Smart Grid Implementation Research Articles

How to develop research skills among undergraduate engineering students to tackle current ongoing topics? A Smart-Grid case study

The Smart-Grid approach, as a paramount worldwide issue, is a paradigm shift from the traditional way energy is produced, distributed, and used. It implies a complex multidisciplinary panorama which includes ongoing subjects for which traditional electrical and computer engineers are not entirely ready. As the implementation of Smart-Grid is imminent, high-skilled professionals are needed to absorb the research, labor, business, logistics, and innovation issues of today and tomorrow. This leads to a transformation of the education role for undergraduate programs which is now, accordingly, urged to build up students’ research skills. In this paper, a case study is presented to introduce and asses a new teaching/evaluation methodology intended to build critical thinking, objectivity, and ingenuity among mechanical–electrical undergraduate students during a one-semester course on Smart-Grid. The results show that the proposed technique may improve the aforementioned research skills within the group of students. Overall, the proposed methodology can be used as a protocol to guide new research cases and to frame similar educational proposals.

ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION FOR THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY: DOES SMART GRID MATTER

Russia has one of the highest levels of electricity consumption both per unit of GDP and per capita globally. This study quantifies the degree to which electricity consumption is influenced by population, personal income, industrial production, and other factors, utilising multiple regression of historical data from across the federal subjects of the Russian Federation from 2011 to 2016. We model regional-level electricity consumption to estimate the total electricity demand in each region. Implementation of smart grids must play an influential role in boosting energy efficiency and reduction of energy waste both for households and manufacturing processes. The motivation of our study is to try to answer three research questions, related to each other. First, what is the basic model to predict electricity consumption in Russian regions? Second, how to value smart grid penetration in Russian regions? The third, is there any statistically significant impact of smart grid implementation on electricity consumption? We utilise a sectoral approach, to assess the effect on a regional level and at a sectoral level as well.

Multi-Agent Systems in ICT Enabled Smart Grid: A Status Update on Technology Framework and Applications

Multi-agent-based smart grid applications have gained much attention in recent times. At the same time, information and communication technology (ICT) has become a crucial part of the smart grid infrastructure. The key intention of this work is to present a comprehensive review of the literature and technological frameworks for the application of multi-agent system (MAS) and ICT infrastructure usages in smart grid implementations. In the smart grid, agents are defined as intelligent entities with the ability to take decisions and acting flexibly and autonomously according to their built-in intelligence utilizing previous experiences. Whereas, ICT enables conventional grid turned into the smart grid through data and information exchange. This paper summarizes the multi-agent concept of smart grid highlighting their applications through a detailed and extensive literature survey on the related topics. In addition to the above, a particular focus has been put on the ICT standards, including IEC 61850 incorporating ICT with MAS. Finally, a laboratory framework concepts have been added highlighting the implementation of IEC 61850.

Balancing LV Distribution Networks in the Context of the Smart Grid

One of the problems that Low Voltage (LV) distribution networks face is related to unbalance loads. These networks are characterized by the existence of single phase loads that will unbalance the network. Due to this, there are higher losses, voltage unbalances and the possibility to emerge voltage levels that are not accepted by the legislation. However, due to the change in the actual paradigm regarding the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) in the LV distribution networks and the implementation of Smart-Grids (SG), it is possible to improve the quality of those networks. This work presents an overview of the technologies and strategies that have been introduced in the context of the Smart-Grids to attenuate the unbalance loads’ problems. To verify such impact, it will also be presented a study of a real network. This study will show the benefits resulting from the mitigation of this problem on the context of the SG. Â

European experience of smart grids implementation under conditions of energy market reforms

European experience of smart grids implementation under conditions of energy market reforms

Smart Grid Technologies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries: Challenges and Opportunities

There are structural shift in electricity markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, in both supply and demand industries. Therefore, the GCC member states need to develop new models for electricity supply and demand in order to adapt to these changes. Although, it requires huge capital investment and significant reforms to achieve this goal, however, in the long run, it is worth it. The countries in the region may need to privatize their government power industries, encourage competitive markets instead of monopolies, diversify electricity generation from fossil fuel based system by integrating renewable energy sources in mix generation and transform regulated electricity prices to liberalized electricity prices. The penetration of renewable energy into existing grid networks in the GCC region, is an economical way to diversify the electricity mix in the region and create an avenue for the implementation of smart grid technologies. Solar and wind power are the most common renewable sources in the region. The smart grid technology enables multi-directional flows, control of electricity and information in a wide distributed network, hence, could be referred to as the next generation of power grids. The traditional power grids could be made smart by making them communicate, sense, control and applying intelligence. Therefore, the smart grid technologies give room for effective compatibility and optimization of variables of the power grid for optimal generation, transmission and distribution system. This paper presents some of the challenges and opportunities in the implementation of smart grid technologies in the GCC region. The opportunities of smart grid implementation in the GCC region outweigh the challenges that could arise. The paper also addresses electricity consumption, interconnection grid of the GCC members, concepts of traditional and smart grid network, including renewable energy penetration in the GCC region. Â Â

