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

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

Enabling sustainable power distribution networks by using smart grid communications

Smart grid modernization enables integration of computing, information and communications capabilities into the legacy electric power grid system, especially the low voltage distribution networks where various consumers are located. The evolutionary paradigm has initiated worldwide deployment of an enormous number of smart meters as well as renewable energy sources at end-user levels. The future distribution networks as part of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) will involve decentralized power control operations under associated smart grid communications networks. This dissertation addresses three potential problems anticipated in the future distribution networks of smart grid: 1) local power congestion due to power surpluses produced by PV solar units in a neighborhood that demands disconnection/reconnection mechanisms to alleviate power overflow, 2) power balance associated with renewable energy utilization as well as data traffic across a multi-layered distribution network that requires decentralized designs to facilitate power control as well as communications, and 3) a breach of data integrity attributed to a typical false data injection attack in a smart metering network that calls for a hybrid intrusion detection system to detect anomalous/malicious activities. In the first problem, a model for the disconnection process via smart metering communications between smart meters and the utility control center is proposed. By modeling the power surplus congestion issue as a knapsack problem, greedy solutions for solving such problem are proposed. Simulation results and analysis show that computation time and data traffic under a disconnection stage in the network can be reduced. In the second problem, autonomous distribution networks are designed that take scalability into account by dividing the legacy distribution network into a set of subnetworks. A power-control method is proposed to tackle the power flow and power balance issues. Meanwhile, an overlay multi-tier communications infrastructure for the underlying power network is proposed to analyze the traffic of data information and control messages required for the associated power flow operations. Simulation results and analysis show that utilization of renewable energy production can be improved, and at the same time data traffic reduction under decentralized operations can be achieved as compared to legacy centralized management. In the third problem, an attack model is proposed that aims to minimize the number of compromised meters subject to the equality of an aggregated power load in order to bypass detection under the conventionally radial tree-like distribution network. A hybrid anomaly detection framework is developed, which incorporates the proposed grid sensor placement algorithm with the observability attribute. Simulation results and analysis show that the network observability as well as detection accuracy can be improved by utilizing grid-placed sensors. Conclusively, a number of future works have also been identified to furthering the associated problems and proposed solutions

Planeación y despliegue de la red de sensores inalámbricos requerida para la medición inteligente de energía eléctrica usando restricciones de capacidad y cobertura

The electrical energy measurement (EEM), seeks to provide quality services without neglecting the reliability of the system. Therefore, a quality service must be closely linked to the wireless communication technologies, to technify the EEM, not only reading, but also cuts, reconnections, and other additional services that the intelligent measurement infrastructure provides through wireless technologies Such as cell or WiFi, increasingly common because of the reliability they provide in real-time data transmission. Wireless infrastructures allow us to provide coverage to the fixed terminals, determined by the electric meter, and in turn manage and plan the optimal deployment of wireless sensors (SI) in finite areas, whether urban, rural or suburban. This article proposes an optimal model for planning and deploying SI for the EEM in order to guarantee reliable wireless communication links at the lowest implementation cost. Therefore, the proposed algorithm gives global solutions within a finite scenario, making this a scalable model in time able to manage the use of available links. The SIs for the EEM are inserted into the Neighborhood Area Networks (NANs) covered by the mobile communications network.La medición de energía eléctrica (MEE), busca proporcionar servicios de calidad sin descuidar la confiabilidad del sistema. Por lo tanto, un servicio de calidad debe ir estrechamente ligada a las tecnologías de comunicación inalámbrica, para tecnificar la MEE, no solo lectura, sino también cortes, reconexiones, y otros servicios adicionales que la infraestructura de medición inteligente provee a través de tecnologías inalámbricas como celular o WiFi, cada vez más comunes debido a la confiabilidad que estas brindan en la transmisión de datos en tiempo real [1]. Las infraestructuras inalámbricas nos permiten brindar cobertura a los terminales fijos, determinados por el medidor eléctrico, y a su vez gestionar y planificar el óptimo despliegue de sensores inalámbricos (SI) en áreas finitas, ya sean, urbanas, rurales o suburbanas. Este artículo propone un modelo óptimo de planeación y despliegue de SI para la MEE con la finalidad de garantizar enlaces de comunicación inalámbricos confiables al menor costo de implementación. Por lo tanto, el algoritmo propuesto da soluciones globales dentro de un escenario finito, haciendo de este un modelo escalable en el tiempo capaz de gestionar el uso de enlaces disponibles. Los SI para la MEE, son insertados en las Redes de Área Vecindaria (NAN) cubiertas por la red de comunicaciones móviles

ANOMALY INFERENCE BASED ON HETEROGENEOUS DATA SOURCES IN AN ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Harnessing the heterogeneous data sets would improve system observability. While the current metering infrastructure in distribution network has been utilized for the operational purpose to tackle abnormal events, such as weather-related disturbance, the new normal we face today can be at a greater magnitude. Strengthening the inter-dependencies as well as incorporating new crowd-sourced information can enhance operational aspects such as system reconfigurability under extreme conditions. Such resilience is crucial to the recovery of any catastrophic events. In this dissertation, it is focused on the anomaly of potential foul play within an electrical distribution system, both primary and secondary networks as well as its potential to relate to other feeders from other utilities. The distributed generation has been part of the smart grid mission, the addition can be prone to electronic manipulation. This dissertation provides a comprehensive establishment in the emerging platform where the computing resources have been ubiquitous in the electrical distribution network. The topics covered in this thesis is wide-ranging where the anomaly inference includes load modeling and profile enhancement from other sources to infer of topological changes in the primary distribution network. While metering infrastructure has been the technological deployment to enable remote-controlled capability on the dis-connectors, this scholarly contribution represents the critical knowledge of new paradigm to address security-related issues, such as, irregularity (tampering by individuals) as well as potential malware (a large-scale form) that can massively manipulate the existing network control variables, resulting into large impact to the power grid

System for acquisition, processing and presentation of energy consumption

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Major Telecomunicações). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

The generic design of a high-traffic advanced metering infrastructure using ZigBee

A multi-interface ZigBee building area network (MIZBAN) for a high-traffic advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for high-rise buildings was developed. This supports meter management functions such as Demand Response for smart grid applications. To cater for the high-traffic communication in these building area networks (BANs), a multi-interface management framework was defined and designed to coordinate the operation between multiple interfaces based on a newly defined tree-based mesh (T-Mesh) ZigBee topology, which supports both mesh and tree routing in a single network. To evaluate MIZBAN, an experiment was set up in a five-floor building. Based on the measured data, simulations were performed to extend the analysis to a 23-floor building. These revealed that MIZBAN yields an improvement in application-layer latency of the backbone and the floor network by 75% and 67%, respectively. This paper provides the design engineer with seven recommendations for a generic MIZBAN design, which will fulfill the requirement for demand response by the U.S. government, i.e. a latency of less than 0.25 s.http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=9424hb201