Smart Grid Telecommunications
Module 03 : Smart Grid Applications and Services
Smart Grid Applications and their Telecommunication Needs
• Some of the most relevant
applications classified according
to the grid segment:
• Generation, Transmission,
Distribution, and Customer
• and the operations domain:
• Operations Management,
Customer Management, and
Smart Grid
Smart Grid Applications and Their Telecommunication Needs
• Applications under the Operations Management domain: Taking electricity to consumption
Points from Generation sites
• Energy Management Systems [EMS]: Ensures that the stability between supply and
demand is maintained
• Distribution Management Systems [DMS]: To monitor and control the electric
power distribution networks
• Geographical Information Systems [GIS]: works with data on an interactive map.
• Outage Management Systems (OMSs): used to manage the power restoration processes
in the grid during service interruptions.
• Analyze outages (location, extent, etc.) to help dispatchers and crews to solve them.
• Predict outages via analysis of information collected from the Distribution grid.
Smart Grid Applications and Their Telecommunication Needs
• Customer Management domain:
• Automatic Meter Reading (AMR),
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): for managing current and
potential customers
• Energy Management Systems [EMS]: with a focus on consumption rather
than on the network.
• Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is evaluation of AMR
• ICTs are central for the realization of all these applications.
Smart Grid Applications and Their Telecommunication Needs
• Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems monitor and operate:
1. Remote Terminal Units (RTUs)
2. Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs)
3. Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs).
SCADA
• SCADA systems are actually Process Control Systems (PCSs)
• Used for gathering, monitoring, and analyzing real-time environmental data from a
simple residential building or a complex large scale PV or wind far power plant.
• PCS consists of:
• One or more remote terminal units (RTUs) and/or Programmable Logic Controllers
(PLC) connected to any number of actuators and sensors, which relay data to a
Master Data Collective Device for analysis.
SCADA
• SCADA systems are the basis of the remote intervention
capabilities of utilities and the progressive evolution into the
automation of remotely executed operations.
• SCADA systems origins were stimulated by the quest for
automation of operations, and supported by the evolution of
ICT technologies in general, and telecommunications in
particular.
• SCADA systems follow the simple idea of a “brain” controlling
remote “hands,” and getting information from remote “eyes”
and “ears,” through a “nervous system”:
SCADA
• Central infrastructure with Master Station:
• Collection of computers, peripherals, and appropriate
input and output (I/O) systems that acts as the core of the
system enabling Control Center operators to monitor the
state of the power system processes, and control them.
• It may have a single master or a multiple that may be
located in the same site or distributed in different sites.
• It will be accessible to operators (people) through a
Human-Machine Interface (HMI), for the needed
operation interaction.
SCADA
Controller:
• Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) is the basic element
providing the control at the substations/Transmission
lines etc.
• RTUs acquire all relevant field data from field devices,
process the data and transmit what it is considered
relevant to the central infrastructure.
• In the other direction (from central to remote), they
distribute the control signals received from the
master station to the field devices.
SCADA
• Telecommunications infrastructure
• Set of telecommunication means (network equipment,
transmission media) enabling the exchange of data
messages (i.e. SCADA protocols)
• between the central infrastructure and remote units
• between the components of the central infrastructure
that may be distributed in different locations.
• One or more communication channels have to be
arranged between the master station and each individual
or group of RTUs.
Protection System against Faults
• Priority of any power system is the safety of system components and people.
• Power systems need to be designed and maintained to limit the number of faults
that might occur, and their derived power outages and voltage fluctuations.
• A fault can make whole sections of the grid unavailable with a cascading effect
that can affect a relevant area of the grid, if not properly isolated
• A fault is a flow of current that is large enough to cause damage.
• The typical fault is a short circuit that can happen between a phase and ground
or between two phases of a power line.
Protection System against Faults
• Faults are unavoidable, as lightning discharges, tree branches, animals contacting
circuits, vandalism, unintended incorrect operation, or the deterioration of
insulation in power lines can cause them
• Faults fall into two broad categories: short-circuit faults and open-circuit faults;
Short-circuits is the most severe kind .
• Most faults are of a transient nature and this allows power supply recovery with
short interruption periods.