Beyond technical smartness: Rethinking the development and implementation of sociotechnical smart grids in India

How smart grids are understood and defined will influence the kinds of smart grids users will encounter in the future and their potential impacts. Practitioners and policymakers largely perceive smart grids as technological interventions. However, a number of social, financial and governmental interventions can also make grids smart, i.e., more efficient, more responsive, more inclusive and more robust. Drawing on qualitative research done using elite interviews, site visits and document analysis of eight micro-grids in India, this paper provides concrete examples of what could be understood as social, financial and governmental smartness, and in doing so, broadens the knowledge on smart grids beyond the technical understanding.This paper argues that social, financial and governmental interventions are central to ‘smartness’, and that multifaceted and relational sociotechnical approaches will build cheaper, just, more democratic and sustainable smart grids. The paper observes that smart grids are not conceived as smart grids but rather develop incrementally. An incremental approach, rather than pushing a premeditated set of ideas and technologies, reduces adoption of non-contextual interventions as well as unnecessary investments in new technologies. The paper recommends that policymakers and practitioners should understand and develop smart grids as sociotechnical and incremental grids.

Adaptive latency compensator considering packet drop and packet disorder for wide area damping control design

Network based wide-area controls will form an important part of smart grid implementation to improve power system stability. The performance of such control systems can seriously deteriorate under various network uncertainties such as time-varying delays, packet loss, and packet disorder. To address these issues, an Adaptive Time Delay Compensation (ATDC) scheme has been suggested to design wide area damping controller for a Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS). The proposed TDC scheme is based on a direct phase advancement methodology that requires the signal modal information such as amplitude, frequency, and damping. This information has been utilized to compensate the latency by predicting the future trajectories of oscillatory response. An Adaptive Extended Kalman Filter (AEKF) is employed to estimate the low-frequency oscillatory modes with missing measurement data. To compensate the error due to packet disorder, a new methodology of packet-reordering, has been proposed. Further, the Wide-Area Damping Controller (WADC) is designed addressing the issue of sampled data control. The performance of the proposed scheme has been validated on the 16-machine, 68-bus power system.

Inteligentne sieci jako platforma umożliwiająca innowacyjną działalność przedsiębiorców w sektorze elektroenergetycznym - problematyka prawna

This paper is an analysis of smart grids and smart metering concept under Polish energy law. The main focus is put on the innovative potential which will become available in the electricity market once the energy system in Poland is based on smart grids and when energy consumers are billed with the use of smart metering. In the first part of the paper, the concept of a smart grid and its innovative characteristics is presented. The main emphasis is put on cooperation between businesses operating in the energy sector and those in the IT sector. This innovative approach is indirectly determined by numerous EU legislative acts which set out trends and directions of development of the energy transmission system. The second part addresses the legal requirements of implementing a smart grid concept and looks at how this issue is understood the Polish regulatory authority and others bodies of central administration responsible for the energy sector. The paper ends with an identification of potential benefits arising from the implementation of smart grids and smart metering, which include: renewable energy resources, energy efficiency, energy security and the mechanism of demand side management. All these can contribute to the development of businesses involved in the energy sector and the development of a competitive electricity market in Poland.

Railway smart grids: Drivers, benefits and challenges

Smart grids are considered to be the ‘next generation’ of electricity supply systems, capable of increasing supply reliability, availability and energy efficiency through the use of information and communication technologies. Despite these advantages, however, the development of smart grids in rail has lagged behind the domestic sector and other industries, only recently becoming a focus of the future railway. Generally speaking, the technologies suitable for railway smart grids are already being used in other sectors, but the unique socio-political and technological environment of rail makes their implementation challenging. This review explores smart grids in the rail context, focusing on the specific drivers, benefits and challenges for the development of railway smart grids. The necessity of rail as a future transport mode is highlighted, before the following drivers and their related benefits are explored: fossil-fuel reliance, supply reliability, customer participation and the nature of rail traction demand. Finally, the railway power supply system is described and a simple railway smart grid architecture introduced before seven technical challenges are presented against the rail background. These are: interfacing new equipment, electromagnetic compatibility, developing communications, distributed generation, cybersecurity, data and standardisation and regulation. It is hoped that this review will stimulate discussion in the field of railway smart grids and direct research into addressing the railway specific challenges hindering smart grid implementation.

