HANDBOOK ON GREEN INFORMATION

AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Smart Grid Communications

Networks: WirelessTechnologies,
Protocols, Issues and Standards

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 Contents
• Introduction to Smart Grid
• Smart Grid Communications Network (SGCN)
• Communications Traffic and Required Quality of
Services (QoSs)
• Wireless Communications Technologies for SGCN
• Neighbor Area Network (NAN) and Open
Research Issues
• Smart Grid Standards
• Summary
• References

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 Smart Grid

• a new digital meter on your breaker panel?

• a wireless network that reads those meters
remotely or the data management system
that processes the information?
• some solar panels on the roof?
• a load-controller on the heating, ventilation,
and air conditioning system?
• Smart Grid is the inclusion of all of these
things

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 Smart Grid
• “an automated, widely distributed energy delivery
network characterized by a two-way flow of electricity
and information, capable of monitoring and responding
to changes in everything from power plants to
customer preferences to individual appliances” [1]

• “the electricity delivery system (from point of

generation to point of consumption) integrated with
communications and information technology for
enhanced grid operations, customer services, and
environmental benefits”
(Funding for Smart GriFunding Grid Activities, US Department of Energy, 2009, link:
www.gefa.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=925)

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 Smart Grid Can
• Identify and resolve faults on electricity grid
• Automatically self-heal the grid
• Monitor power quality and manage voltage
• Identify devices or subsystems that require
maintenance
• Help consumers optimize their individual
electricity consumption (minimize their bills)
• Enable the use of smart appliances that can
be programmed to run on off-peak power
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 SG Comm. Network (SGCN)
• The key to achieving these potential benefits
of SG is to successful build up Smart Grid
Communications Network (SGCN) that can
support all identified SG functionalities
– Advanced Metering Infrastructure(AMI),
– Demand Response (DR),
– Electric Vehicles (EVs),
– Wide-Area Situational Awareness (WASA),
– distributed energy resources and storage,
– distribution grid management, etc.

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 SG Comm. Network (SGCN)

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

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 Traffic and Required QoSs
Traffic Types Description Bandwidth Latency

AMI Networks

Meter Reads Meters report energy consumption (Ex: the 15-min interval reads are usually transferred Up to 10kbps 2 to 10sec
every 4 hours)

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

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

Substation Networks

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

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

Inter-substation Communications Emerging applications such as DER might warrant GOOSE communications outside -- 12ms ~ 20ms
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 on distribution networks 2 ~ 5Mbps 25 ~ 100ms

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 are not affected -- 100ms ~ 10sec

Operation Optimization Monitors and controls the operations of the whole MG in order to optimize the power -- 100ms ~ min
exchanged between the MG and the main grid

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 Wireless Comm. Technologies
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 of Unlikely to be used
home area networks (WHANs) 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- basements; Small coverage and short distances HANs, MGANs,
networks (WLANs), wireless cost application development; Stable and limit wide spread use; Security issues with and NANs
mesh networks mature standards multiple networks operating in same locations

3G Cellular (UMTS, Expensive infrastructure already widely Utility must rent the infrastructure from a cellular AMI Backhaul,
CDMA2000, EV-DO, EDGE) deployed, stable and mature; Well standardized; carrier for a monthly access fee; Utility does not Field Area Network
Wide-area wireless networks Equipment prices keep dropping; Readily own infrastructure; Technology is in the (FAN)
for voice, video, and data available expertise in deployments; Cellular transition phase to LTE deployment; Public
services in a mobile chipset very inexpensive; Large selection of cellular networks not sufficiently stable/secure
environment vendors and 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 cellular AMI Backhaul,
Enhancements to 3G Universal 3GGP, compatible with earlier 3GPP releases; carrier for a monthly access fee; Utility does not SCADA Backhaul,
Mobile Telecommunications Full mobility for enhanced multimedia services; own infrastructure; Not readily available in many Demand
System (UMTS) mobile Carrier preferred protocol; Low power markets/still in testing phases in others; Response, FAN,
networking, providing for consumption Equipment cost high; Vendor differentiation still Video Surveillance
enhanced multimedia services unclear; Lack of expertise in designing LTE
networks; Utilities’ access to spectrum

