Content uploaded by Surender Kumar Grewal
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Surender Kumar Grewal on Jun 04, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
EFFICIENT TECHNIQUES FOR SMART GRID COMMUNICATION: A SURVEY
Surender Kumar1*, M. K.Soni2, and D. K. Jain 3
1Department of ECE, DCRUST, Murthal, *MRIU, Faridabad, Haryana
2Manav Rachna International University (MRIU), Faridabad
3Deptt. of Electrical Engineering, DCRUST, Murthal, Sonepat
grewalsk@gmail.com, dr_mksoni@hotmail.com, jaindk66@gmail.com
Abstract — Information and communication technologies
provide the existing power grid with the capability to support
two-way communication of energy and information, isolate
and restore power outages more quickly, facilitate the
integration of renewable energy sources into the grid and
empower the customers with techniques for optimizing their
energy usage. A lot of ideas and techniques concerning Smart
Grid are already in use such as AMI, IEDs, and SCADA. The
purpose of this paper is to provide a look at the various
technologies which may be utilized in the communication for
the smart grid and the difficulties that must be overcome to
effectively use them. This paper also highlights information
for power system engineers to optimize advanced
communication systems for 21th centaury Smart Grid.
Keywords: AMI, IEDs, PLC, Smart Grid, LAN, WAN,
wireless communication.
I. INTRODUCTION
Presently, the electric power grid is
undergoing a signicant transition into an
intelligent, reliable, secure, and fully automatic
grid which is called the Smart Grid (SG). Smart
Grid is an integration of advance communication
infrastructure, information technology system,
advanced actuators and sensors, advanced
monitoring and control, into electrical power grid
that uses to gather and act on information, such as
information about the behaviours of utilities and customers,
in an automated manner to improve the efficiency,
reliability, security, economics, and sustainability of the
production and distribution of electricity [1]
There are multiple objectives for developing and
deploying Smart Grid technologies. The key objectives are
summarized as follow:
To improve the reliability, availability, and
security of the power supply for consumers
To maintain the quality of power supply to
increasing share of sensitive digital loads
To improve efficiency and economy in power
generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and
utilization
To improve security and safety in grid operation
by observability and controllability of the power
grid
To enable and promote the integration and
utilization of renewable and sustainable energies
To enable and facilitate demand side participation
to increase asset utilization and return on
investment
Above mentioned objectives [2] for deployment of Smart
Grid technologies, require the collection of various types of
information of energy generation, transmission,
distribution, and storage through its communication
infrastructure. This information can be exchanged between
consumer and utility. Basically, two types of information
infrastructure are required for information exchange in the
Smart Grid as shown in figure 1 [3].
1) Information exchange from intelligent electronic
devices (IEDs) to smart meters
2) Information exchange between smart meters and
the utility data centres
So, development of Smart Grid will depend to a large
extent on the ability to communicate between smart
devices/appliances, consumers, distributed generators, and
the Smart Grid operators [4].
Figure1. Modern power grid communication [3]
The challenge for communications engineers is to
provide a reliable communications infrastructure that
adequately supports a large set of different Smart Grid
applications at a cost that makes it economically viable [5].
The remainder of paper has been organised as follows.
In section II, communication networks and technologies for
Smart Grid are presented. The barriers to deployment of
Smart Grid communication infrastructure are highlighted in
section III and followed by conclusion of this paper in
section IV
II. SMART GRID TECHNOLOGIES
A. Smart Grid Communication Networks
Smart Grid is a huge infrastructure comprising of integrated
communication technologies, smart devices and smart
metering, new and advanced grid components, programs for
decision support and human interfaces, and advanced
control systems, located at far-off/remote locations. Hence,
wired and short rang wireless communication technologies
would not be ideal for Smart Grid applications.
Specific requirements of communication network vary
for different Smart Grid applications in terms of bandwidth,
latency, security and priority. The typical requirements for
communication networks can be summarized in [5-7]. The
communication networks in the Smart Grid, according to
their reach and functions/characteristics, mainly consisting
of the premises network, neighbourhood area network
(NAN) /field area network (FAN), and wide area network
(WAN). The functions of these networks are highlighted as
follow:
Premises Networks: The premise network interconnects
household appliance, electrical vehicles, and other
electric/electronic equipment in the customer premises and
interfaces them to the Smart Grid. Depending on the
specific environment, the premises network can be further
classified into the home area network (HAN), the building
area network (BAN), and the industrial area network (IAN).
