Problem: Smart grid represents new technologies for improving the efficiency, reliability, and economics of the production, transmission, and distribution of electricity. According to the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s report, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will be the key to achieving these smart grid benefits, whereas ICT interoperability is a priority requirement for the successful implementation of smart grid. European Standardisation Organisations - CEN, CENELEC and ETSI defined the term “interoperability” as “The ability of two or more networks, systems, devices, applications, or components to interwork, to exchange and use information in order to perform required functions”. However, in reality the exchange of information over multiple communication networks is often unreliable, leading to unpredictable network Quality-of-Service (QoS) and thus unreliable smart grid applications. What’s worse, there are massive data, including metering data and measurement data, either structured or unstructured, making it extremely challenging to exploit useful information in a given time frame. Hence, there is an urgent need to solve the research problem: how to coordinate multiple communication networks to reliably transmit data, and then manage ICT system resources to efficiently extract useful information for supporting smart grid applications?
Importance and Objectives: The main focus is on improving the communication layer interoperability and the efficiency of data analytic as described in the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM) Framework, by coordinating the efforts of European and Chinese experts specialised in these two different but overlapping domains. Regarding the communication layer interoperability, this project intends to develop and evaluate function-driven reliable communication frameworks. Moreover, this project will develop and verify new data integration and analytic techniques for enhancing power grid operations. These developed frameworks and methodologies will be extensively tested and evaluated in 4 well-equipped Laboratories. They will not only support the SGAM Framework, but also complement and enhance field level Standards (e.g. IEC 61850). In brief, the main objective of this project is to coordinate the action of a group of Universities and enterprises, working in the field of ICT and smart grid from both European countries and China, to build and test sophisticated ICT, thereby facilitating the successful implementation of smart grid applications.
Conclusions are threefold:
1). ICT system plays a vital role in smart grid services; when designing/developing smart grid services, ICT systems shall be fully considered as reported in Deliverable 2.1. For instance, optimal power flow (OPF) is very useful for future power systems, where ICT systems' time-delay would significantly affect the performance of OPF results as reported in our journal paper: ADMM-Based Distributed OPF Problem MeetsStochastic Communication Delay, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 10, NO. 5.
2). Data integration and analytic techniques could significantly enhance future power systems performance as reported in Deliverable 4.1 in terms of increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles.
3). Future power systems are very likely to be decentralised, where developing versatile and flexible testing platforms would be very beneficial, as reported in Deliverable 5.1 in terms of solving challenges in both ICT and power systems.
