CleanTX Analysis on the Smart Grid

The utility industry in the United States has an opportunity to revolutionize its electric grid system by utilizing emerging software, hardware and wireless technologies and renewable energy sources. As electricity generation in the U.S. increases by over 30% from today’s generation of 4,100 Terawatt hours per year to a production of 5,400 Terawatt hours per year by 2030, a new type of grid is necessary to ensure reliable and quality power. The projected U.S. population increase and economic growth will require a grid that can transmit and distribute significantly more power than it does today. Known as a Smart Grid, this system enables two- way transmission of electrons and information to create a demand-response system that will optimize electricity delivery to consumers. This paper outlines the issues with the current grid infrastructure, discusses the economic advantages of the Smart Grid for both consumers and utilities, and examines the emerging technologies that will enable cleaner, more efficient and cost- effective power transmission and consumption.IC2 Institut

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems

Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities

Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and protocols.Comment: To be published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue. Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte

Privacy In The Smart Grid: An Information Flow Analysis

Project Final Report prepared for CIEE and California Energy Commissio

Gelişmiş Ölçüm Altyapısı İçin Güvenlik Uygulamaları

Elektrik tüketimi ölçüm araçları, manuel olarak ölçüm yapılan analog sayaçlardan, elektrik tüketimi ile ilgili bilgileri toplayan ve elektrik dağıtım firmalarına ileten yeni akıllı sayaçlara doğru evrilmektedir. Sayaç verisinin okunmasını sağlayan tek yönlü otomatik sayaç okuma sistemlerinin (AMR) çıkışıyla sayaçlar akıllı şebeke yatırımlarının önemli bir kısmını oluşturmuştur. Otomatik sayaç okuma sistemleri ilk uygulamalar için cazip olmasına rağmen, çözülmesi gereken önemli bir husus olan talep tarafı yönetiminin AMR ile sağlanamadığı fark edilmiştir. AMR teknolojisinin kabiliyetlerinin tek yönlü sayaç verisi okuma ile sınırlı olması nedeniyle, sayaçlardan toplanan veriler üzerinden düzeltici önlemler alınmasına ve tüketicinin enerjiyi daha verimli akıllı kullanmasına yönelik özeliklere izin vermemektedir. Gelişmiş Ölçüm Altyapısı (AMI) ise akıllı sayaçlar ve dağıtım şirketleri arasında çift yönlü iletişim kurarak dağıtım şirketlerine sayaçlar üzerindeki parametreleri dinamik olarak değiştirme imkanı tanır. Bu nedenle, bu çalışmada AMI güvenliği üzerine odaklanılacaktır. Akıllı sayaç sistemlerinin yaygınlaşması ile birlikte, güvenlik bu sistemlerin gerekli ve kaçınılmaz bir ihtiyacı haline gelmektedir. Diğer taraftan, AMI sadece akıllı sayaçların fiziksel olarak dağıtımı manasına gelmemekte, ayrıca sayaç verilerinin yönetimi için gerekli olan karmaşık bir iletişim ağı ve bilgi teknolojileri altyapısını da içermektedir. Dolayısıyla güvenlik çözümlerini ele alırken geniş bir perspektifle yaklaşmak gerekmektedir. Bu nedenle de, sistemin kritik varlıkları belirlenmeli, tehditler iyi analiz edilmeli ve daha sonra güvenlik gereksinimleri iyi tanımlanmış olmalıdır. Bu çalışma AMI sisteminin temel güvenlik gereksinimleri, tehditlere karşı sistem kısıtlarını düşünerek olası çözümleri üzerine, şu anki güvenlik çözümlerini de resmederek, genel bir bakış sunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, AMI sisteminin güvenlik gereksinimleri analiz edilecek, kısıtlar belirlenecek ve olası güvenlik tehditlerine karşı olası karşı önlemler belirlenecektir. Metering utilities have been replacing from analog meters that are read manually with new, smart meters that gather information about electricity consumption and transmit it back to electric companies. The metering has been the important part of the Smart Grid investments so far, with the initial introduction of one-way automated meter reading (AMR) systems to read meter data. Even though AMR technology proved to be initially enticing, utility companies have realized that AMR does not address demand-side management which is the major issue they need to solve. Since AMR’s capability is restricted to reading meter data due to its one-way communication system, it does not let utilities take corrective action based on the information gathered from the meters and does not assist customers in using energy intelligently. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) creates a two-way communication network between smart meters and utility systems and provides utilities the ability to modify service-level parameters dynamically. Therefore in this work we will also focus on AMI security practices. While smart metering systems are become widespread security is going to be the one of its essential and inevitable needs. On the other hand, AMI does not only mean the physical deployment of smart meters, but it also includes meter data management system which is a complicated communication network and IT infrastructure. Hence a broad perspective has to be adopted when security solutions are considered. Therefore, assets of the system must be identified, threats must be well analyzed and then security requirements must be well defined. This paper presents an overview on the main security requirements of the AMI, on the threats possible solutions considering the system constraints by picturing the current security solutions. In this work, the security requirements for AMI systems will be analyzed, constraints will be determined and possible countermeasures against security threats will be given