Protection System
• Quick Detection of Faults and Disconnection of the faulted segment to minimize the impact to the Grid;
Protection systems consist of five components:
1. Protective relays:
• A protection relay is a smart device that receives inputs, compares them to set points, and provides
outputs.
• Inputs can be current, voltage, resistance, or temperature.
• Outputs can include visual feedback in the form of indicator lights and/or an alphanumeric display,
communications, control warnings, alarms, and turning power off and on.
Protection System
2. Current and voltage transformers step down the values to be fed to Protection relays as
input data.
3. Telecommunications are used when the analysis of current and voltage needs to happen
at remote terminals of a power line, and/or to allow remote tripping of equipment.
4. Protection relays need to have battery power available to operate on power disconnection
situations.
5. Circuit breaker automatically interrupts the flow of current in an electrical circuit in the
event of an over-current or short-circuit.
Protection relays main functional characteristics
• Speed: Operation must be executed in the shortest possible time, ranges being in the
order of 30–100ms depending upon the voltage level of the section involved.
• Selectivity: Relays must clearly discriminate between normal and abnormal system
conditions, to prevent unnecessary activation.
• Sensitivity: Relays must accurately detect signals crossing predefined configured limits.
• Reliability: Protective equipment must be ready to actuate when needed.
Automatic Operation of Protection System
• Automatic operation:
• is instrumental to isolate faults as quickly as possible, to minimize damage and the costs
of non distributed energy.
• Protective devices:
• are embedded in Smart Grid for automatic operation, and telecommunications systems
assisting them in the protection function will enable them to communicate in real-time
to utilize information from other power system sections for self healing purposes.
Automatic Operation of Protection System
• Fault information from the protective devices is used by utilities to identify the location, time,
and number of faults in the Grid and resume normal operation after the faults have been cleared.
• Fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR):
• monitoring a system, identifying time of fault occurrence, pinpointing the type of fault and
its location.
• Fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR)
• automatically restores power to as many customers as possible, as quickly as possible, in the
event of a permanent fault.
Protect of individual elements of the system
• To protect individual elements of the system, locally without the intervention of
Telecommunications in the process (e.g., the protection of a transformer).
• Protective system consists of the combination of protection relays (detecting the fault) and
circuit breakers (isolating the fault).
• Protection relays sense any change in
the signal they are receiving (from a
current and/or voltage source), assess
the magnitude of the incoming signal to
check if it is outside a pre-set value, and
carry out a specific operation.
Telecommunication Based Protection
• When substations are connected by means of power lines then protection systems are
used to isolate faulted sections of the network, in order to maintain power supply in
the rest of the system.
• Telecommunications are needed in the protection process to send and receive
commands, and to share information that needs to be analyzed at the distant end.
• Substation protective elements must be connected remotely to be able to open the
circuit breakers, considering protection zones, in a coordinated way.
• The protection domain requires telecommunications to exist.
Telecommunication Based Protection
• Teleprotection system monitor the condition of the grid, isolating faults and preventing damage to
critical parts of the power grid.
• Teleprotection equipments works as a physical interface between the telecommunication infrastructure
and the protection relays.
The data information transfer
delay must not typically exceed
8–10 ms covering distances
between adjacent substations,
which may range from a few
kilometers to close to 100 km.
Distance Protection
• Distance protection operates on the principle of impedance measurement to detect and isolate
faults in a power system.
• When the fault occurs at point X in the protected zone then the voltage drops while current
increases.
• Thus the ratio of V/I, the impedance reduces.
• This is the impedance of line between relay
located and the faulty point X.
• So when the impedance reduces than its
predetermined value, the distance protection
trips circuit breaker.
Deferential Protection Principle
• Local relay and the Remote relay,
monitor current from their associated
CTs and communicate with each other
via optical fiber cables.
• When a fault occurs on the line, the
relays see the fault at the same time.
• Based on information received from the
other end of the line, the relays decide
what needs to be done – trip or restrain.
Distribution Automation
• Distribution Automation:
• Covers all aspects of the automation of the entire distribution system operations.
• Remotely monitors, coordinates, and operates distribution grid components in real-
time, to eventually solve any distribution grid component malfunctioning (grid-
“healing”).
• is not a single application or technology component, it covers different technology
elements that are combined to get more efficient operations in the Distribution
segment of the grid, and for the customers to get an objectively assessed better
service.
