Smart Grid Architecture Research Articles

Privacy-Enhanced Data Aggregation Scheme Against Internal Attackers in Smart Grid

According to related research, energy consumption can be effectively reduced by using energy management information of smart grids. In smart grid architecture, electricity suppliers can monitor, predicate, and control energy generation/consumption in real time. Users can know the current price of electrical energy and obtain energy management information from smart meters. It helps users reduce home's energy use. However, electricity consumptions of users may divulge the privacy information of users. Therefore, privacy of users and communication security of the smart grid become crucial security issues. This paper presents a secure power-usage data aggregation scheme for smart grid. Electricity suppliers can learn about the current power usage of each neighborhood to arrange energy supply and distribution without knowing the individual electricity consumption of each user. This is the first scheme against internal attackers, and it provides secure batch verification. Additionally, the security of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by formal proofs.

Modeling smart grids using closed loop supply chain concepts

The traditional electrical power grid used to be one-directional power flows (flowing from producers to consumers). Nowadays, the consumers become more active and they participate in electricity generation process through Demand directional and production units more decentralized. Electrical grid architectures must be developed in parallel in order to meet these increasing changes that lead to what is known to be Smart Grids. In this paper, we first present a literature review about the smart grid architectures and the various associated models. Then, we propose a closed loop supply chain approach to model and optimize configurations and operations of smart grid systems. Within this context, a whole section is devoted to the development of a mixed nonlinear programming model to optimize the architecture of given smart grid systems. For illustrative purposes, using a specific smart grid system and appropriate data, we model the problem and solve it for the optimal architecture.

Editorial: IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials - Special Section on Energy and Smart Grid

The aim of this special issue was to collect from academic and industrial players, tutorials and surveys related to the latest smart grid and energy related technologies and architectures. Contributions on major developments and updates on smart grid systems are considered. We received a total of 15 submissions from which five were finally accepted for this special issue. The papers span from smart grid communications to building energy efficiency, smart metering, information management, and co-simulation of power and communication systems. Each of the five article is briefly summarized.

The Research on Information Architecture and Security Protection of Smart Grid

Information and communication technology is one of the key issues of smart grid and the basis of its realization. To standardization of smart grid information architecture, this paper analyzes smart grid conceptual reference model, propose smart grid hierarchical information architecture, including grid equipment layer, communication gird layer, data storage layer and data application layer. For this information architecture, this paper finally discusses smart gird protection system.

Special issue on advanced computational intelligence systems for smart grids planning and management

Technological advancements in the field of renewable energy systems (RES) are driving a wide and multidisciplinary interest toward the future electrical distribution networks. In order to fully exploit the available energy, electrical grids have to increase their sophistication, becoming smart grids (SGs). There are a variety of SGs definitions, which can be basically summarized as ‘‘intelligent’’ electricity networks, integrating a large number of conventional and unconventional power sources, often based on renewable energies and ‘‘active’’ users, fully coordinated among them by sophisticated management systems. Many research and development issues of interest should be addressed in SGs, involving customers, utilities, energy providers, telecommunication companies, component and system producers, and financial organizations. In this context, significant enhancements can be accomplished by using advanced distributed and coordinated computational intelligence systems. These systems are, in fact, able to support full integration of RES, active participation of electricity customers in grid operations, dynamic optimization of grid operation, improved reliability, high power quality, high levels of grid security and efficiency. Advanced computational intelligence methods that can be applied to solve challenging problems, contributing to a full realization of SGs include, among others, fuzzy logic and bio-inspired intelligence paradigms, such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, swarm intelligence, ant colonies and more. In this context, it is a pleasure for us to introduce this Special Issue on ‘‘Advanced Computational Intelligence Systems for Smart Grids Planning and Management’’, including eight papers which have the aim of bringing some of the most recent and interesting concepts in this area by the worldwide research community and presenting some of the latest advancements and developments in the field of advanced computational intelligence systems dedicated to the SGs. Di Fazio et al. describe recent management systems based on automatic controls and advanced information and communications technologies (ICTs) required for the realization of active networks and SGs. The paper evidences that in the development of smart distribution grids, a multidisciplinary approach is necessary. The development of new communication systems and their interfacing with the power system elements and of distribution management systems (DMSs) and energy management systems (EMSs), able to manage in a smart way the distributed system for energy production, consumption and storage, is in fact, necessary. Communication technology is seen as an essential enabling component of future SGs. In particular, smart meters, protection and control systems and two-way communicating devices represent the major components of the overall SG architecture. The paper by G. Mokryani entitled ‘‘Optimal allocation of wind turbines in microgrids by using genetic algorithm’’ proposes a novel method for optimally allocating WTs in microgrids. The method combines the Genetic Algorithms (GA) and optimal power flow (OPF) to jointly minimize the total active power losses and maximize social welfare (SW) over a year. The GA is used to choose the optimal size while the OPF is used to determine the optimal number C. Cecati Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy e-mail: carlo.cecati@univaq.it

