For 100 years, there has been no change in the basic structure of the electrical power grid. Experiences have shown that the hierarchical, centrally controlled grid of the 20th Century is ill-suited to the needs of the 21st Century. To address the challenges of the existing power grid, the new concept of smart grid has emerged. The smart grid can be considered as a modern electric power grid infrastructure for enhanced efficiency and reliability through automated control, high-power converters, modern communications infrastructure, sensing and metering technologies, and modern energy management techniques based on the optimization of demand, energy and network availability, and so on. While current power systems are based on a solid information and communication infrastructure, the new smart grid needs a different and much more complex one, as its dimension is much larger. This paper addresses critical issues on smart grid technologies primarily in terms of information and communication technology (ICT) issues and opportunities. The main objective of this paper is to provide a contemporary look at the current state of the art in smart grid communications as well as to discuss the still-open research issues in this field. It is expected that this paper will provide a better understanding of the technologies, potential advantages and research challenges of the smart grid and provoke interest among the research community to further explore this promising research area.

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Smart Grid Technologies: Communication Technologies and Standards

The smart grid is conceived of as an electric grid that can deliver electricity in a controlled, smart way from points of generation to active consumers. Demand response (DR), by promoting the interaction and responsiveness of the customers, may offer a broad range of potential benefits on system operation and expansion and on market efficiency. Moreover, by improving the reliability of the power system and, in the long term, lowering peak demand, DR reduces overall plant and capital cost investments and postpones the need for network upgrades. In this paper a survey of DR potentials and benefits in smart grids is presented. Innovative enabling technologies and systems, such as smart meters, energy controllers, communication systems, decisive to facilitate the coordination of efficiency and DR in a smart grid, are described and discussed with reference to real industrial case studies and research projects.

Demand response and smart grids—A survey

With the introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyberphysical system (CPS) concepts in industrial application scenarios, industrial automation is undergoing a tremendous change. This is made possible in part by recent advances in technology that allow interconnection on a wider and more fine-grained scale. The purpose of this article is to review technological trends and the impact they may have on industrial communication. We will review the impact of IoT and CPSs on industrial automation from an industry 4.0 perspective, give a survey of the current state of work on Ethernet time-sensitive networking (TSN), and shed light on the role of fifth-generation (5G) telecom networks in automation. Moreover, we will point out the need for harmonization beyond networking.

The Future of Industrial Communication: Automation Networks in the Era of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0

Networked control systems (NCSs) have been one of the main research focuses in academia as well as in industry for many decades and have become a multidisciplinary area. With these growing research trends, it is important to consolidate the latest knowledge and information to keep up with the research needs. In this paper, the NCS and its different forms are introduced and discussed. The beginning of this paper discusses the history and evolution of NCSs. The next part of this paper focuses on different fields and research arenas such as networking technology, network delay, network resource allocation, scheduling, network security in real-time NCSs, integration of components on a network, fault tolerance, etc. A brief literature survey and possible future direction concerning each topic is included.

Networked Control System: Overview and Research Trends

Information and communication technologies (ICT) represent a fundamental element in the growth and performance of smart grids. A sophisticated, reliable and fast communication infrastructure is, in fact, necessary for the connection among the huge amount of distributed elements, such as generators, substations, energy storage systems and users, enabling a real time exchange of data and information necessary for the management of the system and for ensuring improvements in terms of efficiency, reliability, flexibility and investment return for all those involved in a smart grid: producers, operators and customers. This paper overviews the issues related to the smart grid architecture from the perspective of potential applications and the communications requirements needed for ensuring performance, flexible operation, reliability and economics.

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A Survey on Smart Grid Potential Applications and Communication Requirements

Energy management means to optimize one of the most complex and important technical creations that we know: the energy system. While there is plenty of experience in optimizing energy generation and distribution, it is the demand side that receives increasing attention by research and industry. Demand Side Management (DSM) is a portfolio of measures to improve the energy system at the side of consumption. It ranges from improving energy efficiency by using better materials, over smart energy tariffs with incentives for certain consumption patterns, up to sophisticated real-time control of distributed energy resources. This paper gives an overview and a taxonomy for DSM, analyzes the various types of DSM, and gives an outlook on the latest demonstration projects in this domain.

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Demand Side Management: Demand Response, Intelligent Energy Systems, and Smart Loads

Building automation (BA) and smart homes (SHs) have traditionally not been a unified field but varied by their origins, legal foundations, different applications, different goals, and national funding programs for basic research. Only within the last years that an international common focus appeared. The following overview gives not only an introduction into the topic of BA but also the distinction to other areas of automation, in which networks of the field level (the sensor and actuator level) play an important role. Finally, the scientific challenges will be mentioned. SHs are referred to when the differences to BA have to be explicitly stressed. This paper is an introduction for the special IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics section on BA and shall introduce the reader to this new topic. BA not only has a huge economic potential but also is of significant academic interest today.

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Communication and Computation in Buildings: A Short Introduction and Overview

This article gives an overview of the general concepts, underlying technologies, similarities, and differences in the factory and building automation fields and explores issues and trends. Particular emphasis is put on the information aspects in automation, such as communication and integration, that used to be a central topic during the last few decades and are being addressed by maturing solutions only recently.

The Evolution of Factory and Building Automation

Although fieldbus systems are meanwhile an established concept, there is still room for future developments. Furthermore, fieldbusses are more and more to be seen in a wider context of complex systems. In this paper, we briefy review the histoly of fieldbusses to highlight the major infuences on their evolution. Essential driving forces for the future are identifed in the areas of building automation, internetworking, and microelectronics. With the availability of smarter nodes, the complexity of fieldbus installations will inevitably increase, which in turn will raise new problems. The main d$$culties will be the development of appropriate tools to support the management of networks with several hundred thousand nodes. Security of network interconnections is another upcoming problem, and the growing system complexity also requires new concepts for distributed applications, such as agent-based or holonic systems. Finally, we compare fieldbusses to biological systems to derive directions for further evolution.

Evolution potentials for fieldbus systems

Can psychoanalysis offer a new computer model? Can computer designers help psychoanalysts to understand their theory better?In contemporary publications human psyche is often related to neural networks. Why? The wiring in computers can also be related to application software. But does this really make sense? Artificial Intelligence has tried to implement functions of human psyche. The reached achievements are remarkable; however, the goal to get a functional model of the mental apparatus was not reached. Was the selected direction incorrect?The editors are convinced: yes, and they try to give answers here. If one accepts that the brain is an information processing system, then one also has to accept that computer theories can be applied to the brains functions, the human mental apparatus. The contributors of this book - Solms, Panksepp, Sloman and many others who are all experts in computer design, psychoanalysis and neurology are united in one goal: finding synergy in their interdisciplinary fields.

Dietmar Dietrich

Papers

Demand Side Management: Demand Response, Intelligent Energy Systems, and Smart Loads

Communication and Computation in Buildings: A Short Introduction and Overview

The Evolution of Factory and Building Automation

Evolution potentials for fieldbus systems

Simulating the Mind: A Technical Neuropsychoanalytical Approach