Therefore, the functions for premises networks
vary in different environments. There are many
communication standards and protocols to meet the Smart
Grid requirements for the premises network. They can be
either wired or wireless technologies. The Wireless
communication technologies have several advantages over
wired communications in the premises network [8].
Wireless networks are easier to deploy, more flexible,
scalable, and portable than wired networks with costly
infrastructure.
The main challenges for wireless networks are
power consumption, reliability, and security. Wired
networks can be complementary to wireless networks to
ensure the coverage of the premises and to increase the
network reliability. The communication technologies used
for premises networks are as presented in [10].
Different communications technologies have
different availability, coverage, bandwidth, interoperability,
and security characteristics that limit their suitability for
certain Smart Grid applications. Thus, the capabilities and
weakness of different communications technologies must be
assessed for the specific Smart Grid application to check
whether they meet the reliability, efficiency, and security
requirements of the Smart Grid.
The Neighbourhood Area Network: The NAN connects
several premises networks within a neighbourhood area via
smart meters at the customer premises edges. The NAN
becomes field area network (FAN) if it is connected to field
devices such as intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). The
NAN can be viewed as metering network that is part of the
AMI providing services such as remote meter reading,
control, and detection of unauthorized usages. The NAN is
connected to a WAN via the backhaul network, where data
from many NANs are aggregated and transported between
the NANs and the WAN.
The coverage area and bandwidth requirement for
the NAN varies for different scenarios, primarily depending
upon the size of deployment area. However, to meet the
requirements for communications networks in the Smart
Grid, optimizations in QoS, reliability, and security are
necessary to apply 3G/4G technologies in the Smart Grid.
The WAN is a backbone of the Smart Grid, which
provides long distance communication links between the
grid and the utility core network. The WANs can be used
for various Smart Grid applications such as SCADA, grid
monitoring and control, and communications with power
plants. These WANs have incorporated a variety of
communications technologies over optical fibres, power
lines, leased lines, and wireless channels. The WAN is
interconnected to the public internet using secure
communications, which enables third parties to participate
in Smart Grid services. Wired as well as wireless
technologies can be employed in wide area networks [13].
When the control centers are located far from the
substations or the end consumers, the real-time
measurements taken at the IEDs are transported to the
control centers through the WANs and, in the reverse
direction, WANs undertake the instruction from control
centers to the smart electric devices. The comparison
between wire line and wireless technologies used in Smart
Grid are placed in table 1.
Table1. Comparison of wire line and wireless technologies
Technology Data
rate
(Mbit/s)
Range
(meters)
cost Power/security
Wire line
PLC 10-100 10-100 High low/Medium
Ethernet 10-100 100 High Low/High
Wireless
ZigBee 0.02-0.2 10-75 Low Low/Low
Wi-Fi
802.11b
802.11g
5-10
54
30-100
100
Low
Medium
High/Low
High/Low
Bluetooth 0.7-2.1 10-50 Low Medium/Medium
WiMAX 100 50Km Medium Medium/Medium
Cellular 30000 High Medium Medium/Medium
B. Smart Meter Communication
The main component in a HAN is the smart meter. Smart
metering is an integral part of modern Smart Grid
infrastructure, consists of smart electricity meter that
records consumption of electric energy and communicates
that information as well as an opportunity to optimize
power demands and increase energy efficiency and reduce
waste. Consumers will be able to choose an energy supplier
that can provide the best value according to their needs.
Earlier, AMR (automated meter reading) systems
utilized one-way communications to collect meter data but
now, for two way communications, advanced metering
infrastructure (AMI), consisting of the smart meters, data
management , communication network and applications are
use. The AMI is a key factor in the Smart Grid [12],
improves efficiency, uses an outage-detection mechanism,
provides notification of tempering, reduces labour expenses
by automatic meter reading, fault detection etc.
The smart meters collect data locally and transmit via a
LAN to a data collector. Data is transmitted via a WAN to
the utility central collection point for processing and use by
business applications. Signals or commands can be sent
directly to the meters, customer premise or distribution
device by using two way communication. The collector
transmits the data using various WAN methods to the
utility central location [14]. The typical architecture of
smart meter is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2. Typical smart meter architecture
There are two basic categories of advanced metering
system technologies as defined by their LAN. They are
radio frequency (RF) and power line carrier (PLC). Each of
these technologies has its own advantages and
disadvantages. The utility selects the best technology to
meet its demographic and business needs, considering the
factors that impact the selection of the technology namely
evaluation of existing infrastructure; impact on legacy
equipment, functionality, technical requirements as well
has the economic impact to the utility’s customers.
