Smart Grid Communications

Ketan Rajawat
IIT Kanpur
Smart Microgrids

“Building the smart grid.” The Economist [US] 6 June 2009: 16(US).
Role of communications

In-Home Displays DR signals from

to Meter utility centres to
meters

Connect/Disconnect
Conservation Voltage
signal to meters
Reduction

SG
Communication
Applications
Switches
SCADA communicate with
one other & central
office

Voltage regulators
AMI communicate with one
other & central office
Network needs for diverse applications
 The bandwidth/latency/reliability
requirements vary widely
Electric Vehicle (>20Mbps):
Distributed generation
Asset monitoring
Substation automation
Distribution automation
Grid monitoring
Demand Response (250 kbps)
AMI
 Smart Grid Applications
Generation Transmission & Distribution
(a) Reclosers Advanced Meters
(b) Capacitor Banks (poles)
(a) Residential Electric
(c) SCADA
(b) C&I Electric
(d) Volt/VAR control
(c) Gas meters
(e) Energy storage
(f) Outage management
(g) Distributed Generation control
(h) RTU

Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

(a) Thermostats
(b) In-home displays
(c) Load controllers
(d) Consumer products
(e) PHEVs
 Considerations
Data Delivery
Security Network Latency Criticality

 Provide different
 Secure information
 Supports varied levels of data
storage and
latency requirements delivery criticality
transportation for
messages depending on the
billing purposes and
communicated needs of the
grid control
between 6 various application
6
points within the
 Avoidance of cyber
smart grid  Criticality levels
attacks
based on data loss

Reliability Scalability

 Reliable for  Scalability with the integration of

successful and advanced web services, reliable
timely exchange of protocols with advanced functionalities
messages
 Facilitate operation of power grid
 Reliability affected
6
by time-
out/network/resourc
e failures
 Smart Grid Requirements
Performance
(a) BW: bps to Mbps (usage pattern of PHEVs)
(b) latency: ms (demand resp for grid in distress) to sec
(c) uptime: 90% to 99.9999%
(d) Scalability: as many as 10 dev/home to millions of homes (mostly ignored earlier)
(e) range: meters (NAN) to km (home to substation)

Standards
(a) Security: AMI-SEC, NERC CIP, NIST 800-53/800-82
(b) Application protocols: DNP3, IEC 60870/TASE; IEC 61850; IEC 61968; ANSI
C12.19/C12.22; SEP; SNMP
(c) Comm: Ipv4/6, ZigBee, HomePlug, 802.15.4
(d) Performance: IEEE1646

Future proof: Meters last 20-30 years. Electronics changes every 2-3 years.
Interoperation?

Ho QD, Gao Y, Rajalingham G, Le-Ngoc T. Wireless Communications Networks for the Smart Grid. Springer;
2014 Sep 19.
 Traffic and Required QoSs
Traffic Types Description Bandwidth Latency
AMI Networks
Meter Reads Meters report energy consumption (Ex: the 15-min interval reads Up to 10kbps 2 to 10sec
are usually transferred every 4 hours)

Demand Response (DR) Utilities to communicate with customer devices to allow customers Low 500ms ~ min
to reduce or shift their power use during peak demand periods

Connects and Disconnects Connects/disconnect customers to/from the grid Low A few 100ms, few min

Substation Networks
Synchrophasor The major primary measurement technologies deployed A few 100kbps 20ms to 200ms
for Wide-Area Situational Awareness (WASA)

Substation SCADA 4-sec interval polling by the master to all the intelligent 10 to 30kbps 2 ~ 4sec
electronic devices inside the substation

Inter-substation Emerging applications such as Distributed Energy Resources (DER) -- 12ms ~ 20ms
Communications might warrant GOOSE communications outside substation

Surveillance Video site surveillance A few Mbps A few sec

Distribution Network
Fault Location, Isolation and To control protection/restoration circuits 10 to 30kbps A few 100ms
Restoration (FLIR)
Optimization VOLT / VAR optimization and power quality optimization 2 ~ 5Mbps 25 ~ 100ms
on distribution networks

Workforce Access Provides expert video, voice access to field workers 250kbps 150ms

Asset Management For predictively and pro-actively gathering and analyzing -- --

non-operational data for potential asset failures

Microgid
Protection To response to faults, isolate them and ensure loads -- 100ms ~ 10sec
re not affected

