Exploiting the LiFi LED Street Lighting Networks of Power Utilities and Smart Cities

This paper presents a proposal for extending an existing terabit-class backbone network architecture to enable the use of LiFi technology by power utilities and smart cities. The proposed architecture provides a practical means of integrating three smart grid communication technologies—fiber optics, BPL networks and LiFi LED street lighting networks—across the transmission and distribution power grids of smart cities. In addition to expanding the backbone communications network architecture, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of LiFi technology and analyzes the concept of LiFi LED street lighting networks in a smart city. The analytical investigation of the operation and performance of LiFi LED street lighting networks focuses on the following aspects: (i) typical LED street lighting configurations and default configuration parameter values encountered in smart sustainable cities; (ii) the applied LiFi channel model and corresponding default model parameters; (iii) SNR computations and LiFi channel classifications for a variety of scenarios; and (iv) available LiFi LED street lighting network architectures for integrating LiFi LED street lighting networks with the backbone network. The paper also discusses the potential benefits of LiFi LED street lighting networks for power utilities, smart cities and individuals.

MAKA: Multi-Factor Authentication and Key Agreement Scheme for LoRa-Based Smart Grid Communication Services

The Smart Grid (SG) is an emerging technology to maintain an actual balance between energy production and usage by offering quite well tracking and regulation over the SG communication technology. However, SG technology becomes more vulnerable to network attacks since its monitoring and controlling are carried out over standard internet-based protocols or on public communication networks. Thus, without the involvement of an authentication mechanism and lack of privacy preservation attackers easily succeed to tamper with the communication channel and send fabricated messages. Hence, authentication has now become a critical security aspect in smart grid technology. There are some authentication mechanisms implemented in the literature to offer a set of security services, namely confidentiality of the credentials, the secrecy of shared session key, and secure mutual authentication. Most of the existing schemes are inefficient and generate high overhead in the networks. Hence, there is a requirement to implement an efficient and secure session key management scheme. The proposed Multi-factor Authentication and Key Agreement (MAKA) scheme for LoRa-based SG communication services provides anonymity and maintains secrecy of the session keys by introducing multi-factor authentication of the end devices. The proposed scheme uses unique device features and generates a fingerprint of the device that will help to maintain user anonymity. The formal security analysis of the proposed MAKA scheme is carried out by Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Application (AVISPA) and ProVerif tools. The results of both show that the proposed MAKA scheme is safe enough to overcome various security attacks. Moreover, the performance is evaluated concerning the existing scheme in the literature and it is recognized that the proposed MAKA scheme generates competitive communication, computation, and storage overheads. In addition, it maintains the device anonymity and meets the security aspect of the SG communication services.

A Review of the Smart Grid Communication Technologies in Contactless Charging with Vehicle to Grid Integration Technology

Power needs to be transferred from the source to the load (electric vehicle). Transmitting electricity through the air gap for charging using electromagnetic waves as one of the smart grid technologies called Wireless Power Transfer (WPT), or Inductive Power Transfer. This paper presents the fulfilment of future gird that addresses the issues of Greenhouse Gas emission, and transportation and industries emissions known as the smart grid with a complex system. The complexity of the smart grid communication system is the motivation to be an open area of research issue. The main contribution of this paper is to close the gap between this research and other researches by delivering a comprehensive review and update the recent state-of-the-art of smart grid communication technologies with the integration of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology using the contactless charging method. Smart grid communication technologies with their pros and cons, topologies of wireless communication, challenges of the V2G, WPT challenges, and standards are discussed. Therefore, this study is expected to be a significant guide to engineers and researchers studying in the field of smart grid communication technologies and contactless charging for electric vehicles.

An Optimal Uplink Scheduling in Heterogeneous PLC and LTE Communication for Delay-aware Smart Grid Applications

Smart grid is an energy network that integrates advanced power equipment, communication technology and control technology. It can transmit two-way power and data among all components of the grid at the same time. The existing smart grid communication technologies include power line carrier (PLC) communication, industrial Ethernet, passive optical networks and wireless communication,each of which have different advantages. Due to the complex application scenarios, massive sampling points and high transmission reliability requirements, a single communication method cannot fully meet the communication requirements of smart grid, and heterogeneous communication modes are required. In addition, with the development of cellular technology, long term evolution (LTE)-based standards have been identified as a promising technology that can meet the strict requirements of various operations in smart grid. In this paper, we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of PLC and LTE communication, and design a network framework for PLC and LTE communication uplink heterogeneous communication in smart grid. Then, we propose an uplink scheduling transmission method for sampling data with optimized throughput according to the requirements of system delay and reliability. Then, we use the formula derivation to prove the stability and solvability of the scheduling system in theory. Finally, the simulation results show that under the condition of satisfying the delay requirement, our proposed framework can optimally allocate the wireless communication resource and maximize the throughput of the uplink transmission system.

