Smart grid (SG) networks are newly upgraded networks of connected objects that greatly improve reliability, efficiency, and sustainability of the traditional energy infrastructure. In this respect, the smart metering infrastructure (SMI) plays an important role in controlling, monitoring, and managing multiple domains in the SG. Despite the salient features of SMI, security, and privacy issues have been under debate because of the large number of heterogeneous devices that are anticipated to be coordinated through public communication networks. This survey paper shows a brief overview of real cyber attack incidents in traditional energy networks and those targeting the smart metering network. Specifically, we present a threat taxonomy considering: 1) threats in system-level security; 2) threats and/or theft of services; and 3) threats to privacy. Based on the presented threats, we derive a set of security and privacy requirements for SG metering networks. Furthermore, we discuss various schemes that have been proposed to address these threats, considering the pros and cons of each. Finally, we investigate the open research issues to shed new light on future research directions in SG metering networks.

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Smart Grid Metering Networks: A Survey on Security, Privacy and Open Research Issues

Globalization leads the modern world towards green sources of energy. Green energy is clean sources of energy that have a lower environmental impact compared to conventional energy technology. Green energy plays a significant role in the strategic energy planning process for any country. Regarding energy resources, India plays an important part on the world scene. However, the energy systems of the different regions and territories varied on various parameters. Therefore, a detailed green energy planning for sustainable development has been studied extensively to find the most suitable common strategy for energy management to answer the following questions: (i) which approaches were predominantly applied in a particular region? (ii) Which evaluating criteria were paid more intentness to energy planning for sustainable development in that region? (iii) Is there any inadequacy of the approaches?. Various decision-making strategies, integrated approaches, combined methods have proposed to characterize the energy management problem by different researchers. In modern power management, the performance of different green energy is evaluated against multiple criteria rather than considering a single factor-consumption. This paper reviews the various work on distinct approaches, integrated approaches, multi-criteria decision-making methods, etc., for green energy planning and scheduling problem. This research not only provides confirmation that the energy management strategies are better than the traditional methods, but also aids the researchers and decision makers in applying the procedures.

Optimal green energy planning for sustainable development: A review

Massive growth is threatening the sustainability of cities and the quality of city life. Mass urbanisation can lead to social instability, undermining the capacity of cities to be environmentally sustainable and economically successful. A new model of sustainability is needed, including greater incentives to save energy, reduce consumption and protect the environment while also increasing levels of citizen wellbeing. Cities of the future should be a socially diverse environment where economic and social activities overlap and where communities are focused around neighbourhoods. They must be developed or adapted to enable their citizens to be socioeconomically creative and productive. Recent developments provide hope that such challenges can be tackled. This review describes the exciting innovations already being introduced in cities as well as those which could become reality in the near future.

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Future Cities and Environmental Sustainability

Smart grids are among the most significant evolutionary developments in energy management systems because they enable integrated systems, including decentralized energy systems, the use of large-scale renewable energy and major improvements in demand-side-management. Research on smart grid development has been carried out worldwide for more than ten years, and there are already successful cases and rich experiences in this field. This paper compares the development backgrounds and infrastructure statuses of smart grids in various countries. It also presents an overview of the smart grid development situation within these countries. Moreover, it discusses the research results and lessons learned from smart grid projects in different countries and summarizes their achievements and challenges. Although every country has its own electricity market modes and basic energy situation, our findings can provide a map for national policy makers and power companies to guide the development of smart grids.

A survey on the development status and challenges of smart grids in main driver countries

Smart Grid (SG) is an evolution of conventional electricity grid, answering to the problems like electricity shortages, escalation in electricity prices, power quality issues and need for using environment friendly green energy resources. Key to attain this is design and deployment of a Smart Grid Communication Network (SGCN) that is not only reliable and secure but also fulfills the communication requirements. The purpose of this research article is to provide a detailed survey on SGCN in terms of communication network requirements, architecture, technologies and applications. Using a multi-layer approach of dividing the communication layer in to Home Area Network (HAN), Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN), this paper first discusses the communication requirements, followed by an overview of SG applications. Then a detailed comparison is given for current wired and wireless communication technologies along with new standards/technologies like Cognitive Radio (CR), Smart Utility Networks (SUNs) and TV White Spaces (TVWS) that are ideal for SG environment, followed by proposed CR based network architecture for SGCN and its salient features. The paper is then concluded by contributing some open issues, challenges and future directions.

