Smart grid

About: Smart grid is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37536 publications have been published within this topic receiving 627844 citations. The topic is also known as: intelligent grid.

Networking AMI Smart Meters

Abstract: There is a growing interest in 'smart grid' technologies in both industry and academic circles. Few attempts have been made to develop a written specification consummated with standards agreed upon by members of both coteries, due to lack of government support. Utilities in the state of California are obligated, by state legislature, to create a more: efficient, reliable, and intelligent electric power system. This initiative along with Florida Power & Lighting's 'Smart Grid' pilot program has created a sense of exigency within the industry regarding smart grid technologies and standardizations. Their accomplishments are beginning to shape the policies and standards with marginal input from academic societies, ushering in a very lopsided, and business acclimatized set of standards. We will present and analyze, a SCE 'Smart Grid' use case, in which the utilities back office applications interact with the customer's meter, and provide technical recommendations for system security improvements.

Solid-State-Transformers: Key Components of Future Traction and Smart Grid Systems

Abstract: The efficient supply of electric power relies strongly on the selection of suitable voltage levels for different sections of the energy distribution system. When higher levels of power are required, a medium-voltage level in the tens of kilovolts range is typically selected. In accordance to current trends in energy conversion, the supply of power must fulfil several functionality requirements among which high power-quality and access to a low-voltage DC interface can be highlighted. Moreover, low energy losses, high power-density, low failure rate and low total cost of ownership remain as major research challenges. Solid-state-transformers (SSTs) comply with these functionality requirements as well as with the demanded high performance levels while directly connecting to medium-voltage. This paper reviews the implementation of SST technology for transportation and Smart-Grid applications. The envisioned architectures for locomotive systems, remotely-operated-vehicles and large scale ships, which benefit from the compactness and high performance of SST are shown. In addition, the possible arrangement of micro-grid systems comprising SST concepts for integration of renewable energy and implementation of DCmicrogrids is detailed. The different SST concepts proposed for these applications can be grouped into distinctive categories, leading to a comprehensive classification of, first, general isolated AC-AC conversion systems and later to a specific classification of SST concepts based on the different levels of modularity. Finally, a detailed review of the numerous previously reported and functional SST concepts is presented and a comparison to systems employing low-frequency transformers is given. Keywords—Converter Topology Classification, Multicell and Multilevel Converter Topologis, Medium-Frequency Isolation, Performance Evaluation.

Microgrid: Architecture, policy and future trends

Abstract: Future electricity network must be flexible, accessible, reliable and economically viable to realise the aims of the smart grid initiative. In order to achieve these objectives and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, research on various configurations or architectures of microgrid (µGrid) systems is gaining greater attention. This is occurring in step with increasing penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) such as solar, wind and other micro-sources. Energy storage can also be a part of the µGrid architecture to ensure more stable and sustainable operation. The techno-economic viability of the µGrid system is also a point of concern. Again, the variable and uncontrollable behaviour of RES can also introduce power quality problems. To improve the systems reliability, efficiency and power quality, different µGrid architectures are introduced. Complex control of the µGrid controller is helping to overcome these conditions. In that case, integration of Custom Power Devices is also playing an important role. Therefore, µGrid policies should also deal with these issues in the light of future trends towards the Smart Grid. This paper presents a literature review, based on various existing and/or simulated µGrid architectures. In relation to the reliability, efficiency and power quality issues, different distribution systems have been introduced. The advantages and disadvantages of these configurations are discussed here. The benefits of RES and its associated power quality problems have been identified. The benefits of energy storage systems and the development of communication systems towards the stable, flexible and efficient operation of smart grids are also reviewed. Findings have been outlined and then the policies with future trends of µGrid are also discussed.

Cognitive Radio for Smart Grid Communications

Abstract: One of the key foundations of smart grid (SG) is a reliable communications infrastructure which is a sophisticated, multi-layer network carrying different classes of data. SG communications needs to be designed to accommodate the current energy management requirements as well as the potential demand of future applications. In this paper, we propose the application of cognitive radio (CR) based on the IEEE 802.22 standard in the SG wide area networks (WANs). We discuss the benefits of the proposed scheme including opportunistic access of TV bands, extended coverage, ease of upgradability, self-healing and fault-tolerant design. The proposed scheme can work as a secondary radio particularly in urban areas and as a backup in disaster management. In rural areas, however, a stand-alone radio based on IEEE 802.22 can effectively provide broadband access because of the wide area coverage due to the good propagation characteristics of TV bands.