There is plenty of loose talk about the “smart grid.” To see what impact it will have on electronics designers, it’s helpful to filter the noise and take a look at what’s really there. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified seven characteristics of a smart grid:
- It is self-healing from power disturbances.
- It enables active participation by consumers in demand-response programs (load control).
- It operates resiliently against physical or cyber attack.
- It provides quality power for 21st-century needs.
- It accommodates all generation and storage options.
- It enables new products, services, and markets to function.
- It optimizes utility assets and operational efficiency with the use of sensors.
Obviously, all this requires standardized architectures and interfaces to stimulate development and promote interoperability. This goal is what led to the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) “Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap.”
EARLY STEPS
Well before the EPRI report was released to NIST, the GridWise Alliance—a public/private consortium with the goal of helping integrate electricity infrastructures, processes, devices, information, and markets—developed a comprehensive action plan that identifies the challenges facing the electricity industry. In addition, the GridWise Architecture Council was formed to shape the architecture of an interactive electric system.
Even earlier, EPRI had published their “IntelliGrid” architecture, a comprehensive technical framework for linking communications and the power grid. In part, EPRI proposed an architected approach to integration by deploying equipment in this order: automatic meter reading (AMR) enables energy markets and time of use pricing, utility information uses the AMR infrastructure to manage outages and demand (loads) and remote-controlled distribution devices automate restoration and enable distributed generation.
Meanwhile, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), a DOE national laboratory, identified the four milestones of a modern grid strategy (MGS) to accelerate smart grid implementation. The first is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Initially, AMR technologies were deployed to reduce costs and improve accuracy, but the value of two-way communications led to the evolution of AMR into AMI. It includes smart meters for advanced measurement, an integrated two-way communications infrastructure including control of loads (demand response), an active consumer interface (which may or may not be part of the appliance), and a meter data-management system. This communications infrastructure was critical for the succeeding three milestones.
The second milestone is advanced distribution operations (ADO). To provide the increased information and control needed for a self-healing grid (sensors, distributed intelligence, outage management capability, and distribution automation), ADO uses AMI communications to collect distribution information and improve operations.
Next is advanced transmission operations (ATO). This milestone aims at improving transmission reliability and efficiency, while managing congestion on the transmission system. It deals with substation automation; advanced protection and control; modeling, simulation, and visualization; advanced grid control devices; and materials.