Cloud-Fog-based approach for Smart Grid monitoring

Continual, safe, secure, reliable, and efficient delivery of high-quality power is the main goal of the Smart Grid (SG) defined as the energy network integrated with the novel Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This paper focuses on the development of communication system models to be used for voltage profile monitoring and power losses estimation in SG. Existing research on communication technologies in SG is briefly overviewed with the main focus on Cloud and Fog computing approaches. With rising numbers of smart devices in SG, the amount of measurement data rapidly increases demanding more efficient communication architectures. Two communication architectures are selected and modeled with the main goal to support real-time monitoring and data analysis in SG. Cloud- and Cloud-Fog-based approaches are proposed and analyzed as communication system models for SG real-time monitoring. Posting immense quantities of data on Cloud commonly represents a serious challenge due to latency, locality, and network congestion. The best approach to overcome Cloud challenges is to perform decentralized and intelligent processing closer to the location where data are being generated, which is known as Fog computing. A MATLAB/Simulink-based model of a well-known IEEE test grid topology is modified to support real-time communication with open source IoT platform ThingSpeak used for Cloud computing. Fog computing layer is conceptualized to be located in the main distribution substation and it is modeled by MATLAB function blocks. The proposed modeling procedure is given step by step to highlight the most important building blocks necessary for creating a combined power and communication system model capable of providing meaningful data related to SG monitoring. The developed model is tested using simulation events common in distribution networks. The simulation results of Cloud and Cloud-Fog approaches for voltage profile monitoring and power losses calculation in SG have confirmed the benefits of the Cloud-Fog-based approach.

Mitigating Impulsive Noise for Wavelet-OFDM Powerline Communication

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is an important application of smart grid communication technology used for the remote monitoring and control of smart meters. Broadband powerline communication (BB-PLC) systems could perhaps be used for AMI; however, impulsive noise (IN) greatly degrades performance. In addition to the fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), IEEE 1901 specifications have defined the other physical layer called wavelet-based OFDM. Even though many existing studies have reported the IN mitigation algorithms for the FFT-based OFDM system, these approaches may not directly apply to the wavelet-OFDM-based PLC systems. In this paper, we propose a robust receiver for PLC systems based on wavelet-OFDM. The proposed receiver comprises a pre-IN mitigation block, an adaptive inverse discrete wavelet transform, and an iterative IN reconstruction block. The iterative cancellation of strong IN samples leads to a gradual improvement in the quality of the received signal. Instead of using the frequency domain approach, we reduce the inter-dependency of the channel estimation and per-subchannel equalization by using the time domain signal processing. Besides, we apply variable step-size adaptive algorithms to reduce the impact of IN during the training processes for the channel estimator and per-subchannel equalizer. In accordance with IEEE 1901 specifications, we built a simulation environment to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Simulation results demonstrated that conventional blanking devices fall short in terms of IN mitigation, and that the proposed scheme is able to achieve performance values approaching those obtained in cases without IN.

Emerging Smart Grid Communication Technology for Mitigating Power Distribution Network Problems

Communication network is an integral part of an intelligent based fully automated smart grid system. It plays an important role in the framework of the transition towards distribution side of the smart grid system. Power theft, Fault detection, Overloading etc. are some of the important issues on the power distribution networks. To address these issues, a novel Arduino based prototype model “Smart Electricity System” has been proposed in this paper. It includes global system for mobile communication (GSM) for its effective implementation on the distribution network. Moreover another novel feature, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is added to the proposed model. This is the key technology deployed on the distribution side of the smart grid system. The Uniqueness of the proposed model lies in the detection of power theft, where the information is sent to MSEB directly via interactive model of GSM 800 and APR voice kit, in the fault detection and its isolation by proper coordination between relay and Aurdino and in the overloading warning. Doing so, not only electricity is conserved but also the safety of living beings and protection of electrical appliances can be achieved effectively. Modern controllers with effective sensors are used to achieve all these issues for greater accuracy.

