Smart Grid Telecommunications

Fundamentals and Technologies in the 5G Era

Alberto Sendin, Javier Matanza, Ramon Ferrus

• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781119755371
• eBook ISBN: 9781119755395
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications
• Index: Technology & Engineering

SMART GRID TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Discover the foundations and main applications of telecommunications to smart grids

In Smart Grid Telecommunications, renowned researchers and authors Drs. Alberto Sendin, Javier Matanza, and Ramon Ferrús deliver a focused treatment of the fundamentals and main applications of telecommunication technologies in smart grids. Aimed at engineers and professionals who work with power systems, the book explains what smart grids are and where telecommunications are needed to solve their various challenges.

Power engineers will benefit from explanations of the main concepts of telecommunications and how they are applied to the different domains of a smart grid. Telecommunication engineers will gain an understanding of smart grid applications and services and will learn from the explanations of how telecommunications need to be adapted to work with them.

The authors offer a simplified vision of smart grids with rigorous coverage of the latest advances in the field, while avoiding some of the technical complexities that can hinder understanding in this area. The book offers:

• Discussions of why telecommunications are necessary in smart grids and the various telecommunication services and systems relevant for them
• An exploration of foundational telecommunication concepts ranging from system-level aspects, such as network topologies, multi-layer architectures and protocol stacks, to communications channel transmission- and reception-level aspects
• Examinations of telecommunication-related smart grid services and systems, including SCADA, protection and teleprotection, smart metering, substation and distribution automation, synchrophasors, distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and microgrids
• A treatment of wireline and wireless telecommunication technologies, like DWDM, Ethernet, IP, MPLS, PONs, PLC, BPL, 3GPP cellular 4G and 5G technologies, Zigbee, Wi-SUN, LoRaWAN, and Sigfox, addressing their architectures, characteristics, and limitations

Ideal for engineers working in power systems or telecommunications as network architects, operations managers, planners, or in regulation-related activities, Smart Grid Telecommunications is also an invaluable resource for telecommunication network and smart grid architects.

1
The Smart Grid : A General Perspective

1.1 Introduction

The Smart Grid is a container of the most modern and evolutionary changes in the power system as a consequence of the advent and adoption of new technologies that progressively add new capabilities to the grid and help it to become a more efficient system. Indeed, the Smart Grid is neither a novel nor a static concept; however, it is bound to be disruptive from the perspective of the achievement of its objectives.

The objectives of the Smart Grid have been broad and ambitious since its inception, decades ago. These objectives have been stimulated and become achievable due to the advances in electric grid technologies and the applicability of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the grid. With regard to the former, there are new technologies that can be added to the different segments of the grid and change the traditional electricity delivery model (e.g., Distributed Energy Resources [DER]). As per the latter, continuous ICTs' innovations have permeated all industries and the Society as a whole, paving the way toward a digital transformation in utilities, specifically in the areas close to the grid operation.

The ambition of the Smart Grid is to integrate all these electric technologies and ICT innovations into a smart system, empowered with new applications and services, and able to operate more efficiently in all its aspects.

This chapter elaborates on a comprehensive definition of what can be understood for a Smart Grid by introducing the basic elements of a power grid and enhancing those with telecommunication technologies. This definition is complemented with the main challenges that Smart Grids, and more specifically, telecommunication technologies applied to Smart Grids, must face in the coming years.

1.2 Electric Power Systems

Electricity is one of the cornerstones of our Society [1], and as such, its generation, transport, and distribution need to be a fully functional and efficient system. All the dependencies that other essential services for the functioning of the economy and society have on electricity (see Figure 1.1), and the extent to which electricity is also affected by all of them, determine the need to have all of these services evolving in an efficient and coordinated way, while stimulating the adoption of new technologies.

Figure 1.1 Electricity at the core of critical services. Dependencies are based on services provided among them.

Source: Department of Energy – USA [1].

It is widely recognized that electricity in general, and electrification in particular, are among the major achievements of the twentieth century [2], despite the fact that there are still big parts of the world where electricity is not affordable (electrification today is total in developed countries, while, as reported in [3], there were still 1100 million people in 2016 who live without electricity elsewhere). As A.C. Clarke expressed it in [2], “the harnessing and taming of electricity, first for communications and then for power, is the event that divides our age from all those that have gone before.” However, it is also true that electricity supply tends to go unnoticed, as a nearly invisible service attached to our modern way of life, that “is already there.”

The electric grid is a complex system reaching every other activity. It is composed of a large number of elements, spread all over where human activity is present; it is controlled to deliver its service in the most reliable and resilient manner. From a purely technical perspective, the grid has evolved improving its associated control capabilities, from its center to the edge across the entire system, and inherits much of the means used in times where remote control was only a wish, and needed electromechanical elements and procedures to minimize manual interventions for incidents resolution. Moreover, and as an inherent characteristic of its nature, much of the electric system is regulated by Governments, meaning that the control over the grid goes beyond the network technical aspects.