Incorporating FAIR into Bayesian Network for Numerical Assessment of Loss Event Frequencies of Smart Grid Cyber Threats

In today’s cyber world, assessing security threats before implementing smart grids is essential to identify and mitigate the risks. Loss Event Frequency (LEF) is a concept provided by the well-known Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) framework to assess and categorize the cyber threats into five classes, based on their severity. As the number of threats is increasing, it is possible that many threats might fall under the same LEF category, but FAIR cannot provide any further mechanism to rank them. In this paper, we propose a method to incorporate the FAIR’s LEF into Bayesian Network (BN) to derive the numerical assessments to rank the threat severity. The BN probabilistic relations are inferred from the FAIR look-up tables to reflect and conserve the FAIR appraisal. Our approach extends FAIR functionality by providing a more detailed ranking, allowing fuzzy inputs, enabling the illustration of input-output relations, and identifying the most influential element of a threat to improve the effectiveness of countermeasure investment. Such improvements are demonstrated by applying the method to assess cyber threats in a smart grid robustness research project (IRENE).

Design, implementation, and evaluation of secure communication for line current differential protection systems over packet switched networks

In this work we propose a secure communication concept for the protection of critical power supply and distribution infrastructure. Especially, we consider the line current differential protection method for modern smart grid implementations. This protection system operates on critical infrastructure, and it requires a precise time behavior on the communication between devices on both ends of a protected power line. Therefore, the communication has to fulfill deterministic constraints and low-delay requirements and additionally needs to be protected against cyber attacks. Existing systems are often either costly and based on deprecated technology or suffering from maloperations. In order to allow for both, economical and reliable operation, we present the first holistic communication concept capable of using state-of-the-art packet switched networks. Our solution consists of three parts: (i) we develop a list of design requirements for line current differential protection systems communication; (ii) we propose a communication concept obeying these design requirements by combining cryptographical and physical security approaches; and (iii) we evaluate our solution in a practical setup. Our evaluation shows a clock accuracy of 3 µs with a resilience to asymmetric delay attacks down to 8 ns/s. This demonstrates the secure and fault-free operation of a line current differential protection system communicating over a state-of-the-art network.

Customized normalization clustering meth-odology for consumers with heterogeneous characteristics

The increasing use and development of renewable energy sources and distributed generation, brought several changes to the power system operation. Electricity markets worldwide are complex and dynamic environments with very particular characteristics, resulting from their restructuring and evolution into regional and continental scales, along with the constant changes brought by the increasing necessity for an adequate integration of renewable energy sources. With the eminent implementation of micro grids and smart grids, new business models able to cope with the new opportunities are being developed. Virtual Power Players are a new type of player, which allows aggregating a diversity of entities, e.g. generation, storage, electric vehicles, and consumers, to facilitate their participation in the electricity markets and to provide a set of new services promoting generation and consumption efficiency, while improving players` benefits. This paper proposes a clustering methodology regarding the remuneration and tariff of VPP. It proposes a model to implement fair and strategic remuneration and tariff methodologies, using a clustering algorithm, applied to load values, submitted to different types of normalization process, which creates sub-groups of data according to their correlations. The clustering process is evaluated so that the number of data sub-groups that brings the most added value for the decision making process is found, according to the players characteristics. The proposed clustering methodology has been tested in a real distribution network with 30 bus, including residential and commercial consumers, photovoltaic generation and storage units

Three-layer informatics solution for demand response management in the smart grid context

In consistency with the European Union (EU) vision of creating an electric power system that integrates renewables and enables flexible consumption and generation technologies by means of smart grid (SG) implementation, the main aim of the paper is to develop different level of aggregation mechanisms design that facilitates demand response (DR) and energy systems to utilize up to 100% renewable generation.In this paper, we will present a three-layer informatics solution for demand response management in the smart grid context. The data model will be developed as a scalable and customized framework using open solutions based on cloud computing.