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) Efficient backhaul of data – aggregating 100’s Limited access to spectrum licenses in the US; AMI Backhaul,
Wireless metropolitan area access points; QoS supports service assurance; Trade off between higher bit rates over longer SCADA Backhaul,
network (MAN) providing high- Battery-backup improves reliability and security; distances; Asymmetrical up and down link Demand
speed fixed/mobile Internet Simple, scalable network rollout and customer- speeds; User shared bandwidth; Competing Response, FAN,
access premises equipment (CPE) attachment; Faster against future 4G cellular Video Surveillance
speeds than 3G cellular; Large variety of CPE
and gateway/ base station designs

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 Neighbor Area Network (NAN)

• 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

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 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.

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 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

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 Wireless Routing Overview

Routing protocols for wireless networks

• Simple
Flooding-based • Message implosion, resource-blind,
mainly for P2P

• Simple, exploits location infor.

Location-based
• Loops, distance not represents link quality

• Adapts well to link quality, supports

Self-organizing MP2P and P2MP, supports QoSs
• Complicated, needs more signalings

• Resource-efficient, supports security

Cluster-based
• Complicated, less dynamic to link conditions

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 Candidate Routing Protocols for NAN

• Greedy Geographic routing (GEO) [40]

• Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy

Networks (RPL) [4146]

• IEEE 802.11s Hybrid Wireless Mesh

Protocol (HWMP) [4749]

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 Open Issues in NAN
• Downlink Communications
• QoS Differentiation and Provisioning
• Network Self-healing
• Multicasting
• Cluster-based Routing
• Optimal Network Design

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 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

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 Smart Grid 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.

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 NIST Activities
• “primary responsibility to coordinate development
of a framework that includes protocols and model
standards for information management to achieve
inter-operability of smart grid devices and
systems ...” (Energy Independence and Security
Act of 2007, Title XIII, Section 1305)
• Specific activities:
– (i) identifying existing applicable standards
– (ii) addressing and solving gaps where a standard
extension or new standard is needed and
– (iii) identifying overlaps where multiple standards
address some common information

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 NIST Activities
• NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart
Grid Inter-operability Standards, Release
1.0 [52]
– 25 relevant standards (and additional 50
standards for further review)
• NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart
Grid Inter-operability Standards, Release
2.0 [53]
– 34 reviewed standards (and additional 62
standards for further review)

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 NIST Activities
• Priority Action Plans (PAPs), each
addresses one of the following situations:
– a gap exists, where a standard extension or
new standard is needed;
– an overlap exists, where two complementary
standards address some information that is in
common but different for the same scope of
application

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 NIST Activities
PAPs identified by NIST

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 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

Neighbor Area Network

IEEE 1547
IEC 61850-7-420 BACnet
OpenADR
DRBizNet
SAE J2293
C12.18 SAE J2836 Commercial user
Distributed Energy
Resources C12.19 Zigbee SAE J2847
C12.22 Smart Wi-Fi
M-Bus meter

Residential user PHEV

Home Area Network

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 Summary
• This chapter gives an insight view of the Smart Grid
Communications Network (SGCN) by presenting
– its layered architecture,
– typical types of traffic that it may carry and associated quality of
service requirements,
– as well as candidate wireless communications technologies that
can be employed for its implementation
• Networking issues that the Neighbor Area Network (NAN)
segment of SGCN needs to tackle are highlighted by
– exploring characteristics and requirements of this network segment
– identifying important gaps that existing wireless routing protocols
need to cover for their applicability into NAN
• This chapter also reviews a number of standards for smart
grid inter-operability
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 References

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 References

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 References

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 References

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 References

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 References

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