1.2.1 Electricity

Electricity is the universal and standard way to transform energy and get it transported everywhere and to everyone. Electricity, as the object of the grid, exhibits a series of properties that justify the complexity of the system behind it.

The size and geographic extension of electric power systems are conditioned by their scope, as a consequence of the purpose of carrying the energy from the places where it is most conveniently produced to the places where it is needed. This is achieved by means of a network (the grid, i.e., Transmission and Distribution) of interconnected elements (e.g., generation systems, power lines, substations) spread over necessarily large geographical areas and integrated to work as a whole.

Electricity, as a product, cannot in practice be stored or shipped in containers. Despite the technological advances in electric batteries and other storage apparatus, handling any amount of energy comparable to a representative percentage of the system's dimension is nowadays still far from feasible (performance aspects, and other limiting factors, may be solved in the future). Thus:

• Electricity must be generated and transmitted to be consumed, involving a necessary real‐time dynamic balance between generation and demand.
• Electric power pathways cannot be chosen freely across the network, as it is physics (Kirchhoff's laws) that determines, depending on the impedances in the power lines and the rest of the grid elements, where electricity flows. Thus, the current distribution cannot easily be forced to take any given route, and alternative routes in the grid are highly interdependent.

From an operational perspective, deviations from normal operation may cause the instantaneous reconfiguration of power flows that may have substantial effects on facilities (e.g., substations, power lines, etc.) in the grid and propagate almost instantaneously across the entire system.

Finally, electric power consumption is sensitive to the technical properties of the electricity supply, to the extent that devices may malfunction or simply cease to operate unless the voltage wave is stable over time within certain parameters including shape (sinusoidal), frequency (cycles per second), and value (voltage). The system must have mechanisms to react (detect and respond) instantly to unexpected situations and avoid degradations in service quality.

1.2.1.1 Frequency and Voltage

The frequency of the electricity signal in the different world regions is either 50 or 60 Hz. The waveform adopted by Europe, Asia, Africa, many countries in South America, Australia, and New Zealand for their electricity systems is 50 Hz. North America, some parts of northern South America, Japan, and Taiwan, opted for a frequency of 60 Hz [4, 5].

In contrast, the voltage levels that can be seen in the different parts of the grid span a much larger range of options. A widely accepted, though loosely precise, definition of the voltage levels is:

• Low Voltage (LV), defined as “a set of voltage levels used for the distribution of electricity and whose upper limit is generally accepted to be 1000 V for alternating current” (IEV 601‐01‐26 [6]).
• High Voltage (HV), defined as either “the set of voltage levels in excess of low voltage” or “the set of upper voltage levels used in power systems for bulk transmission of electricity” (IEV 601‐01‐27 [6]).
• Medium Voltage (MV), defined as “any set of voltage levels lying between low and high voltage” (IEV 601‐01‐28 [6]).

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has standardized three‐phase AC rms voltage levels internationally in IEC 60038:2009 within the following ranges:

• Having a highest voltage for equipment exceeding 245 kV: 362 or 420 kV; 420 or 550 kV; 800 kV; 1100 or 1200 kV highest voltages.
• Having a nominal voltage above 35 kV and not exceeding 230 kV: 66 (alternatively, 69) kV; 110 (alternatively, 115) kV or 132 (alternatively, 138) kV; 220 (alternatively, 230) kV nominal voltages.
• Having a nominal voltage above 1 kV and not exceeding 35 kV: 11 (alternatively, 10) kV; 22 (alternatively, 20) kV; 33 (alternatively, 30) kV or 35 kV nominal voltages (there is a separate set of values specific for North American practice).
• Having a nominal voltage between 100 and 1000 V inclusive: 230/400 V is standard for three‐phase, four‐wire systems (50 or 60 Hz) and also 120/208 V for 60 Hz. For three‐wire systems, 230 V between phases is standard for 50 Hz and 240 V for 60 Hz. For single‐phase three‐wire systems at 60 Hz, 120/240 V is standard. Practically, LV consumers within most 50 Hz regions will eventually be delivered 230 Vac, and 110 Vac in 60 Hz regions.

Thus, it can be said that while LV is clearly below 1 kV, the boundary between HV and MV is commonly placed at 35 kV.

1.2.2 The Grid

The “grid,” the power grid, the electric power system, or the electricity supply system, is defined by the IEC as “all installations and plant provided for the purpose of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity.”

The power grid is a hierarchical infrastructure comprising a large set of in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Author Biographies
• Preface
• Acronyms
• 1 The Smart Grid
• 2 Telecommunication Networks and Systems Concepts
• 3 Telecommunication Fundamental Concepts
• 4 Transport, Switching, and Routing Technologies
• 5 Smart Grid Applications and Services
• 6 Optical Fiber and PLC Access Technologies
• 7 Wireless Cellular Technologies
• 8 Wireless IoT Technologies
• Index
• End User License Agreement