An Automatic Networking and Routing Algorithm for Mesh Network in PLC System

Power line communication (PLC) is considered to be one of the best communication technologies in smart grid. However, the topology of low voltage distribution network is complex, meanwhile power line channel has characteristics of time varying and attenuation, which lead to the unreliability of power line communication. In this paper, an automatic networking and routing algorithm is introduced which can be adapted to the "blind state" topology. The results of simulation and test show that the scheme is feasible, the routing overhead is small, and the load balance performance is good, which can achieve the establishment and maintenance of network quickly and effectively. The scheme is of great significance to improve the reliability of PLC.

Evaluation of Smart Grid Communication Technologies with a Co-Simulation Platform

In smart grids the bidirectional exchange of large amounts of data will create a keen interdependence between electric system and communication, automation and control systems. In order to assess the performance of communication technologies for smart grid applications and find the most appropriate, co-simulation tools are crucial to simulate the behavior of both physical and cyber systems simultaneously, and properly consider their mutual interaction in planning and operation studies. This article aims at evaluating some wireless and wired communication technologies for smart grid implementation. The analysis performed shows that wireless technologies are potentially suitable for smart grid applications, while a combination of mixed wireless and wired technologies may introduce latencies that cannot match with mission critical functions, such as network protection.

Distributed cooperative spectrum sensing with wireless sensor network cluster architecture for smart grid communications

Smart grid (SG) is widely considered as the next generation power grid. Recently, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have shown its advantages for SG by achieving low-power transmissions. However, SG communication technologies are subjects to ineffective spectrum allocation issues. Cognitive radio wireless sensor network (CRWSN) has been identified as a new technique for SG to face these challenges. CRWSN is a new research paradigm where WSN and cognitive radio are combined. In this paper, WSN with cluster tree topology is proposed as a compatible choice for SG design. We introduce CRWSN in to SG using cluster tree topology to improve the sensing performance and solve the rarity of spectrum by opening the underused licensed bands to secondary users. We adopt cluster distributed cooperative sensing as a method of spectrum sensing. We later evaluate the performance of this method under two distributed policies; OR and AND rules based on energy detection.

Smart grid fault detection and classification with multi‐distributed generation based on current signals approach

Smart grid (SG) containing clean distributed generation (DG) has gained intensive research for reliable digital protection against fault conditions. The main objective of this study is to develop and validate a fast and efficient fault detection and classification algorithm taking into account the dynamic behaviour of DG units. The proposed algorithm does not require additional measurements as it based only on the synchronised measured three-phase currents through the communication facilities available in SG. The advanced communication technologies in SG are currently utilised for efficient and real-time data transfer from the protective relays to the monitoring and protection centre. The transferred data are processed for fault diagnosing before taking the necessary trip actions. In the proposed algorithm, the statistical cross-alienation coefficients are calculated for the measured current signals at sending and receiving ends of each feeder. Fault detection and classification process will be achieved taking into account the changes in the synchronised and discretised waveform of current signals within a movable window of (1/4 cycle). The proposed algorithm is tested on real system to detect and classify the different fault condition. The results indicated that the proposed technique is fast and reliable for SG digital protection schemes.

A novel data collection mechanism for smart grids using public transportation buses

In this study, we propose a novel solution for collecting smart meter data by merging Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANET) and smart grid communication technologies. In our proposed mechanism, Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks are utilized for collecting data from smart meters, eliminating the need for manpower. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study proposing the utilization of public transportation vehicles for collecting data from smart meters. With this work, the use of the IEEE 802.11p protocol has been proposed for the first time for use in smart grid applications. In our scheme, data flows first from smart meters to a bus through infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communication and then from the bus to a bus stop through vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. The performance of our proposed mechanism has been investigated in detail in terms of end-to-end delay and delivery ratio by using Network Simulator-2 and with different routing protocols.

