Smart Grid Deployment Research Articles

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS, AND EFFECTS OF SMART GRIDS DEVELOPING

The article is devoted to studying sustainable business models and the effects of building "smart" grids. To achieve this goal, we used a scientific review of literature sources from the Scopus® database for 2017-2021. In the course of the research, a sample of 3540 publications on the topic SciVal T.8491 "Business Model Innovation; Sustainable Business; Digital Transformation. " The results of the scientific review highlight and analyze the most active identified institutions and authors who have published work in sources indexed by the Scopus® database on the topic SciVal T.8491. The fundamental directions of research of sustainable business models are identified, which are closely connected with the investigation of digital business models, industry 4.0, cloud technologies, the Internet of Things, directions of adaptation, and dissemination of sustainable business models. In the context of smart grids, sustainable business models are considered from the study of distributed generation, various decentralized energy technologies, from demand management technologies to energy storage technologies in the system. The authors evaluate and prove the effectiveness of the construction of virtual power plants, the possibility of integration into a single system of distributed energy resources and energy storage systems, describe the methodology of operation and control of microgrids given the massive deployment of smart grids. They carry out systematization of business models of smart networks based on the Internet of Things; offer approaches to deploying smart grids based on blockchain technology. This article discusses the environmental and economic effects of smart grids deploying. Thanks to the results of a scientific review of sustainable business models and the effects of building "smart" grids, current energy market players have the opportunity to consider current requirements for the operation of smart grids and, if necessary, revise their business models. Deploying smart infrastructure improves the country's energy independence, achieves targets for the use of alternative (renewable) energy sources, and increases the country's energy security while reducing import dependence on energy resources.

An Optimized Framework for WSN Routing in the Context of Industry 4.0.

The advancements in Industry 4.0 have opened up new ways for the structural deployment of Smart Grids (SGs) to face the endlessly rising challenges of the 21st century. SGs for Industry 4.0 can be better managed by optimized routing techniques. In Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs), the topology is not fixed and can be encountered by interference, mobility of nodes, propagation of multi-paths, and path loss. To extenuate these concerns for SGs, in this paper, we have presented a new version of the standard Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol for SGs to improve the management of control intervals that enhance the efficiency of the standard OLSR protocol without affecting its reliability. The adapted fault tolerant approach makes the proposed protocol more reliable for industrial applications. The process of grouping of nodes supports managing the total network cost by reducing severe flooding and evaluating an optimized head of clusters. The head of the unit is nominated according to the first defined expectation factor. With a sequence of rigorous performance evaluations under simulation parameters, the simulation results show that the proposed version of OLSR has proliferated Quality of Service (QoS) metrics when it is compared against the state-of-the-art-based conventional protocols, namely, standard OLSR, DSDV, AOMDV and hybrid routing technique.

Customer engagement in innovative smart grid deployment projects: evidence from Russia.

In recent years, Russian power grid companies have significantly intensified their planning and implementing innovative projects to introduce various elements of smart grid technology. The global experience shows that the best potential outcome from smart grid technologies largely relies on the customers' readiness and adoption. To this end, we assess the Russian consumers' awareness and readiness regarding smart grid technologies by conducting a comprehensive survey. Our empirical study showed that, in general, Russian consumers are unaware of the various aspects of smart grid technologies. On the contrary, a significant share of respondents believes that smart grid technologies can reduce their energy consumption burden through gaining efficiency. The low level of awareness would be detrimental to accrue smart grid innovative projects' potential socio-economic and environmental benefits. We propose several recommendations for policymakers and managers of grid companies for the elimination of the identified risks.

Digital Twins for Intelligent Authorization in the B5G-Enabled Smart Grid

Beyond fifth generation (B5G) communication networks and computation paradigms in the edge are expected to be integrated into power grid infrastructures over the coming years. In this sense, AI technologies will play a fundamental role to efficiently manage dynamic information flows of future applications, which impacts the authorization policies applied in such a complex scenario. This article studies how digital twins can evolve their context awareness capabilities and simulation technologies to anticipate faults or to detect cyber-security issues in real time, and update access control policies accordingly. Our study analyzes the evolution of monitoring platforms and architecture decentralization, including the application of machine learning and blockchain technologies in the smart grid, toward the goal of implementing autonomous and self-learning agents in the medium and long term. We conclude this study with future challenges on applying digital twins to B5G-based smart grid deployments.