Distribution Automation (DA)
Elements in Distribution Automation
Switching devices
• These elements connect, disconnect, and/or reconnect segments of circuits when needed, to
protect feeders and/or redirect electricity flow.
• This need may derive from faults in the grid or from load shedding conditions.
• They can be designed to operate (i.e. break) under load or no-load conditions.
• They can be classified as:
• Circuit switches, connecting and disconnecting line segments (load break or non-load
break type).
• Circuit breakers, disconnecting load on pre-set operating conditions.
Grid elements in DA
Sensors:
• Pure sensing devices that monitor the state of different points of the Distribution Grid,
detecting and recording variables associated to its state.
• They include voltage and current transformers.
Voltage regulation devices:
• These elements control voltage levels along feeders for power quality assurance.
• Voltage variations may occur due to the continuous changes of the network load, and voltage
values need to remain between certain thresholds.
Grid elements in DA
Volt-amperes reactive (VAR) support devices:
• These elements, mainly shunt capacitor banks, provide power factor
correction to control reactive power.
• Reactive power is power in the system that is moving back and forth (i.e. it
does not do useful work) and it should be minimized.
Distribution transformers:
• These are small capacity Transformers
• Monitoring parameters such as voltage, current, and temperature are
important to balance loads in the grid and to control the lifetime of the
transformers themselves
Substation Automation
• A substation automation system is a collection of hardware and software
components that are used to monitor and control an electrical system,
both locally and remotely.
• In future energy systems, renewable, decentralized energy suppliers will
play an important role at any voltage levels.
• A high degree of automation is required to ensure reliability of supply and
efficient operation.
IEC 61850 Substation Architecture
• The IEC 61850 standard series divides
the systems into three levels and
describes the communication protocol
between the functions of the system:
• Process Level contains devices such
as circuit breakers or data
acquisition devices for current,
voltage and other parameters.
• This is where the electrical
energy is switched.
IEC 61850 Substation Architecture
• Bay Level consists of the individual IEDs.
• They process the data supplied by the process level and make local control
decisions.
• They also transmit data for further processing and monitoring to the higher-level
control and data acquisition system, the SCADA system.
• Station Level contains the SCADA system as well as operating and monitoring devices
for monitoring the operation of a substation.
• In addition, the connection to the network control system of the network operator
takes place from here via various WAN technologies.
IEC 61850 Substation Architecture
• The Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) is an IEC standard (IEC 62439-3 Clause 4) that provides redundant
Ethernet.
• Each node is connected to two separate parallel Local Area Networks (LANs).
• Source nodes send two copies of each packet, one over each network.
• When a destination node receives a packet, it accepts the first copy and discards the second copy,
eliminating the duplicate.
• High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR) is a standard (IEC 62439-3 Clause 5) that provides redundant
Ethernet.
• The typical HSR topology is a ring.
• The source node duplicates all the frames it has to send and sends them using two different paths to
their destination.
• If either one of the paths is broken, due to link or node failure, the frames are still able to reach their
destination.
Communication protocols between the individual levels
• Individual elements on the different levels of a substation have different communication requirements.
• The IEC 61850 standard defines three forms of
communication:
• Manufacturing Messaging Specification (MMS)
Protocol: Communication between SCADA and
IEDs
• Generic Object Oriented Substation Events
(Goose): Horizontal, direct communication
between the individual IEDs
• Sampled Measured Values (SMV): Vertical
communication between the individual IEDs
IEC 61850 Substation Computer – applications and virtualization
• Control systems located at the upper station level and perform a large number of functions.
• The local SCADA system runs here, which orchestrates and monitors the processes in the
substation.
• Different software can be used for power quality analysis (PQ analysis) or other logging
functions.
Distributed Energy Resources
• Distributed energy resources (DERs),
are small-scale electricity supply or
demand resources that are
interconnected to the Electric Grid.
• Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are
cloud-based data control centers
that aggregate production data from
various Distributed energy resources
(DERs).
DERs Integration
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoTs)
DERs Integration
Distributed energy
resources management
system (DERMS)
DERs Integration
• Distributed generation,
refers to small-scale
renewables on the
distribution grid where
electricity load is served.
• Centralized, utility-scale
generation, which refers
to larger projects that
connect to the grid
through transmission
lines.