Public policies for smart grids in Brazil

The evolution of existing electricity grids to smart grids is aimed at accommodating increasing shares of renewable generation thus contributing for the de-carbonization of economy, offering more diversified services to consumers, enhancing different types of markets (energy, capacity, ancillary services) and improving the system's overall efficiency. As the economic characteristics of the electricity sector tend to discourage investments in smart grids, many countries have adopted incentive policies to foster the deployment of new technologies, which vary according to the particular characteristics of each country. Therefore, the design of specific public policies for Brazil must consider not only the motivations involved, but also the existing challenges for the implementation of smart grids and the socio-economic context. Moreover, the relevance of the proposed policies can be seen from different perspectives. This justifies the need to elicit information from multiple stakeholders for decision support purposes. This paper presents and assesses a set of policies identified by different stakeholders as having a potential to foster the development of smart grids in Brazil. The methodology to shape this set of policies consisted of a thorough literature review of international experiences, combined with meetings with experts in several domains. Then, these policies were assessed by applying a Delphi questionnaire aiming at measuring their effectiveness in fulfilling the objectives associated with investments in smart grids. A first conclusion is that all policies were assessed as having a positive impact taking into account each of the objectives, differing only in the priority to be assigned to each one. The policies that were considered more relevant were: "Incentive Policies for Promoting Demand-Side Management, Distributed Generation and Storage", "Regulatory Changes to Foster Innovation in the Energy Sector" and "Regulation of New Business Models". Among the policies with the worst scores, "Mandatory Rollout of Smart Meters" and "Establishing Quality Standards for the Telecommunications Industry" were ranked as the two lower-ranked policies, i.e., they were assigned lower priority under all objectives.

Concept of Smart Cyberspace for Smart Grid Implementation

The concept of Smart Cyberspace for Smart Grid (SG) implementation is presented in the paper. The classification of electromechanical units, based on the amount of analysing data, the classification of electromechanical units, based on the data processing speed; and the classification of computational network organization, based on required resources, are proposed in this paper. The combination of the considered classifications is formalized, which can be further used in organizing and planning of SG.

A review on Locational Marginal Price (LMP) for deregulated industry

In recent years the power industry has experienced significant changes in power distribution systems primarily due to implementation of smart grid technologies and implementation of distributed generation.This paper focuses on LOCATIONAL MARGINAL PRICING method which is the most effective method for determining the optimal location of generator taking consideration of the constraints like voltage limits, line flow limits,congestion of the line, line losses etc.

A review on Locational Marginal Price (LMP) for deregulated industry

In recent years the power industry has experienced significant changes in power distribution systems primarily due to implementation of smart grid technologies and implementation of distributed generation.This paper focuses on LOCATIONAL MARGINAL PRICING method which is the most effective method for determining the optimal location of generator taking consideration of the constraints like voltage limits, line flow limits,congestion of the line, line losses etc.

Barriers to implementation of smart grids and virtual power plant in sub-saharan region—focus Botswana

If Vision 2030 of UN to provide electricity to everyone be achieved, it is essential that over 40% of Botswana’s population living without electricity be looked into from different perspectives and new models. In all smart grid models, it is often emphasized that the residents and the consumers play a vital role in electricity management of Supply and Demand and are expected to be co-producers of electricity. This article looks into the various challenges and success that Botswana has achieved in terms of implementing new technologies and what needs to be done to provide electricity to the rest of the 40% of the community without electricity. This article goes on to describe how a small smart mini grid could serve as a purpose to aid in village development.

Multi-objective dynamic distribution feeder reconfiguration in automated distribution systems

Distribution feeder reconfiguration is an important operation problem in distribution system which has been used to improve the efficiency of distribution systems by obtaining the best combination of on/off status of the switches. It is a mixed integer non-linear program problem and hence hard to solve which necessitate employing proper optimization algorithms to converge to global optima or find near global optima. Smart grid implementation has made loads and electricity prices more volatile and as a result makes operational power system problems to be much more time dependent and more complicated rather than before. To cope with these time dependencies, it is crucial to extend the problems on different time intervals. To this end the dynamic distribution feeder reconfiguration, extension of the problem over multiple time intervals, with various objective functions including operation cost, power loss and energy not supplied is developed and investigated in this study. Time varying electricity prices and different load levels juxtapose with the effect of distributed generations are taken into account in order to generalize the proposed approach. Inherent complexities of distribution feeder reconfiguration problem have made proposing solution techniques an ongoing research topic. A new optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the proposed problem.