Smart Grid as advanced technology enabler of demand response

Numerous papers and articles presented worldwide at different conferences and meetings have already covered the goals, objectives, architecture, and business plans of Smart Grid. The number of electric utilities worldwide has followed up with demonstration and deployment efforts. Our initial assumptions and expectations of Smart Grid functionality have been confirmed. We have indicated that Smart Grid will fulfill the following goals: enhance customer service, improve operational efficiency, enhance demand response and load control, transform customer energy use behavior, and support new utility business models. For the purpose of this paper, we shall focus on which of those abovementioned Smart Grid functionalities are going to facilitate the ever-growing need for enhanced demand response and load control.

Cyber-Physical Security Testbeds: Architecture, Application, and Evaluation for Smart Grid

The development of a smarter electric grid will depend on increased deployments of information and communication technology (ICT) to support novel communication and control functions. Unfortunately, this additional dependency also expands the risk from cyber attacks. Designing systems with adequate cyber security depends heavily on the availability of representative environments, such as testbeds, where current issues and future ideas can be evaluated. This paper provides an overview of a smart grid security testbed, including the set of control, communication, and physical system components required to provide an accurate cyber-physical environment. It then identifies various testbed research applications and also identifies how various components support these applications. The PowerCyber testbed at Iowa State University is then introduced, including the architecture, applications, and novel capabilities, such as virtualization, Real Time Digital Simulators (RTDS), and ISEAGE WAN emulation. Finally, several attack scenarios are evaluated using the testbed to explore cyber-physical impacts. In particular, availability and integrity attacks are demonstrated with both isolated and coordinated approaches, these attacks are then evaluated based on the physical system's voltage and rotor angle stability.

Developing smart grid concepts, architectures and technological demonstrations worldwide: A literature survey

A great deal of variation exists both within the power industry and academia to what exactly should be included under the broad umbrella of a smart grid. This paper is based on a survey consisted of recently developed various smart grid concepts, architectures and details of associated technological demonstrations implemented worldwide. The survey is based on initiatives taken by EU and IEA (e.g. ETP, EEGI, EERA and IEA) and description of projects conducted in Europe and US (e.g. FENIX, ADDRESS, EU-DEEP, ADINE, GridWise and SEESGEN-ICT). The report presents drivers, visions and roadmaps to develop smart grids worldwide including China and India. The survey encompasses various smart grid concepts, i.e. development of virtual power plant, active demand in consumer networks, DER aggregation business, active distribution network and ICT applications to develop intelligent future grids. The comparison is carried out on the basis of technological and commercial aspects. In addition, the existing features of smart grid technology and challenges faced to implement it in Finnish environment are addressed. As a matter of fact, the implementation of smart grid is consisting of more than any one technology, therefore, this transition will not be so easy. The fully developed and realized smart grid will be beneficial to all the stakeholders. Smart grid will be an outcome of an evolutionary development of the existing electricity networks towards an optimized and sustainable energy system and it will have positive impact on the climate change

A Survey on Smart Grid Potential Applications and Communication Requirements

Information and communication technologies (ICT) represent a fundamental element in the growth and performance of smart grids. A sophisticated, reliable and fast communication infrastructure is, in fact, necessary for the connection among the huge amount of distributed elements, such as generators, substations, energy storage systems and users, enabling a real time exchange of data and information necessary for the management of the system and for ensuring improvements in terms of efficiency, reliability, flexibility and investment return for all those involved in a smart grid: producers, operators and customers. This paper overviews the issues related to the smart grid architecture from the perspective of potential applications and the communications requirements needed for ensuring performance, flexible operation, reliability and economics.

Standarization of smart grid in ITU-T

To be helpful in developing Recommendations to support smart grid, the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Grid has produced documents on use case, requirements, and architecture for smart grid from the ICT perspective. This article introduces key results in these documents, including concepts and objectives of smart grid, an architecture overview of smart grid, and functional models to accomplish smart grid functions. This article also discusses challenges for future standardization.