Operation Optimization Monitors and controls the operations of the whole MG in order to -- 100ms ~ min
optimize the power exchanged between the MG and the main grid
 Communication requirements
Applications Security Bandwidth Reliability Latency
Advanced Metering High 14-100 kbps per 99.0-99.99% 2000 ms
Infrastructure node
AMI Network Management High 56-100 kbps 99.00% 1000-2000 ms
Automated Feeder Switching High 9.6-56 kbps 99.0-99.99% 300-2000 ms
Capacitor Bank Control Medium 9.6-100 kbps 96.0-99.00% 500-2000 ms
Charging Plug-In Electric Medium 9.6-56 kbps 99.0-99.90% 2000 ms - 5
Vehicles min.
Demand Response High 56 kbps 99.00% 2000 ms

Direct Load Control High 14-100 kbps per 99.0-99.99% 2000 ms

node
Distributed Generation High 9.6-56 kbps 99.0-99.99% 300-2000 ms
Distribution Asset High 56 kbps 99.00% 2000 ms
Management
Emergency Response Medium 45-250 kbps 99.99% 500 ms
Fault Current Indicator Medium 9.6 kbps 99.00- 500-2000 ms
99.999%
In-home Displays High 9.6-56 kbps 99.0-99.99% 300 -2000 ms
Meter Data Management High 56 kbps 99.00% 2000 ms

Source: M. Kuzlu, M. Pipattanasomporn and S. Rahman, "Communication network requirements for major smart grid applications in HAN,
NAN and WAN", Computer Networks, vol. 67, pp. 74-88, 2014.
 Multi-Tiered Architecture
Microgrid

Smart
Substation Substation Meter Customer

Non-renewable Enegy Electric Vehicle

Microgrid
Wind Enegy Solar Enegy

Power Generation Power Transmission Grid Power Distribution Grid Power Consumption

(a) Power System Layer

Wireless
Backhaul
Control Center
Concentrator Smart
Base Home
Station Device
Wired Backhaul Smart
Network Meter
Data Aggregation
Point (DAP)

Wide Area Network (WAN) Neighbor Area Network (NAN) Home Area Network (HAN)

(b) Communications Layer

The overall layered architecture of SG

Mohammad S. Obaidat, Alagan Anpalagan, and Isaac Woungang. 2012. Handbook of Green Information and Communication Systems (1st ed.). Academic Press.
High-Level Overview Example Example
Members Technolo
Retailers Internet P
Aggregators World-W
External Regulators ebXML
Customers IEC 6087
Providers
Portal

MDMS IEC 6197

CIS/Billing IEC 6196
Enterprise OMS Web Ser
WMS Multispea
EMS/DMS Message
Metering System
SONET,
Routers MPLS
Towers Frame R
Ground Stations Satellite
WAN Repeaters Microwav
Rings IEC 6185
Collector DNP3
WiMAX
Relays BPL / PL
Modems
Meter Bridges
Wireless
ADSL
LAN Access Points Cellular
Insertion Points Cable (D
Meter
ZigBee
Thermostats WiFi
$
!
Normal NOR
Critical PEND
Program ACTI
Emergency
Emergency
Peak
Stage 1 ER
Stage 2
MAL
Event OVRID
ING
VE-
E Current
Temp
03/03/2007 Progr
AW
Pool Pumps LonWork
8:48am

HAN
am:

Field Tools
AY
Stat
us

BACnet
PCs HomePlu
Building Automation OpenHA
Neighborhood Area Networks (NANs)

 Gathers a huge volume of various types of

data and distributes important control
signals from and to millions of devices
installed at customer premises

 The most critical segment that connects

utilities and customers in order to enable
primarily important SG applications
Characteristics of NAN

 To support a huge number of devices that

distribute over large geographical areas
 Must be scalable to network size and self-
configurable
 Heterogeneous and location-aware
 Link condition and thus network connectivity
are time-varying due to multipath fading,
surrounding environment, harsh weather,
electricity power outage, etc.
Characteristics of NAN

 Deployed outdoor, thus must be robust to node

and link failures
 Carries different types of traffic that require a
wide range of QoSs
 Needs QoS awareness and provisioning
 Mainly supports Multi-Point-to-Point (MP2P)
and Point-to-Multiple-Point (P2MP) traffic
 Very vulnerable to privacy and security
 Home Area Network (HAN)