Electric Distribution System Planning Methodology Considering Distributed Energy Resources: A Contribution towards Real Smart Grid Deployment

Within the current context of energy transition, the first step to assure cost-efficient and reliable grid operations is the use of adequate planning tools. These tools must evaluate the real needs for reinforcing, replacing and incorporating new network assets considering not only technical and regulatory aspects but also the operational benefits that distributed energy resources (DER) may provide. With this purpose, this paper presents a novel methodology for the analysis and the advanced planning of the active distribution networks in the context of smart grids. The main contributions of the proposed methodology are the following: to incorporate the real capabilities of DER proactively to the planning and operation of distribution networks; to appropriately use the data available in current smart grids; and to promote the efficient use of network capacity in distribution level (efficiency decisions of its users, grid assets in service, access conditions, etc.) through potential operational services, variable in time. The proposed methodology was successfully tested on a real distribution network with 450,000 delivery points on a geographical area of 5000 km2.

A novel resource allocation model based on the modularity concept for resiliency enhancement in electric distribution networks

Paying attention to the modularity feature of electric distribution systems improves their performance against severe events and makes an outstanding opportunity for resiliency enhancement. In this paper, a novel framework based on the modularity concept is proposed in which, by deploying smart grid technologies and forming efficient modules, effective and robust energy in distribution systems is provided. Optimal placement of distributed generation (DG) resources, load control options, switching devices, and tie lines are simultaneously incorporated in the proposed linear allocation model. To consider electrical and topological characteristics in the independent functioning of the formed modules, a path-based method is employed. The effectiveness and computability of the proposed algorithm are examined by performing several simulations on two modified 37-bus and 84-bus test systems. The results demonstrate that the developed modular structure, by subdividing the system into several independent parts, creates more flexibility for the recovery process and facilitates the self-healing capabilities.

Evolutionary Approaches to Fog Node Placement in LV Distribution Networks

Smart grids merge intelligent computing technologies and electrical grid networks for better monitoring, control and management of electrical energy and facilities. The maturity of cloud computing has been the major driving factor for its adoption in smart grid deployments. Despite the elasticity of cloud resources, centrality and long distances to remote data centers cause high latency, high bandwidth consumptions and unstable connectivity, which are undesirable for IoT-based smart grid applications. Fog computing as an extension of cloud computing services to the edges of the network overcomes these challenges and perfectly suit the distributed nature of the low voltage (LV) electrical distribution networks as part of smart grid. The pressing issues with the adoption of fog computing for smart grid applications are finding the best placement plan for fog node locations in LV distribution networks to enhance monitoring and control. The main goal of this work is to present a mathematical model to address the aforementioned issues focusing on minimizing deployment cost and network delay. In addressing this multi-objective problem, a new algorithm, namely Future Search Particle Swarm Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (FPNSGA), is proposed based on the combination of the best features of the NSGA-II, SMPSO, and a recently formed algorithm, Future Search. The effectiveness of the algorithm is evaluated based on the benchmarking technique (Weighted Sum approach), the convergence and diversification of the solutions using HV indicators and CPU time. The results from simulations show that the proposed mechanism is very competitive and outperforms other fog planning network schemes.

SMART POWER NETWORKS FOR INCREASING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

