Technology

The paper deals with the concept behind Smart Grids in supplying electricity from generation to businesses and homes. Technologies and components enabling the Smart Grid have also been discussed thoroughly. The major vendors for the components have also been discussed in the paper. In the end, assessment of the device landscape is carried out with a conclusion on privacy and security implications.

A Walk through the Grid
Smart Grid An overview
Today, Americas electricity system is 99.97 percent reliable, yet it still allows for power outages and interruptions that cost Americans at least 150 billion each year. Five massive blackouts have occurred over the past forty years and three of such blackouts occurred during the past nine years in America. We rely on our nations electric power infrastructure that has served us well for so long (more commonly known as the grid) is rapidly turning up against limitations. Our lights and bulbs may be on, but with time the risks that are associated with relying on an often overtaxed and complex grid are growing in size, scale and complexity every day. There are many challenges in front of us today ranging from power system security to climate change and global warming. Our near-term agenda is formidable. But fortunately, we have a way forward (Anderson et al, 2008).

An enhanced power delivery system would enable great progress. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has suggested that in order to increase productivity and GDP growth with the added advantages of much reduced carbon emissions, the transformation of our national grid over the next twenty years is important (Danahy, 2010).

The smart grid is a journey. It is a promise of a new way of thinking about how we can reliably deliver the futures energy at the lowest possible cost. Perhaps even more striking is the emerging grids ability to help us take better care of our planet. For these reasons, fostering the grid is not only one of our industrys largest opportunities, but it is also one of the most trivial in nature. We need to move quickly and decisively with the best ideas and the right smart technologies (Lomas, 1999).

A smart grid is a way of delivering electricity from generation to consumers businesses, offices and homes using two-way digital technology that controls appliances of consumers to save energy plus reducing cost. It also increases reliability and transparency. The smart grid, being a modernized electricity network, is being promoted by many governments to attain self-sufficiency and independence in energy resources and also cutting down on the increasing global warming and emergency resilience issues and the electricity delivery network functions via two primary systems the transmission system and the distribution system. Smart meters are a vital constituent of the modern smart grid.

The transmission system does the job of delivering electricity from power plants to distribution substations while on the other hand, the distribution system delivers electricity from distribution substations to consumers. The grid also encompasses thousands of local area networks that use distributed energy resources. These resources are used to serve local loads or to meet specific application requirements for remote power, village or district power, premium power, and also for critical loads protection.

An intelligent monitoring system is provided with the smart grid that enables it to keep a track of all electricity flowing into the system. Alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, that replace the typical fuel sources without the undesired consequence of the replaced fuels will also be integrated into the system. Superconductive transmission lines which will minimize power losses to a great extent will also be incorporated as well. The conditions to which a smart grid could respond can occur anywhere in the generation, distribution and demand cycle. Random events may occur like commercial peak levels at certain times of the day, the clouds blocking the sun (in case of solar energy) or a transformer failure resulting in more demand on one supply line or temporary supply of one distribution line.

The smart grid could behave in a highly intelligent manner by turning off selective appliances such as air conditioners or washing machines at homes or arbitrary processes that are carried out in factories in peak hours and when powers demand is considerably less, it can turn on those equipments. This way it could reduce the demand and supply gap to a much greater extent. If we increase the present efficiency by only 5 even, we would be saving enough to permanently eliminate the fuel and greenhouse emissions from 53 million cars. Clearly, in our present grid system, there are many opportunities for improvement (Labiod et al, 2007).

Smart Grid has now become a hot topic in America as everyone is hopeful that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act can help many utilities to continue to supply electric energy the production of which is devoid of any harmful effects to our atmosphere. Full implementation of the smart grid might be distant on the horizon however, many positive steps are being implemented. With the necessary application of ingenious technology, entrepreneurial and political drive, there might be a time in the not so distant future when we would not be able to remember our lives before the smart grid just like the way we do not remember our lives before we used to use e-mail. The smart grid transforms the current grid turning it into one that functions more responsively and cooperatively (Berst, 2010).