Source: Mentor Graphics

 HAN Portal Options
meter-as-portal: NAN connects to meter. meter
connects to HAN (using wifi or zigbee), meter has 2
radios, since meter does not change, this is
problematic: not future proof
HAN-device-as-portal: deploy as you go, thermostat as
gateway, device and meter need not be close togather,
U-SNAP: usb for smart-
grid devices, plug into
thermostat, protocol-
agnostic, multiple usnap on
a gateway device
multiple NANs at the same
time
Communication Technologies
 Wireless
◦ Zigbee (IEEE802.15.4)
◦ Z-wave (proprietary)
◦ WiFi (IEEE802.11)
◦ 3G cellular
◦ 4G: LTE/LTE-A
◦ 802.22 (white space)
 Wired
◦ Power Line Communications
◦ Fiber Optical Comm, Ethernet
Challenges
 Wireless channels are
◦ Prone to interference (crowded bands)
◦ lower bandwidth than wired communication
technologies
◦ Low penetration through concrete
construction
◦ Limited Range
◦ Impact of power lines on wireless comm?
IEEE802.15.4 Zigbee
 Zigbee is a short-range, low-data rate, energy-
efficient wireless protocol
 Zigbee utilizes
◦ 16 channels in the 2.4GHz ISM band worldwide
◦ 13 channels in the 915MHz band in North America
◦ one channel in the 868MHz band in Europe
◦ It supports data rates of 250 kbps, 100kbps, 40 kbps,
and 20 kbps
 ZigBee Smart Energy Profile (SEP) aims to
support the needs of smart metering and AMI,
and provide communication among utilities and
household devices
Zigbee pros and cons
 Low cost, inexpensive devices
 Self-organizing, secure, reliable, scalable
 Short range and does not penetrate
structures, low data rate
 Deployment mainly in HANs
 Using 802.15.4 in NAN?
 802.15.4 (ZigBee) in NAN: many benefits
 many suppliers
 ICs in many applications
 dependable long-term component supply from
major semiconductor houses
 optimized radio performance (many years of
development, can control many parameters)
 intrinsic immunity from interference: DSSS, co-
existence with other 2.4 GHz
 250kbps
IEEE802.11 WiFi
 Data rate of IEEE 802.11 standards range from 1
Mbps to 100 Mbps
◦ It operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band
 Low cost, widely used, stable and mature
 Small coverage, short distances, unsecure

 Wi-Fi is targeting Home Area Networks (HAN),

Neighborhood Area Networks (NAN) and Field
Area Networks (FAN) in the smart grid

 Wi-Fi is already being used for municipal-scale

network infrastructures outdoors
Z-wave
 Z-Wave is a proprietary, short-range, low-
data rate wireless RF mesh networking
standard

 Z-wave uses the 908MHz ISM band in the

Americas, and its data rate is 40kbps

 Z-wave provides connectivity for devices

such as; lamps, switches, thermostats, garage
doors.
◦ Z-wave can be employed in the HAN segment of
the smart grid
LTE and LTE-Advanced
 The peak data rates for LTE is around 300Mbps at the
downlink and 80Mbps at the uplink with 20MHz channel
bandwidth and 4x4 MIMO antennas
◦ LTE-A’s targeted peak downlink transmission rate is 1Gbps and
the uplink transmission rate is 500Mbps
 A typical LTE cell has a diameter of 4km
◦ By relaying technique, range can be extended
LTE and LTE-A
 Low latency, low power consumption
 Utility must rent the infrastructure
 High cost of equipment
 Proposed for
◦ Backhaul, SCADA
◦ Demand response
◦ Video site surveillance
IEEE802.22 Cognitive Radio
 Cognitive Radio (CR) provides access to unlicensed
users to the spectrum that is not utilized by licensed
users
◦ A CR has the ability to sense unused spectrum, use it and
then vacate as soon as a licensed user arrives

 The bands that are planned to be used by 802.22 are

the UHF/VHF bands between 54 and 862 MHz and
their guard bands
Power Line Communications
 Power Line Communications (PLC) use the
low voltage power lines as the
communication medium
 PLC has been already used by some utilities
for load control and remote metering
◦ It can be integrated to the smart metering system
since the power lines already reach the meter