Small band communication medium is sufficient if
advanced metering is only used to transfer data from
measurement registers and no real time constraints are
involved. If case of demand side management is required,
then real time constraints need to be satisfied. If large
additional data concerning power quality or load profiles is
to be transmitted, then, a broad band communication is
required.
The use of utility backhaul communications and
increase usage of public wireless networks has increased
the exposure to potential security intrusions, and media
reports about computer network hacking has raised
concerns around the world about the integrity and security
of the Smart Grid. Smart meter and smart meter
installations are typically designed to conform with and
certified to comply with national and international
standards and requirements.
C. Substation Communication
In Smart Grid, a substation needs to connect a large number
of components from distribution side like feeder
automation, DER and smart meters etc. at the customer
end. Substation also needs to communicate with control
centre and other substations or with generating units and
market participants.
The existing supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) remote terminal unit (RTU) systems located
inside the substation cannot scale and evolve to support
next generation intelligence.
The modern substation communication has evolved from
telephony modems to IP networks, many power utilities are
still deploying modem access and serial bus technology to
communicate with their substations. The emergence of the
Ethernet based Substation LAN has been steadily gaining
popularity worldwide. The main benefits of the substation
LAN are high-speed peer-to-peer communications between
IEDs, reduced inter-IED wiring, coexisting multiple
protocols (e.g. DNP, Modbus, and IEC 61850) on the same
physical network, and enables “Data over IP” for easy
access to substation data.
The IEC has developed standards IEC 61850 for
communication between substations and control centres in
power utilities. The concept of IEC 61850 is based on a
local Ethernet network, providing high bandwidth. IEC
61850 simplifies power management by integrating key
functions within a substation such as protection, control,
measurement, monitoring and providing the means for
high-speed protection applications. It will meet functional
and performance requirements and permits interoperability
between manufacturers. GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented
Substation Event) massages are one of the unique features
provided by IEC 61850 that allow fast messages between
different IEDs in a peer to peer format. This feature can be
extremely helpful for improving the security of the overall
power system. Using Ethernet networks for the
communication needs specific considerations concerning
security and dependability [16-17].
DNP3 also standardizes the communication within the
substation. Standard IEEE 1588 v2 is a breakthrough
timing protocol that, offers sub microsecond
synchronization for clocks in substation and power delivery
devices such as sensors and actuators over an Ethernet
network. It is a critical component for allowing utilities to
offer the precision timing necessary to support the control
algorithms required for modern power management and
delivery systems [18].
D. Choice of Medium of Communication
The choice of medium of communication for Smart Grid is
a challenging factor [19]. SG communication networks are
depend on both wire-less and wired communication
technologies. The Ethernet is the best choice when the
substation communication is considered due to the confined
physical space of substation. When feeders are considered,
PLC is well-suited, because it is a medium that is available
throughout the distribution system. High frequency BPL
signals need to bypass transformers to avoid high
attenuation. Both PLC and wireless communication are
promising in the distribution level communication. The
merits and demerits of various communication system used
in smart Grid are presented in [18].
However, one of the main challenges of the SG
communication network is that wireless technologies are
totally changing every 3-5 years and utilities are building
systems for 15-20 years.
III. BARRIERS TO DEPLOYMENT OF SMART GRID
COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE
The successful deployment of Smart Grid communication
technologies has not yet been achieved. The barriers to
their deployment are as follow [20].
1) There are no universal communications standards that
promote interoperability and enable the various Smart
Grid communication technologies to work as an
integrated suite. Vendors are hesitating to supply the
products like smart sensors, IEDs, DER, and other end-
use devices until universal standards are adopted.
2) Regulatory and policymaking bodies have not yet
provided the regulations that will ensure the investors
that investments in new Smart Grid technologies will
not lead to financial losses. Regulations are needed to
assure that utilities and energy providers are protected
financially.
3) Deployment of Smart Grid communication
technologies is costly, and without financial support
and incentives, utilities and energy providers are
reluctant to invest in the required technology areas.
4) The role and responsibility of utilities, consumers, and
third parties is not defined clearly in the new world of
big energy data.
5) There is no effective consumer education to create
interest and motivation among the consumer groups.
