Page 53 - From Smart Grid to Internet of Energy

40 From smart grid to internet of energy

reading, real time data reading and measurements to obtain fault or disturbance
indicator signals along the utility grid. Thus, it enables to create a reliable,
optimized, resilient and flexible power grid with enhanced control options
and services. The sensor and transducers integrated with communication fea-
tures allows meeting metering and controlling requirements such as penetration
of RESs, two-way power flow infrastructure, fault detection and isolation,
DSM, and high-quality power supply of developing power grid. The sensor net-
works are involved to implement data acquisition interface to transform inher-
ited data to processable information to sustain reliability and integrity of Smart
Grid. For instance, a smart meter can be handled as a sensor node to measure
power consumption, to monitor customer conditions, and to improve DSM
program [28].
The Smart Grid resiliency and flexibility are highly dependent to accurate
and instant data acquisition from each nodes, substations, and customer loca-
tions. The smart sensors play vital role in advanced data acquisition and asso-
ciation with widespread control systems. Since geographical area of Smart Grid
infrastructure from generation to consumption levels can be extended up to sev-
eral kilometers and a huge amount of data is collected from many nodes, smart
sensor nodes are required to be installed for comprising a distributed data pro-
cessing and management operations. The distributed and smart sensor networks
are the most recent approaches to tackle these difficulties. In addition to smart
sensor networks; smart meters, communication technologies, and decision-
making algorithms are required to transmit collected data to operation centers
either in centralized or in decentralized structure. Thus, operation center con-
siders Smart Grid infrastructure as a smart sensor network in terms of ICT inter-
face. A distributed communication and control system as shown in Fig. 1.11 acts
like a data server exchanging data between distributed management systems.
Therefore, heavy load operation of a centralized communication and control
center structure is distributed to different local sensor networks and eliminates
high capacity central server requirements [29].
The use of sensor networks is generally identified into four areas such as
generation, transmission and distribution, consumption, and energy storage.
The data acquisition requirements of generation level are mostly focused on
generation plant monitoring, power quality of grid, source and generation
capacity, fault detection, and load demand balance between utility grid and
DERs. In addition to utility scale, it is needed to monitor generation conditions
of distributed generation sources and RESs along the microgrids interacting
with grid. The sensor networks are required for data acquisition from substa-
tions, underground and overhead lines, and distribution transformers in trans-
mission and distribution levels. The smart sensors are used to meter instant
and average voltage, current, phase, frequency, and THD rates of utility grid.
The load and generation analyses provide around 10–15% capacity increment
due to metered data processing. Furthermore, sensing infrastructure ensures
instant detection of faults and losses in transmission and distribution lines,