 As the PLC does not have external cabling

cost, it is considered to be convenient for
HANs, NANs and FANs in the smart grid
IEEE P1901/Broadband PLC
 BPL has high data rates exceeding
100Mbps using frequencies below
100MHz
 P1901 workgroup has selected two PHY
layers for the standard
◦ Wavelet OFDM-based PHY
◦ FFT OFDM-based PHY
 These PHY techniques aim to improve
the communications over noisy PLC
Challenges: PLC
 Powerline communications suffer from
◦ Noisy channel conditions
◦ Channel characteristics that vary depending
on the devices plugged in (switched on)
◦ Electromagnetic interference (EMI) due to
unshielded power lines
◦ Poor isolation among units
◦ Improper Wiring
Fiber Optic Communications
 Fiber optics is already used in the power
grid to connect utility head offices and
substations
 Fiber optics is not impacted by
electromagnetic interference
◦ Ideal for the high voltage operating environment
◦ Major drawback of fiber is high deployment cost
 Optic Ethernet can be also utilized in the
smart grid
 It is also possible to employ a combination
of the wireless and wired communication
technologies in the smart grid
Comparison of various technologies
 Wireless Technologies for Smart Grid
Technology Advantage Disadvantage Application

Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee Very low cost - inexpensive consumer devices; Very short range; Does not penetrate structures HANs for energy
Alliance) Low power consumption - years of battery life; well; Low data rates; Developers must join management and
Low-cost, low power, wireless Self- organizing, secure, and reliable mesh ZigBee Alliance monitoring;
mesh standard for wireless network; Network can support a large number Unlikely to be used
home area networks (WHANs) of users; Smart energy profile for HANs is in NANs
or wireless personal area available
networks (WPANs)

Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n) Low-cost chip sets - inexpensive consumer Does not penetrate cement buildings or Could be used for
Indoor wireless local area devices; Widespread use and expertise; Low-cost basements; Small coverage and short distances HANs, MGANs,
networks (WLANs), wireless application development; Stable and mature limit wide spread use; Security issues with and NANs
mesh networks standards multiple networks operating in same locations

3G Cellular (UMTS, Expensive infrastructure already widely deployed, Utility must rent the infrastructure from a AMI Backhaul, Field
CDMA2000, EV-DO, EDGE) stable and mature; Well standardized; Equipment cellular carrier for a monthly access fee; Utility Area Network
Wide-area wireless networks prices keep dropping; Readily available expertise does not own infrastructure; Technology is in (FAN)
for voice, video, and data in deployments; Cellular chipset very the transition phase to LTE deployment; Public
services in a mobile inexpensive; Large selection of vendors and cellular networks not sufficiently stable/secure
environment service providers for mission critical/utility applications; Not well-
suited for large data/high bandwidth applications

LTE Low latency, high capacity; Fully integrated with Utility must rent the infrastructure from a AMI Backhaul,
Enhancements to 3G Universal 3GGP, compatible with earlier 3GPP releases; cellular carrier for a monthly access fee; Utility SCADA Backhaul,
Mobile Telecommunications Full mobility for enhanced multimedia services; does not own infrastructure; Not readily Demand Response,
System (UMTS) mobile Carrier preferred protocol; Low power available in many markets/still in testing phases in FAN, Video
networking, providing for consumption others; Equipment cost high; Vendor Surveillance
enhanced multimedia services differentiation still unclear; Lack of expertise in
designing LTE networks; Utilities’ access to
spectrum
 Interoperability
Incompatibility Coexistence Interconnectability Interworkability

2 3
1 Ability of two or more Ability of two or more 4
Inability of two or Ability to support
devices to operate devices to operate with
more devices to transfer of device
independently of one one another using the
work together parameters between
another at the same same communication
devices having the same
communications network protocols
communication interface

Interchangeability Interoperability

6 5
Ability of two or more devices to work Ability of two or more
together in one or more distributed devices to work together
applications using the same communications in one or more
protocol and interface distributed applications
 Integrated Network Monitoring System
Integrated Network Monitoring System Benefits

 Meet QoS expectations through end-

to-end service visibility

 Centrally monitor various networks a  Optimize network resources to

utility improve performance and quality

 Provide a complete end-to-end view of  Cut network operating costs

the system health and fault and
performance data from different  Support network planning process to
network elements.
roll out more Smart Grid network
 Incorporates rules-based management
services
functions to be followed for network
issue across the system  Expedite Smart Grid network
diagnostics

Existing work by: NIST-SGIP, Bureau of Indian Standards, IEEE Smart Grid Standards
 Internet Protocol
Transmitting data over multiple media: Run over any link layer network
providing a common and flexible way to use and manage a network composed
of disparate parts
Changing and growing with industry: Ability to add a capability such as a
new application without having to change IP itself