The article deals with the essence of the national economy competitiveness concept, as well as factors influencing its level, among which an important place is occupied by energy efficiency of the state. Theoretical aspects of the smart grids development are considered, the expediency of their implementation in the context of the national economy competitiveness level increasing is established. A study by reports from the European Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has shown that the introduction and deployment of smart grids is one of the priority thematic areas in the implementation of the Trans-European Energy Networks concept. Their use will help to integrate renewable energy sources, optimize the energy market and increase the level of self-regulation of energy use by consumers, as well as to implement the main directions of sustainable development, which today has become an urgent requirement around the world. The ability of smart grids to generate supply and demand information is analyzed, which is important for the integration of an increasing number of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, while maintaining the stability and efficiency of the energy system. To ensure the effective operation of the network, it is necessary to form a vision and organize the further deployment of technology platforms, as well as to integrate intelligent network applications that will support this vision. The article also examines the functional characteristics of smart grids, the benefits of their use, as well as the main issues related to their use. It is established that the main shortcomings of the smart grids introduction are insufficient confidentiality of customers and the level of information security, as well as network instability and lack of flexibility. The functions of smart grids are grouped according to separate paragraphs, their significance for consumers, investors, environment and competitiveness of the national economy is analyzed. In particular, it is determined that they are more intelligent, decentralized and sustainable than modern networks, and their use will improve the economic efficiency, investment attractiveness and sustainable development.

Secure and efficient mutual authentication protocol for smart grid under blockchain

Smart grid has been acknowledged as the next-generation intelligent network that optimizes energy efficiency. Primarily through a bidirectional communication channel, suppliers and users can dynamically adjust power transmission in real time. Nonetheless, many security issues occur with the widespread deployment of smart grid, e.g., centralized register authority and potential Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. These existing problems threaten the availability of smart grid. In this paper, we mainly focus on solving some identity authentication issues remained in the smart grid. Combined with blockchain, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), dynamic Join-and-Exit mechanism and batch verification, a reliable and efficient authentication protocol is proposed for smart meters and utility centers. Simultaneously, the provable security of this protocol is assured by the computational hard problem assumptions. Experiment results show that our protocol has achieved security and performance improvement compared with the other ECC related schemes.

On-line Detection of Malicious Activities Based on Edge Computing in Micro-grid System

With the continuous deployment of smart grids, various new smart technologies applied to the power grids have emerged, and the security boundaries of the power systems have gradually blurred, so that the power security protection measures urgently need to be updated. Aiming at the smart micro-grid system based on edge computing, this paper introduces a non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) method, combined with the advantages of edge computing, and designs an online detection mechanism for malicious activities of terminal devices. This method is dedicated to achieving device-level security assurance.

Game Theoretic Honeypot Deployment in Smart Grid.

The smart grid provides advanced functionalities, including real-time monitoring, dynamic energy management, advanced pricing mechanisms, and self-healing, by enabling the two-way flow of power and data, as well as the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and devices. However, converting the traditional power grids to smart grids poses severe security challenges and makes their components and services prone to cyber attacks. To this end, advanced techniques are required to mitigate the impact of the potential attacks. In this paper, we investigate the use of honeypots, which are considered to mimic the common services of the smart grid and are able to detect unauthorized accesses, collect evidence, and help hide the real devices. More specifically, the interaction of an attacker and a defender is considered, who both optimize the number of attacks and the defending system configuration, i.e., the number of real devices and honeypots, respectively, with the aim to maximize their individual payoffs. To solve this problem, game theoretic tools are used, considering an one-shot game and a repeated game with uncertainty about the payoff of the attacker, where the Nash Equilibrium (NE) and the Bayesian NE are derived, respectively. Finally, simulation results are provided, which illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

A Smart Water Metering Deployment Based on the Fog Computing Paradigm

In this paper, we look into smart water metering infrastructures that enable continuous, on-demand and bidirectional data exchange between metering devices, water flow equipment, utilities and end-users. We focus on the design, development and deployment of such infrastructures as part of larger, smart city, infrastructures. Until now, such critical smart city infrastructures have been developed following a cloud-centric paradigm where all the data are collected and processed centrally using cloud services to create real business value. Cloud-centric approaches need to address several performance issues at all levels of the network, as massive metering datasets are transferred to distant machine clouds while respecting issues like security and data privacy. Our solution uses the fog computing paradigm to provide a system where the computational resources already available throughout the network infrastructure are utilized to facilitate greatly the analysis of fine-grained water consumption data collected by the smart meters, thus significantly reducing the overall load to network and cloud resources. Details of the system’s design are presented along with a pilot deployment in a real-world environment. The performance of the system is evaluated in terms of network utilization and computational performance. Our findings indicate that the fog computing paradigm can be applied to a smart grid deployment to reduce effectively the data volume exchanged between the different layers of the architecture and provide better overall computational, security and privacy capabilities to the system.

