SMART METERS AND DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT IN SMART GRIDS – EXPLORING CHALLENGES AND OUTLINING FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This research in progress paper explores smart meters and demand side management (DSM) challenges and how this is perceived by suppliers of smart grids. It builds on semi-structured interviews and a literature review showing that smart meters are a highly important, relevant, and interesting research topic. We identify a need to include knowledge on how to develop smart meter technology further as well as how to increase both supplier and energy user engagement and involvement in development of smart meters technology. Our research shows that there exist gaps between: policies, goals and expectations on one side and implementation and use of smart meters on the other side. Based on initial results we conclude that there is a need to explore DSM and smart meter technology further and to learn from a social-technical IS perspective to overcome a one-sided perspective, or even deterministic view, on technology

Energy efficient multi channel packet forwarding mechanism for wireless sensor networks in smart grid applications

Multichannel Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSNs) paradigm provides an opportunity for the Power Grid (PG) to be upgraded into an intelligent power grid known as the Smart Grid (SG) for efficiently managing the continuously growing energy demand of the 21st century. However, the nature of the intelligent grid environments is affected by the equipment noise, electromagnetic interference, and multipath effects, which pose significant challenges in existing schemes to find optimal vacant channels for MWSNs-based SG applications. This research proposed three schemes to address these issues. The first scheme was an Energy Efficient Routing (ERM) scheme to select the best-optimized route to increase the network performance between the source and the sink in the MWSNs. Secondly, an Efficient Channel Detection (ECD) scheme to detect vacant channels for the Primary Users (PUs) with improved channel detection probability and low probability of missed detection and false alarms in the MWSNs. Finally, a Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) scheme that dealt with channel scarcities by dynamically switching between different channels that provided higher data rate channels with longer idle probability to Secondary Users (SUs) at extremely low interference in the MWSNs. These three schemes were integrated as the Energy Efficient Multichannel Packet Forwarding Mechanism (CARP) for Wireless Sensor Networks in Smart Grid Applications. The extensive simulation studies were carried through an EstiNet software version 9.0. The obtained experimental simulation facts exhibited that the proposed schemes in the CARP mechanism achieved improved network performance in terms of packets delivery ratio (26%), congestion management (15%), throughput (23%), probability of channel detection (21%), reduces packet error rate (22%), end-to-end delay (25%), probability of channel missed-detection (25%), probability of false alarms (23.3%), and energy consumption (17%); as compared to the relevant schemes in both EQSHC and G-RPL mechanisms. To conclude, the proposed mechanism significantly improves the Quality of Service (QoS) data delivery performance for MWSNs in SG

Design and Performance of a XBee 900 MHz Acquisition System Aimed at Industrial Applications

Wireless technologies are being introduced in industrial applications since they provide certain benefits, such as the flexibility to modify the layout of the nodes, improving connectivity with monitoring and decision nodes, adapting to mobile devices and reducing or eliminating cabling. However, companies are still reluctant to use them in time-critical applications, and consequently, more research is needed in order to be massively deployed in industrial environments. This paper goes in this direction by presenting a novel wireless acquisition system aimed at industrial applications. This system embeds a low-cost technology, such as XBee, not frequently considered for deterministic applications, for deploying industrial applications that must fulfill certain QoS requirements. The use of XBee 900 MHz modules allows for the use of the 2.4 GHz band for other purposes, such as connecting to cloud services, without causing interferences with critical applications. The system implements a time-slotted media access (TDMA) approach with a timely transmission scheduling of the messages on top of the XBee 900 MHz technology. The paper discusses the details of the acquisition system, including the topology, the nodes involved, the so-called coordinator node and smart measuring nodes, and the design of the frames. Smart measuring nodes are implemented by an original PCB which were specifically designed and manufactured. This board eases the connection of the sensors to the acquisition system. Experimental tests were carried out to validate the presented wireless acquisition system. Its applicability is shown in an industrial scenario for monitoring the positioning of an aeronautical reconfigurable tooling prototype. Both wired and wireless technologies were used to compare the variables monitored. The results proved that the followed approach may be an alternative for monitoring big machinery in indoor industrial environments, becoming especially suitable for acquiring values from sensors located in mobile parts or difficult-to-reach places.This research was funded by the Basque Government, through the project EKOHEGAZ (ELKARTEK KK-2021/00092), Diputación Foral de Álava (DFA) through the project CONAVANTER, and to the UPV/EHU through the project GIU20/063

Reliable Control Applications with Wireless Communication Technologies: Application to Robotic Systems

The nature of wireless propagation may reduce the QoS of the applications, such that some packages can be delayed or lost. For this reason, the design of wireless control applications must be faced in a holistic way to avoid degrading the performance of the control algorithms. This paper is aimed at improving the reliability of wireless control applications in the event of communication degradation or temporary loss at the wireless links. Two controller levels are used: sophisticated algorithms providing better performance are executed in a central node, whereas local independent controllers, implemented as back-up controllers, are executed next to the process in case of QoS degradation. This work presents a reliable strategy for switching between central and local controllers avoiding that plants may become uncontrolled. For validation purposes, the presented approach was used to control a planar robot. A Fuzzy Logic control algorithm was implemented as a main controller at a high performance computing platform. A back-up controller was implemented on an edge device. This approach avoids the robot becoming uncontrolled in case of communication failure. Although a planar robot was chosen in this work, the presented approach may be extended to other processes. XBee 900 MHz communication technology was selected for control tasks, leaving the 2.4 GHz band for integration with cloud services. Several experiments are presented to analyze the behavior of the control application under different circumstances. The results proved that our approach allows the use of wireless communications, even in critical control applications.This research was funded by the Basque Government through the project EKOHEGAZ (ELKARTEK KK-2021/00092), by Diputación Foral de Álava (DFA) through the project CONAVANTER, and by UPV/EHU through the project GIU20/063