Smart Grid Network Transmission Line RLC Modelling Using Random Power Line Synthesis Scheme

This work proposes Random Power line Synthesis (RPLS) as a quicker computational approach to solving RLC parameters of a modern smart grid transmission network. Since modern grid systems provide a holistic perspective of modern grid development, it is obvious that a transmission network that is ageing cannot serve the expanded load demand. The need to revoltionalize the traditional transmission model while exploiting basic electrical theories and principles in Smart Grid (SG) architecture necessitated this paper. This work seeks to address the RLC parameter modelling for SG template to provision dynamic power in Nigerian context. Other schemes of transmission RLC modelling were studied as well as outlining their limitations. Consequently, we then proposed a fuzzy smart grid framework for RLC computation and developed a proposed SG overhead transmission line from its conductor characteristics and tower geometry considering the RLC parameters of the conductor while applying RPLS to generate the parameter metrics.

Real-Time Generation Dispatch and Communication Architecture of Smart Grid with Renewable Energy

Real-Time Generation Dispatch and Communication Architecture of Smart Grid with Renewable Energy

An ICT Architecture for Managed Charging of Electric Vehicles in Smart Grid Environments

Growing shortage of fossil resources and an increasing demand of individual mobility worldwide require technology alternatives to existing mobility solutions. Electric vehicles (EVs) as one possible solution have moved into the focus of research and development. To maximize the positive environmental effect of EVs, it is proposed to charge them with respect to the availability of renewable energies. As the number of EVs will grow in the near future, their impact on the power distribution grid is no longer neglectable. Related research shows that unmanaged charging of EVs could result in overload situations or voltage instabilities. To overcome this, methods are proposed to manage the charging process holistically. Herein EVs become substantial elements of intelligent power grids (Smart Grids). As of today, research in the area of Smart Grids focuses mainly on either energy aspects or communication aspects while neglecting the interoperability of energy and communication related aspects. In this paper, an insight into Information and Communication Technology (ICT) aspects with respect to Managed Charging of EVs in Smart Grid environments will be given. Based on the use case of Managed Charging, requirements will be analyzed, results will be derived, and ICT solutions will be proposed with a set of recommendations for Smart Grid architectures.

Smart grid cooperative communication with smart relay

Many studies have investigated the smart grid architecture and communication models in the past few years. However, the communication model and architecture for a smart grid still remain unclear. Today's electric power distribution is very complex and maladapted because of the lack of efficient and cost-effective energy generation, distribution, and consumption management systems. A wireless smart grid communication system can playan important role in achieving these goals. In thispaper, we describe a smart grid communication architecture in which we merge customers and distributors into a single domain. In the proposed architecture, all the home area networks, neighborhood area networks, and local electrical equipment form a local wireless mesh network (LWMN). Each device or meter can act as a source, router, or relay. The data generated in any node (device/meter) reaches the data collector via other nodes. The data collector transmits this data via the access point of a wide area network (WAN). Finally, data is transferred to the service provider or to the control center of the smart grid. We propose a wireless cooperative communication model for the LWMN. We deploy a limited number of smart relays to improve the performance of the network. A novel relay selection mechanism is also proposed to reduce the relay selection overhead. Simulation results show that our cooperative smart grid (coopSG) communication model improves the end-to-end packet delivery latency, throughput, and energy efficiency over both the Wang et al. and Niyato et al. models.

Standards, Patents, and the National Smart Grid

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is charged with overseeing the identification and selection of hundreds of standards that will be required to implement the national Smart Grid project. However, the benefits that could be realized from Smart Grid standardization could be threatened by a growing number of patents that cover Smart Grid architecture and technologies. If such patents are not revealed until technology is broadly distributed throughout the network (“locked-in”), significant disruption could occur when patent holders seek to collect unanticipated rents from large segments of the market. Moreover, even if patents are revealed early in the standardization process, there is currently no efficient way for market participants to assess the cost of implementing the standardized technologies covered by these patents before lock-in. As a result, costs to consumers can increase, competitors can be shut-out from the market, and the standardization process itself can be subverted. And far from being hypothetical, each of these scenarios has already occurred in industries that rely heavily on standardization, such as computer memory and telecommunications. In the case of the Smart Grid, however, the risk is even greater, as Smart Grid standards are mandated by law and have the potential to be adopted into both federal and state regulation, making lock-in nearly impossible to avoid and providing even greater leverage to patent holders.Given the critical importance of the national Smart Grid, it is imperative that the governmental agencies overseeing the identification and development of Smart Grid standards take appropriate measures to ensure that broad, national implementation of standardized Smart Grid technology is not hindered either by undue economic burdens imposed by patent holders or the threat of costly and disruptive patent litigation. In this article, I lay out a number of legal options available to the U.S. federal government for addressing potential patent encumbrances on Smart Grid standards. These range from relatively modest measures such as priority-setting within existing regulatory frameworks to more interventionist approaches, such as federal march-in rights, compulsory licensing, legislative exclusions of injunctive relief and the formation of patent pools.