GEOSPATIAL, FINANCIAL, HUMAN, AND TEMPORAL FACTORS IN THE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY AND SMART GRIDS

Balanced development of smart grids is becoming an increasingly important issue for the energy sector's successful operation. This article provides a bibliographic review of publications in the study of renewable energy and smart grids' deployment parameters. A sample of works for 2009-2020 from the Scopus® database, which contains bibliographic information about scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, books, and conferences, was selected for analysis. The authors identified three clusters of research areas using VOSviewer (version 1.6.15) in the context of the impact of geospatial parameters on smart grids' development. The first cluster consists of the financial, human, and temporal components of the geospatial factor of smart grid deployment. The authors found the largest number of links in the first cluster in terms of "costs" (a total of 29 links with an average impact of 9). The second cluster coincides with concepts related to geospatial information systems (GIS), digital storage, information systems, and cartographic information use. Research on renewable energy also belongs to the second cluster of publications. And the third cluster highlights all the concepts of smart grids by their technical types and in the context of optimization. The third cluster focuses on the ideas with the strongest link power. The results of the analysis of the Scopus® database allowed to determine the level and dynamics of scientific interest in the geospatial factors of the development of smart grids over the past 10 years. It is established that research in the field of geospatial factors of smart grid development is carried out by different countries, but the most active analysis of the impact of geospatial parameters on the development of smart grids in the following countries: USA, Canada and China. Based on the use of the Scopus® database, the article identified institutions and organizations that fund the study of geospatial factors and smart grids and made a significant contribution to the development of this topic.

Roadmap for the Transformation of the South Cameroon Interconnected Network (RIS) into Smart-Grid

This article comes as a contribution to the development of a specific roadmap with the intention to transform the RIS into a smart grid, based on examples experimented in other countries, surveys, interviews with resource people and the master plan of energy development in Cameroon. To set up this roadmap, an audit of the current network reveals many dysfunctions such as regular power outages, imbalances, losses power. The proposed roadmap is structured around three stages which can be summarized as follows: in the short term, the establishment of a reflection committee, his Functional organizational chart and its timeline of activities have been proposed; in the medium term, the deployment of certain equipment such as smart meters; finally, in the long term, the complete transformation of the current network into a smart grid. This will make it possible to integrate the renewable energies which are in development in African countries. It can serve as a guide for the deployment of smart grids in countries of the sub-region of Africa and in Cameroon in particular. The lack of related studies and the non-popularization of results by those who have already worked on those issues, make this paper a greater contribution for energy policy and development, mostly for sub-Saharan African countries.

An Access of Smart grid Standards and its challenges

Standards are the set of details of a product that defines the applicability of a product for a distinct usage or details that determines the fulfillment of a system or a device for a given application. The development of smart grid over past few decades had led to development of various standards in various areas pertaining to smart grid deployment. These standards are already well established or being under developmental stage covering vast fields of power system elements and variety of functionalities. An overview of standards that are deployed in the smart grid development environment mainly concentrating on Energy Management System (EMS) & SCADA, substation automation, metering, Electric Vehicles(EVs), Distributed Generation (DG), internet related and cyber security is presented in this paper.

Electricity theft mitigation in the Nigerian power sector

Electricity theft is a pervasive problem all over the world. With electricity generation in Nigeria falling short of the required generation ca-pacity, it is disturbing that the little power generated is also being stolen by some unscrupulous consumers. Electricity distribution compa-nies in Nigeria (DisCos) lose about ₦30 billion every month owing to electricity theft. This amount is whopping, and if significantly re-duced and spent on the power infrastructure and management, it would improve the power situation in the country. This paper proffers the deployment of Smart Grid (SG) with its inherent smart metering as a solution to the electricity theft situation in Nigeria, as a result of its improved flexibility, security and reliability. Smart Grid also supports energy diversification, by allowing the integration of various renewa-ble energy sources into the conventional power grid. This will tend to help in improving the epileptic power situation in the country.