In 2009 alone, 4 billion have been spent on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act designated for the smart grid. Although, modernization and up gradation of our national electrical system remains our governments priority, work has started at a snail pace in utilities, research facilities and companies. Smart grid is envisioned to make lower cost and efficient delivery of power with the addition of greater user-support interaction using smart appliances. It will also assist in innovation of a host of other appliances and devices which are yet to be invented such as electric cars and planes. New utilities have started work on the smart grid as a way to meet future challenges to cater for greater reliability, meager resources and the aging workforce and assets. It will also be able to focus on customer support (Hendricks, 2009).

In the present era, our electricity network has to be connected to thousands of sources while still operating reliably. Because of growing environmental concerns, todays grid has to become far more flexible than it is at present. It has to make the most of the distributed power generation from renewable sources while using thorough energy efficiency techniques. Work has started on a number of technologies that need to be put in place to make the power grid much more intelligent than it is now using greater automation within the distribution network and tools to give end users and customers better information. The underlying problem here is that almost all of the utilities want someone else to commit mistakes so that they might learn from their mistakes as regulators are not willing to let them take the necessary risks. Transformation is thus required as there are only few progressive utilities which are making long term investments, although they are among the few exceptions (Atkinson, 2010).

Technologies and Components Enabling the Smart Grid

For most of us, the components that are most visible on the traditional grid are the towering high-voltage and transmission lines that run through the countryside or the transformers or substations that are distributing the power locally. The 1950s saw the designing on the traditional grid the primary purpose of which was just to keep our light bulbs on. This approach in electric power distribution required large centralized power plants that feed power over an electro-mechanical grid wherein power flows in one direction only (from the power plants to the consumers). There used to be no two-way communication that allows interactivity between end users and the grid. Therefore, in the last thirty years, we have witnessed a complete transformation of the telecommunications network. The creation of plethora of other digital networks, including cellular, GPS, cable, satellite TV and, of course, the Internet could also be seen in the past few years. Such networks can often be operated, diagnosed and maintained even remotely. In stark contrast, our electric power infrastructure has only started to upgrade in the last several years into a digital system, although it is still largely analog and electromechanical (Lomas, 1999).

Security, internet, voice and television services utilize large data transfers and bandwidths as compared to the minimal data required to perform monitoring and switching the customers appliances on or off without consent in peak hours etc. The cost for upgrades in smart grid bandwidth is catered for by allowing it to support customer services and communication as a replacement to subsidizing the communications and services related to energy, for example in peak hours. This case is particularly true for many governments that have a public monopoly over both the services such as in Pakistan or India. On the other hand, power and communications are two entirely different entities in America and most of Europe managed by government and commercial enterprises respectively so it requires greater government as well as vendors efforts for mutual cooperation.

Many authorities suggest that power line networking could be the only available option as a means of communication between the distribution and supply lines. The data bits using this method might not reach using Broadband over Power Line (BPL) but by using a fixed wireless system which can be a good temporary solution to the problem by providing separate power line and data transfer connection. For smart grids or smart meters, municipalities such as in Miami, Florida, have tried to enforce integration standards. Such municipalities often own and have authority over major fiber optics backbones and the transit exchanges therefore, the place where communication service providers meet is mostly positioned in an appropriate manner to enforce well integration.

Broadband over Power Line (BPL) has evolved much over the past several years. The BPL was designed to focus on several commercial services such as the internet and the Voice-over-IP (VoIP), but now BPL is being developed further for smart grid applications as well. It enables implementation of data, voice and real time image. The foremost basic components of a smart grid are real time monitoring and reaction events on the grid by anticipating future events and isolation of a problem. Using this method, the smart grid will collect data from a large number of sensors, processors and microcontrollers installed on the power lines and substations and other equipment on the grid like switches and transformers etc, and then present this information to central information processing systems for feedback. This can improve the efficiency and allow for load management.

