Smart Grid Telecommunications. Ramon Ferrús
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of a communication network on the electric grid”). And the explicit reference of the telecommunications connectivity pervasiveness comes from [32] in its Grid 2030 as “a fully automated power delivery network that monitors and controls every customer and node, ensuring a two‐way flow of electricity and information between the power plant and the appliance, and all points in between.”
Table 1.2 Main definitions of the Smart Grid.
| Body | Definition |
|---|---|
| The Smart Grid European Technology Platform [24] | A smart grid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the actions of all users connected to it (generators, consumers, and those that do both) to efficiently deliver sustainable, economic, and secure electricity supply. |
| The U.S. Department of Energy [25] | A smart grid uses digital technology to modernize the electric system – from large generation, through the delivery systems to electricity consumption – and is defined by seven enabling performance‐based functionalities [17]:Customer participation.Integration of all generation and storage options.New markets and operations.Power quality for the twenty‐first century.Asset optimization and operational efficiency.Self‐healing from disturbances.Resiliency against attacks and disasters. |
| The International Energy Agency (IEA) [26] | A smart grid is an electricity network that uses digital and other advanced technologies to monitor and manage the transport of electricity from all generation sources to meet the varying electricity demands of end‐users. Smart grids coordinate the needs and capabilities of all generators, grid operators, end‐users, and electricity market stakeholders to operate all parts of the system as efficiently as possible, minimizing costs and environmental impacts while maximizing system reliability, resilience, and stability [27]. |
| The World Economic Forum [28] | Key characteristics of the Smart Grid [17]:Self‐healing and resilient.Integrating advanced and low‐carbon technologies.Asset optimization and operational efficiency.Inclusion.Heightened power quality.Market empowerment. |
The reference to ICT within the “digital technologies” concept is needed when referring to the wider aspects of the Smart Grid. ICT definition is a broad concept intended to cover all technologies (hardware and software) that manage and process information data and transmit them through telecommunication networks. ICT is certainly used extensively, but a dissection of its different parts is needed if we want to understand its impact to Smart Grids, and specifically the areas that can limit its realization.
The two main components of ICT are the information and the communications. “Information” is again a broad term defined by IEC as “knowledge concerning objects, such as facts, events, things, processes, or ideas, including concepts, that within a certain context has a particular meaning.” The idea is better identified when the definition of Information Technology (IT) equipment is analyzed: “equipment designed for the purpose of (a) receiving data from an external source […]; (b) performing some processing functions on the received data (such as computation, data transformation or recording, filing, sorting, storage, transfer of data); (c) providing a data output […].”
“Communication” is the other component of ICTs. Communication is, according to the definition of the IEC, the “information transfer according to agreed conventions.” The “agreed conventions” piece refers to the protocols or language that is used, and the “information transfer” is what traditionally is implicit in the term “Telecommunications.” Indeed, “telecommunications” are defined as “any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writing images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems” in [33] and implies connectivity provided over different physical media, allowing a variety of information sources.
ICTs, understood as computing and electronic elements coupled with telecommunication networks, have historically been appreciated and used by the power utility industry at the core of their operations. Distant grid elements have evolved from being monitored and operated locally to a centralized control performed from UCCs. Central and/or remote intelligence has progressively taken control of most elements of the grid in its different parts. Automatic collection of distributed information allows performing grid simulation, and operation and maintenance activities effectively, as it would not be possible without ICTs to analyze thousands of complex parameters without manual intervention. Automated systems have an instrumental role in utility operations, take complex decisions, and execute actions over remote grid assets based on data coming from many distributed grid components. Both the infrastructure (grid) and algorithms (intelligence) are fundamental for the Smart Grid, and the “glue” that integrates them is ICT [34].
All Smart Grid strategies and visions are founded upon the availability of telecommunications connectivity. Most Smart Grid applications, in the different segments of the electric power system, rely upon the availability of a telecommunications network for interconnection of their components [35]. Some of these segments bring less difficulties, e.g., when investment allowance is granted, or the distributed nature and number of the assets involved are low, or the telecommunication connectivity is already available and does not involve any special requirements. However, when any of those circumstances, or several of them, do not happen, the difficulties may cripple Smart Grid adoption despite all efforts in areas that are not related to telecommunications. Remarkably, Distribution and Transmission segments are (in this order) the most challenging fields. With no doubt, we cannot consider any of those two segments in a monolithic way, as they consist of many different components. Their various parts are intrinsically disparate and present distinctive challenges. Thus, in each case, we will need to see which connectivity is needed depending on the part of the grid needing “smartness,” and for which Smart Grid application or service.
Thus, telecommunication connectivity is more important than ever for utilities. Although utilities have historically used telecommunications to protect and control their grids, the challenge of extending telecommunication access to potentially millions of geographically dispersed end‐points over large service areas, is inherent to the Smart Grid and remains unsolved even considering the sole telecommunications market. On one hand, telecommunication markets (TSPs, equipment vendors, etc.) tend to favor profitable population segments and concentrate their network efforts where return on investment can be maximized (thus leading to terms such as “telecommunications gap” – term coined in “Maitland Report” [36] to describe the different telephone access density in the different parts of the world, or the more recent “digital divide,” that copes both with access to information in terms of information technology, and in terms or communications connectivity after this foundational document of modern telecommunications development). On the other hand, standard residential, commercial, or industrial telecommunication services supported by existing networks and equipment do not by default comply with the type of need and service‐level guarantees the utilities have in their operational environments and complex processes [37], tailored to maximize the safety and resiliency of the electric power system as a whole.
The challenge of telecommunications connectivity is to grow today's utilities' existing telecommunication networks by possibly several orders of magnitude and in very diverse circumstances. Until the advent of the Smart Grid, telecommunications connectivity needs in utilities were limited to some of their assets. As new elements are brought to the grid, changing the way the grid must be operated, a pervasive control and monitoring is needed, and telecommunications connectivity becomes a bottleneck, and eventually the weak‐link of all the Smart Grid strategy. Due to their varied nature, location, and requirements of the Smart Grid assets, telecommunications connectivity for their Smart Grid services will not be systematically and cost‐effectively provided over one single technology. The telecommunication network solution will be a hybrid one, combination of a mix of private and public/commercial telecommunication solutions. The optimal blend will be different