Cognitive radio based Smart Grid Communication Network

Integration of Distributed Renewable Generation (DRG) to the future Smart Grid (SG) is one of the important considerations that is highly prioritized in the SG development roadmap by most of the countries including Malaysia. The plausible way of this integration is the enhancement of information and bidirectional communication infrastructure for energy monitoring and controlling facilities. However, urgency of data delivery through maintaining critical time condition is not crucial in these facilities. In this paper, we have surveyed state-of-the-art protocols for different Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) with the aim of realizing communication infrastructure for DRG in Malaysia. Based on the analytical results from surveys, data communication for DRG should be efficient, flexible, reliable, cost effective, and secured. To meet this achievement, IEEE802.15.4 supported ZigBee PRO protocol together with sensors and embedded system is shown as Wireless Sensor (WS) for DRG bidirectional network with prospect of attaining data monitoring facilities. The prospect towards utilizing ZigBee PRO protocol can be a cost effective option for full integration of intelligent DRG and small scale Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV)/Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) under SG roadmap (Phase4: 2016–2017) conducted by Malaysia national utility company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Moreover, we have provided a direction to utilize the effectiveness of ZigBee-WS network with the existing optical communication backbone for data importing from the end DRG site to the TNB control center. A comparative study is carried out among developing countries on recent trends of SG progress which reveals that some common projects like smart metering and DRG integration are on priority.

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Future strategic plan analysis for integrating distributed renewable generation to smart grid through wireless sensor network: Malaysia prospect

A dual-frequency sensor was developed to measure moisture content of lossy liquids. The experiment is based on measurements of far-field reflection at two frequencies in the X-band, 8.48 and 10.69 GHz. The replacement of the conventional open horn antenna with microstrip radiating patches makes the sensor more versatile and compact. The sensor is interfaced to a notebook computer using a multipurpose data acquisition board and few custom made circuits. Data collection, errors correction and calibration modules were written using LabVIEWreg programming language. Three calibration methods were used to obtain an empirical equation, which is applied to obtain the moisture content of the rubber latex samples. Moisture content can be determined with a standard error 0.49%.

Dual-Frequency Microwave Moisture Sensor Based on Circular Microstrip Antenna

Water is often present in fuel tanks due to night and day temperature changes, resulting in a build-up of condensed water within the inner surface of the tank. The expectancy of water infiltration in fuel tanks is even higher in flooding prone areas. Water settlement at the bottom of the tank causes internal corrosion. In this work, a simple, low cost and accurate microwave reflection type system for detection of water in fuel tanks has been developed. A module consisting of a microwave generator and a detecting diode is used to measure the microwave reflection coefficient at various positions through the fuel tank. In the course of the study, a motion control and data acquisition system has been developed. Software written using the LabVIEW programming language is used to control the movement of the sensor and for the data acquisition. Theoretical and experimental results show the ability of the system to detect the presence of a water level down to approximately 1 mm. A simple theoretical model for power prediction of the reflected signal at various positions of the sensor in the tank is also presented.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/14/11/008/pdf

Water detection in fuel tanks using the microwave reflection technique

The suitability of a single-access approach involving a pulsed laser technique for non-contact and non-destructive measurement of thermal diffusivity is further examined. It was used to measure the thermal diffusivity of black and metallic graphite paint coatings. The values obtained in the present work are and for black and metallic graphite paint coatings respectively. All measurements were performed at room temperature.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/10/1/005/pdf

Thermal diffusivity measurement of black and metallic graphite paint coatings

Temperature variation causes errors in all indirect moisture measurement methods. To increase the accuracy of moisture content determination and to reduce the influence of temperature, a two-parameter measurement is used. The method uses the magnitude of reflected waves at two microwave frequencies in the X-band region. A dual frequency sensor system is developed to measure moisture content of dielectric-lossy liquids. The experiment is based on measurements of far-field reflection magnitudes at two different frequencies 8.48 GHz and 10.69 GHz using circular microstrip antennas. A calibration equation is sought that instantly gives temperature-independent moisture content of the samples under consideration. The sensor is integrated with a data acquisition card to record the detected reflection signals. The data analysis and error-correction technique are implemented using custom designed software. The system is tested using diluted rubber latex with moisture content ranging from 39.8% to 91.2% wet basis. The moisture content was predicted with a standard error less than 1.3% for the temperature range of 25 °C to 63 °C compared to the standard oven-drying technique.

/pdf/dual-frequency-microstrip-antenna-sensor-for-water-content-55kfd6nazc.pdf

Ionel Valeriu Grozescu

Papers

Future strategic plan analysis for integrating distributed renewable generation to smart grid through wireless sensor network: Malaysia prospect

Dual-Frequency Microwave Moisture Sensor Based on Circular Microstrip Antenna

Water detection in fuel tanks using the microwave reflection technique

Thermal diffusivity measurement of black and metallic graphite paint coatings

Dual frequency microstrip antenna sensor for water content measurements independent of temperature variation