A Discussion of the Communication Technologies in Smart Grid

<p>With an increasing number of distributed renewable energy sources and higher requirements on the efficiency, reliability and security of existing power grid, Smart Grid is regarded as a significant evolution to the electric system. This paper mainly discusses the communication technologies applied in power grid from two aspects: cable technology and wireless technology. The former, such as DSL and PLC, is expensive, but it has broad deployment capability, strong communication capability, reliability and security. The latter could save the cost of installation, but it has limitation on bandwidth and security problems. In the future, grid features, system architecture, critical components, pilot projects of smart grid and its application and challenges after integrating with information and communication technology will be further discussed.</p>

Vertex Coloring based Slot Reuse Scheduling for Power Line Communications

Power line communication (PLC) is one of the major communication technologies in smart grid since it combines good communication capability with easy and simple deployment. As a power network can be modeled as a graph, we propose a vertex coloring based slot reuse scheduling in the time division multiple access (TDMA) period for PLCs. Our objective is to minimize the number of assigned time slots, while satisfying the quality of service (QoS) requirement of each station. Since the scheduling problem is NP-hard, we propose an efficient heuristic scheduling, which consists of repeated vertex coloring and slot reuse improvement algorithms. The simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm significantly reduces the total number of time slots.

Distributed Cooperative Spectrum Sensing with Wireless Sensor Network Cluster Architecture for Smart Grid Communications

Smart grid (SG) is widely considered as the next generation power grid. Recently, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have shown its advantages for SG by achieving low-power transmissions. However, SG communication technologies are subjects to ineffective spectrum allocation issues. Cognitive radio wireless sensor network (CRWSN) has been identified as a new technique for SG to face these challenges. CRWSN is a new research paradigm where WSN and cognitive radio are combined. In this paper, WSN with cluster tree topology is proposed as a compatible choice for SG design. We introduce CRWSN in to SG using cluster tree topology to improve the sensing performance and solve the rarity of spectrum by opening the underused licensed bands to secondary users. We adopt cluster distributed cooperative sensing as a method of spectrum sensing. We later evaluate the performance of this method under two distributed policies; OR and AND rules based on energy detection.

A multi-objective solution algorithm for optimum utilization of Smart Grid infrastructure towards social welfare

This paper proposes an optimization model to maximize social welfare by standardizing the operating conditions with an overall improvement of dynamic stability of power markets endowed with Smart Grid communication technology. The state space based model developed along with the proposed methodology maximizes load catering and simultaneously minimizes the operating standard constrained generation cost to restore power market equilibrium even in the most inadvertent states of the Energy System Network. For optimum utilization of smart metering facility, the model effectively involves resources like demand response, generation surplus and an efficient methodology to optimize the Market Clearing Price (MCP) as well as profit of the market participants by effective categorization. The power market dynamic price equilibrium has been estimated by forming Jacobian of the sensitivity matrix to regulate the state variables for the standardization of the quality of solution. A novel load curtailment strategy has also been proposed to amalgam stability restoring shedding with profit retentive load cut. The model has been tested in IEEE 30 bus system in comparison with standard curtailment based optimization technique to produce encouraging results.

Smart Grid Communication: Its Challenges and Opportunities

The necessity to promote smart grid (SG) has been recognized with a strong consensus. The SG integrates electrical grids and communication infrastructures and forms an intelligent electricity network working with all connected components to deliver sustainable electricity supplies. Many advanced communication technologies have been identified for SG applications with a potential to significantly enhance the overall efficiency of power grids. In this paper, the challenges and applications of communication technologies in SG are discussed. In particular, we identify three major challenges to implement SG communication systems, including standards interoperability, cognitive access to unlicensed radio spectra, and cyber security. The issues to implement SG communications on an evolutional path and its future trends are also addressed. The aim of this paper is to offer a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art researches on SG communications.

Communication technologies in smart grid

The role of communication technologies in Smart Grid lies in integration of large number of devices into one telecommunication system. This paper provides an overview of the technologies currently in use in electric power grid, that are not necessarily in compliance with the Smart Grid concept. Considering that the Smart Grid is open to the flow of information in all directions, it is necessary to provide reliability, protection and security of information.

Biform game based cognitive radio scheme for smart grid communications

Smart grid is widely considered to be a next generation power grid, which will be integrated with information feedback communications. However, smart grid communication technologies are subject to inefficient spectrum allocation problems. Cognitive radio networks can solve the problem of spectrum scarcity by opening the under-utilized licensed bands to secondary users. In this paper, adaptive cognitive radio spectrum sensing and sharing algorithms are developed for smart grid environments. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in comparison with other existing schemes.