Integration of open source hardware Arduino platform in automation systems applied to Smart Grids/Micro-Grids

Large scale deployment of Smart Grids (SGs) and Smart Micro-Grids (SMGs) requires overcoming problems related to interoperability and high costs. To automate and monitor these challenging infrastructures, industrial equipment is used due to their reliability and versatility. In particular, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are the prevalent automation units devoted to process control. They are combined with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, responsible of acquiring and displaying operational data. One of the prominent trends to facilitate such deployment is the open source movement, being the Arduino microcontroller one of the most illustrative examples. This low-cost and community-supported platform is achieving increasing attention from academy and industry. However, there is still a need of integration frameworks to combine this device with reliable industrial equipment. This paper presents an approach that seamlessly integrates PLCs and Arduino platforms into a common SCADA system using the connectivity provided by Open Platform Communications (OPC). The open source device is devoted to sensing tasks. As a proof of concept, an application case has been carried out within the automation system of an experimental SMG, where the temperature of a PV panel is sensed and monitored. The developed system is described and successful results are reported.

Permissioned Blockchain and Edge Computing Empowered Privacy-Preserving Smart Grid Networks

The blooming trend of smart grid deployment is engaged by the evolution of the network technology, as the connected environment offers various alternatives for electrical data collections. Having diverse data sharing/transfer means is deemed an important aspect in enabling intelligent controls/governance in smart grid. However, security and privacy concerns also are introduced while flexible communication services are provided, such as energy depletion and infrastructure mapping attacks. This paper proposes a model permissioned blockchain edge model for smart grid network (PBEM-SGN) to address the two significant issues in smart grid, privacy protections, and energy security, by means of combining blockchain and edge computing techniques. We use group signatures and covert channel authorization techniques to guarantee users’ validity. An optimal security-aware strategy is constructed by smart contracts running on the blockchain. Our experiments have evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Smart grid and Indian experience: A review

The present lifestyle of the mankind thrives on the consumption of energy thereby making it an inevitable necessity. The increasing population has led to an ever-growing energy demand. Majority of this demand is met through conventional sources which are continually depleting and raising serious environmental concerns. To further prolong the issue, the present power structure of developing countries like is ageing, inefficient and unsustainable. The present electricity grid is unreliable, prone to brownouts and blackouts, has high transmission losses, poor power quality, supplying inadequate electricity, discouraging to integration of distributed energy sources. Mitigation of these issues require the complete overhauling of power delivery structure. Smart Grid, i.e., the modernization of the electric grid is an evolving blend of various technologies intended at bringing a drastic change in the electrical power grid. The constituents of smart grid and its need in the Indian context has been discussed. This work inclusively covers the various enabler schemes and governing bodies formed by the Indian Government for expediting the smart grid deployment. Further, a comprehensive and updated review of Indian smart grid's initiatives and experiences is presented. And based on these experiences, potential barriers have been identified and their solutions are discussed.

Comparative Analysis of Transmission Power Level and Packet Size Optimization Strategies for WSNs

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are envisioned to be a widely utilized technology in a smart grid (SG). Maximizing the network lifetime (NL) of WSNs in SG deployments is necessary to provide reliability and efficiency of the services offered to the entities involved. Harsh channel conditions in SG environments have a profound impact on the communication channel utilized by WSNs. Therefore, optimizing the transmission power level (TPL) and data packet size (DPS) is of paramount importance for prolonging the WSN NL. In both TPL and DPS optimizations, two general approaches are followed: utilizing a constant TPL and/or DPS or optimizing TPL and/or DPS for each link. However, the joint optimization of the TPL and DPS for each link has not been investigated in the literature. In this study, we present a mixed-integer programming framework, which utilizes a detailed link-layer abstraction to analyze nine TPL and DPS assignment strategies for WSNs employed in SG environments. The results of our analysis reveal that there is a large margin to be exploited in prolonging the WSN NL by an appropriate selection of the strategy to be used in TPL and DPS optimization.