Page 268 - From Smart Grid to Internet of Energy

Cognitive radio based smart grid communications Chapter 6 239

87]. Since the CR devices may be spread over wide areas in electrical power
systems of the SGs, the users/consumers and utilities can also perceive and
observe power outages [88]. This provides a utility to notice a power outage
once the power blackout happens over the SMs and outage detection units. It
is worth noting that the crucial measurement data (i.e., metering data, monitor-
ing data, SCADA information etc.) will be conveyed over a committed commu-
nication network utilizing either licensed frequency bands or wired
communication systems due to the real-time needs. The dynamic spectrum allo-
cation in the CR technology is aimed to be utilized for comparatively less
important data (i.e., obtained data from the SMs). Therefore, more bandwidth
on the committed networks can be provided for applications with higher prior-
ity. Pricing applications aim to transmit billing information to the SMs and
smart devices, and pricing information can be divided into three groups as
real-time pricing (RTP), time-of-use (TOU) pricing, and critical peak pricing
(CPP). In addition, connection or disconnection of a SM to the SG services
is carried out based on these pricing groups. Furthermore, service providers
can compute billing information for costumers and start required transactions
such as sending notification messages to the customers [68, 73, 87].
The DRM (or sometimes referred as Demand Side Management (DSM)) is
realized on the customer sides, and it collaborates with markets, operational
regions and service providers. Thanks to the DRM systems, the service pro-
viders can connect to smart appliances situated at customer premises to decrease
the load on the distribution systems in the time of peak demand periods.
Demand response applications are developed to change the power consumption
habits of the customers in reaction to prices and other types of encouragements
to efficiently use system capacity in order to avoid capacity expansion require-
ments [89, 90]. In addition, two-way communication among customers and ser-
vice providers is required for ensuring effectiveness on the DRM systems [91].
The SMs established at customer plants enable bidirectional communication
among the customers and the service providers. Furthermore, this communica-
tion infrastructure allows to the service providers to form load profiles of users
autonomously and efficiently [92]. When the DRMs are considered from the
point of view of the users, they can enable customers to turn desired devices
on or off by conveying command signals to a load controller situated at cus-
tomer plants [73, 75]. Smart control systems based on sensors (i.e., smart light-
ing systems [93]) may also help to the DRM systems. Utilization of secure and
effective communication technologies in demand response applications is
highly needed to provide robust DRM systems. In order to enable two-way com-
munication between the customers and the SMs, the IEEE 802.15.4 based, IEEE
802.11 based or PLC based technologies are preferred for DRM applications
[68, 76]. Alternatively, cellular communications systems may be also used
for the applications that are able to provide low-latency advantage. The
DRM systems also assist the service providers to improve transaction capabil-
ities and the usage of distributed energy resources (DER) in power systems. The