Connecting large number of devices: IPv6 offers straightforward addressing

and routing for a huge network such as the smart grid

Maintaining Reliability: Tools and applications to help manage the network

and maintain reliability
IP Functions

Connecting multiple types of systems: Identify both source and receiving

system establishing a two-way communication link

Ensuring Security: Tools enabling securing and managing the transport of

data
Providing smooth migration: Provides a way to migrate in phases from
multiple monitoring and control networks to a single converged network
without disrupting service
Communication Enabled Smart Grid Applications

 Direct Load Control (DLC)

 Wireless sensor network (WSN)-based
demand management
 iPower
 Sensor web services for energy management
 Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications
based demand management
 Energy saving applications on appliances
 Electric vehicle demand management
Direct Load Control (DLC)
 DLC means passing the control of several
appliances to the utility or an aggregator
◦ Appliances that can be remotely controlled are pool
pumps and the heating/cooling appliances
◦ A pilot study in Australia has shown that cycling air
conditioners have resulted in 17% of peak load
reduction
 DLC requires simple communications between
the consumers and the utility
◦ Utility commands can be delivered to the customers
through smart meters
 Zigbee or one of the PLC standards can be a
suitable option for DLC
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)-
based Demand Management
 in-Home Energy Management (iHEM) is a non-
intrusive, interactive demand management
scheme
 Energy Management Unit and appliances
communicate wirelessly over the WSN
 iHEM aims to shift consumer demands to off-
peak hours
 Unlike, DLC, iHEM
suggests convenient start
times for the appliances
iPower
 Intelligent and Personalized energy conservation
system by wireless sensor networks:
◦ Implements an energy conservation application for multi-
dwelling homes and offices
◦ Employs a WSN, a control server, power-line control
devices and user identification devices
◦ Sensor nodes are deployed in each room and they
monitor the rooms with light, sound and temperature
sensors
◦ They form a multi-hop WSN and send their measurements
to the gateway when an event occurs

 iPower combines wireless and power line

communication technologies
Sensor web services for energy
management
 Energy management application is a suit of
three energy management modules:
◦ Enables users to learn the energy consumption of
their appliances while they are away from home
◦ Load shedding application for the utilities. Load
shedding is applied to the air conditioning
appliances when the load on the grid is critical
◦ Application for energy generating customers.
Customers can monitor and control the amount
of energy stored and energy sold back to the grid
while they are away from home
 These applications utilize sensor web
services
Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications
based demand management
 M2M communications have been implemented in the
Whirlpool Smart Device Network (WSDN)
 WSDN consists of HAN, the Internet and AMI
 WSDN utilizes several technologies together
◦ Wi-Fi connects the smart appliances and forms the HAN
◦ ZigBee and PLC connect the smart meters in the AMI
◦ Broadband Internet connects consumers to the Internet

 It enables remote access to appliance energy

consumption
 It also provides load shedding capabilities to utilities
during critical peaks
Energy saving applications on
appliances
 An appliance-to-appliance communication
protocol for energy saving applications

 Energy management protocol allows consumers

to set a maximum consumption value

 Based on this threshold, the residential gateway is

able to turn off the appliances that are in standby
mode once these limits are exceeded
Electric vehicle demand management
 Home Gateway and Controller (HGC)
communicates with the PHEV
◦ Controls its charging and discharging profile based on
 Status of the roof-top solar power generation unit
 Demands of the smart appliances
 HGC also
communicates with the
other HGC devices in
the neighborhood and
coordinates PHEV loads
Smart Grid Standards
 Inter-operability: “the ability of two or more systems or
components to exchange information and to use the
information that has been exchanged”
 The overall SG system is lacking widely accepted standards
 Standards Development Organizations (SDOs):
◦ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
◦ American National Standards Institute (ANSI),
◦ International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC),
◦ Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
◦ International Organization for Standardization (ISO),
International Telecommunication Union (ITU),
◦ etc.
 Alliances: ZigBee Alliance, Wi-Fi Alliance, HomePlug
Powerline Alliance, Z-Wave Alliance, etc.
 Representative SG Standards
WiMAX
3G/4G
Cellular Wi-Fi
IEC 61850
IEEE P2030
DNP3 SONET
Substation
Wide Area Network
IEC 61400-25
IEC 61850
DNP3
CIM
Control center
Wind farm SUN
Wi-Fi
3G/4G Cellular

IEEE 1547 Neighbor Area Network

IEC 61850-7-420 BACnet
OpenADR
DRBizNet
SAE J2293
Distributed Energy C12.18 SAE J2836 Commercial user
Resources C12.19 Zigbee SAE J2847
C12.22 Smart Wi-Fi
M-Bus meter

Residential user PHEV