Islanding Control Architecture in future smart grid with both demand and wind turbine control

In recent years, a large number of Distributed Generation units (DG units) such as Wind Turbines (WTs) and Combined Heat and Power plants (CHPs) have been penetrating the distribution systems. Meanwhile, an intentional island operation of distribution systems is proposed as a potential measure against power supply outages by continuously running DG units during system emergencies. However, there are some challenging security issues for an island operation, such as the power imbalance during the islanding transition and the coordination of feeder protection systems. To tackle the former issue, which is the focus of this paper, available resources including both DG units and demand should be fully utilized as reserves. The control and coordination among different resources requires an integral architecture to serve the purpose. This paper develops the Islanding Control Architecture (ICA) for future smart grid, based on the Islanding Security Region (ISR) concept. With the ISR, system operators can assess beforehand if an island operation can be successful for a given distribution system at its current operating state. In case of unfavorable assessment, control measures will be suggested to coordinate different resources, aiming at pulling the system back into the ISR to ensure a successful island operation on time.

Strategy and implementation of Smart Grids in India

The global electricity industry faces many challenges that require immediate attention to growth, expansion and diversity into renewable energy resources such as wind. A major strategic effort is required from power enterprises in developed and developing countries alike, to deal with the increasing grid complexity to integrate diverse energy resources, including the intermittency of wind, into the power systems. This concern for dependency, delivery and costs for energy brings increased safety risks and more constraints for reliable operation of power systems. Smart Grids (SG) has become one of the key developments to solve these problems. In this paper, the present power situation of India is discussed and prospective energy options are outlined. The effects of SG development on social, economic and power sectors are discussed. The main obstacles for the implementation of SG in India are highlighted and their remedies are proposed. A possible framework for the SG architecture and design of SG-features is outlined, considering practical constraints. The recent initiatives taken by the Government of India (GoI) related to smart grids are described. Considering the social, economical, political and environmental circumstances, the paper suggests a strategy for steps to implement smart grids in India.

Inter-Domain Analysis of Smart Grid Domain Dependencies Using Domain-Link Matrices

Developers of the smart grid have proposed a number of independent smart grid architectures. This has resulted in a lack of common vision and understanding of the common smart grid reference architecture. In particular, there is a lack of understanding of various inter-domain relationships and dependencies among technical and business domains within the smart grid. This paper presents an inter-domain analysis of these complex dependencies among the business and technical domains of the smart grid using Domain-Link Matrices. This inter-domain analysis clarifies and bridges the technical architecture to the business architecture. The aim is to maintain the rationale for the solutions developed in the technical domains in order to solve the problems of the business domains; and, as such, this analysis contributes toward further development and refinement of the smart grid reference architecture.

The Load as an Energy Asset in a Distributed DC SmartGrid Architecture

DC power systems can be made more reliable by considering the load as an important energy asset. Currently the ability to manage the total system is available only through a centralized controller, which limits flexibility, reconfigurability, and reliability. These limitations can be avoided while still providing system level coordination through the use of distributed controls based on local information. All elements of the power system including source, loads, and the network itself have influence, interaction, and coupling to all other elements. Therefore, it is necessary to model and control a microgrid as a system of systems that share some common aspects, such as voltage levels, but can operate independently. Using local information in the form of the bus voltage, these techniques do not rely on a centralized controller, which improves system reliability. However, it is important to design the microgrid in such a manner as to take advantage of the energy not just from the generation sources, but also the energy stored in the individual points-of-load as well.

Synchronization and Transient Stability in Power Networks and Nonuniform Kuramoto Oscillators

Motivated by recent interest for multiagent systems and smart grid architectures, we discuss the synchronization problem for the network-reduced model of a power system with nontrivial transfer conductances. Our key insight is to exploit the relationship between the power network model and a first-order model of coupled oscillators. Assuming overdamped generators (possibly due to local excitation controllers), a singular perturbation analysis shows the equivalence between the classic swing equations and a nonuniform Kuramoto model. Here, nonuniform Kuramoto oscillators are characterized by multiple time constants, nonhomogeneous coupling, and nonuniform phase shifts. Extending methods from transient stability, synchronization theory, and consensus protocols, we establish sufficient conditions for synchronization of nonuniform Kuramoto oscillators. These conditions reduce to necessary and sufficient tests for the standard Kuramoto model. Combining our singular perturbation and Kuramoto analyses, we derive ...