So, energy consumers must be informed about the cost
of energy and the benefits of a Smart Grid
communication system. The customers should ensure
the security, safety, integrity, confidentiality of energy
usage data.
6) The uncertainty of the path that development of Smart
Grid technologies will take over time with changing
technology, changing energy mixes and changing
energy policy.
7) Market complexity
8) Chronic skill shortage
IV. CONCLUSION
The intelligent grid cannot exist without an effective
integrated information and communications infrastructure.
The choice of communication networks and technologies
for Smart Grid is depend upon the Smart Grid applications
i.e. how, where, and what types of communication
technologies are suitable for deployment in the smart Grid..
A lack of understanding for the benefits of Smart Grid
technologies is the greatest barriers to their deployment.
REFERENCES
[1] U.S. Department of Energy, [online] Available: www.oe.energy.gov
[2] Berger Lars T. and Krzysztof Iniewski, Smart Grid: Applications,
Communications, and Security, (Edited): Willey Pub. 2012.
[3] C. H. Hauser, D. E. Bakken and A. Bose, “A Failure to Communicate:
Next Generation Communication Requirements, Technologies, and
Architecture for the Electric Power Grid”, IEEE Power and Energy
Magazine, vol. 3, no. 2, March-April 2005, pp. 47-55
[4] D E Bakken, et al., “Toward More Flexible and Robust Data Delivery
for Monitoring and Control of the Electric Power Grid,” Technical
Report EECS-GS-009, Washington State University, 2007.
[5] Ye Yan, Yi Qian, Hamid Sharif and David Tipper, “A Survey on
Smart Grid Communication Infrastructures: Motivations,
Requirements and Challenges,” IEEE Communications Surveys &
Tutorials, 2012.
[6] Ward Jewell, Vinod Namboodiri, Visvakumar Aravinthan, Babak
Karimi, ,YimaiDong,“Communication Requirements and Integration
Options for Smart Grid Deployment,” report, Power Systems
Engineering Research Center, PSERC, 2012
[7] Mohamed Daoud, Xavier Fernando, “On the Communication
Requirements for the Smart Grid,” Energy and Power Engineering,
vol. 3, 2011, pp. 53-60.
[8] V. C. Gungor,.et.al.,“Smart Grid Technologies: Communication
Technologies and Standards”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Informatics, vol. 7, no. 4, , 2011, pp. 529- 539.
[9] V.K. Sood, D. Fischer, J.M. Eklund, T. Brown, “Developing a
Communication Infrastructure for the Smart Grid”, IEEE Electrical
Power & Energy Conference (EPEC), 2009, pp. 1-7.
[10] B.A Akyol, H Kirkham, S.L Clements, MD Hadley, “A Survey of
Wireless Communications for the Electric Power System”, Report,
PNNL-19084, Jan.2010.
[11] Geert Deconinck,“An Evaluation of Two-Way Communication Means
for Advanced Metering in Flanders (Belgium),” IEEE International
Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, IIIMTC
2008, May 12-15, 2008, pp.900-905.
[12] Amit Aggarwal, S. Kunta and P. K. Verma,“A Proposed
Communications Infrastructure for the Smart Grid,” Innovative Smart
Grid Technologies (ISGT), Gaithersburg, 19-21 January 2010, pp.1-5.
[13] SL Clements, MD Hadley, TE Carroll, “Home Area Networks and the
Smart Grid,” Report Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy,
April, 2011.
[14] Fangxing Li,“Smart Transmission Grid: Vision and Framework,”
IEEE Transactions on SMART GRID, vol. 1, no. 2, Sept. 2010, pp.
168-171.
[15] Xi Fang, Satyajayant Misra, Guoliang Xue, and Dejun Yang, “Smart
Grid – The New and Improved Power Grid: A Survey,” 2011, pp.1-
38.
[16] IEC Standards 61850, “Communication Networks and Systems in
Substations”, 2010.
[17] Christoph Brunner, “IEC 61850 for Power System Communication”,
IEEE/PES T&D Conference and Exposition, vol. 2, April 2008, pp.1-
6.
[18] Standard IEEE 1588 Version 2, 2008, available: www.nist.govt
[19] Wenye Wang, Yi Xu, Mohit Khanna,“A Survey on the
Communication Architectures in Smart Grid,” ELSVIER, Computer
Networks , vol. 55 , 2011, pp. 3604–3629.
[20] “Barries to Achieving the Modern Grid”- The NETL Report,
DOE,US,July 2007.