By using real time metering of electricity and intelligent sensors on the network such as smart thermostats and relays, load can be reduced or shifted from peak periods to off peak timings to manage load and increase efficiency. This way a smart grid can be converted into a digital energy distribution system. By establishing digital network and sensor points, all outages of electric power can be detected immediately or even proactive outage detection and subsequent notification becomes simpler. Notification to crews via e-mail, SMS, telephones etc are all automatically triggered using the coverage of a BPL network.  The essential structure of the broadband network is the same as that of the long range network of the electricity distribution system (commonly known as the internet backbone) reaching the consumers in the end through the fixed wire or wireless.

IEEE has also launched the IEEE Smart Grid Web Portal which will provide an integrated gateway to Smart Grid intelligence, education, and news from IEEE and other expert sources. The web-portal is specifically designed to target manufacturers, policymakers, educators, academics, governments, engineers, computer scientists, researchers, and other stakeholders in the power and energy, information technology, and communications industries. The IEEEs smart grid web-portal is created to provide guidance and expertise for all personnel involved with the integration and development of the smart grid (Hacker, 2008)..

Identifying the Components  the Major Vendors

The broadband is similar to a smart grid as they both involve substantial planning and enormous spending on new long distance wiresamplifiers. The development of whole new infrastructure is thus required for information interchange, but if both are taken alongside each other it can prove really helpful in creating a nationwide smart infrastructure. The broadband internet connections may not completely replace smart meters as the communication exchange pipeline between utilities and homes to coordinate energy saving, but it surely can be initial component in smart grid technology. As far as utilities are concerned, they are likely to continue installing smart meters in their setup. If such smart meters are made IP-enabled as they may become if progress remains steady in smart meter deployments, this might make broadband connections a bit redundant. The key to smart grids is using the Internet protocol on home devices like power meters to shuttle information back and forth between the utility and the customer.

The smart grid market is very versatile in nature as it comprises of hundreds of moving parts, both large and small, which provide hardware and software for development as well as troubleshooting, in the power infrastructure as well as the communications dimension in the smart grid. Myriad of technologies are being introduced as well as evaluated and deployed in the market for the same purpose. Standards are now being set and constantly defined. Power providers are planning and implementing varying systems architectures. Government policies are shaping the landscape at state and federal levels. Large scale investments in private and public sector are enabling greater innovations in technology much more possible than before. Silver Spring Networks, a company in the smart grid market, provides a way for utilities to monitor their networks, which would allow them to get notifications before a power outage. Smart grid innovations are overwhelming and its major vendors include companies such as the ABB, ACLARA Software, Cisco, COMVERGE, Control4, Google, GREENBOX, IBM, Silver Spring Networks, Tendril, VENTYX and SIEMENS etc (Gunther, 2008).

Government sources indicate that roughly 1.3 billion in venture capital were invested in the Smart Grid sector between 2005 and 2009. Just over 105 million of that total went into the space through the first two quarters of 2009. The most funded Smart Grid startup companies till today are those competing in the networking and communications space. As this market matures in the upcoming times, and industry giants such as Cisco start to develop and make their presence felt in the market sector, we should soon expect a giant leap in the technological innovations in the near future.

WI-MAX and Its Application in Smart Grid

As WIMAX operates over licensed wireless spectrum, it can be said to be far more reliable and secure than unlicensed wireless networks like WI-FI  a particularly important feature for smart grid deployments. The meters could use national WI-MAX networks (e.g. CLEARWIRE or from regional carriers) or WI-MAX networks that would be built and owned by a utility (Kluza, 2010).

San Francisco start up software company GRID NET is using WI-MAX technology in its wireless smart meter instrument. The meter, being built by GE, uses Intels WI-MAX chip and Grid Net software. It is said to be one of the first truly open-standards based approaches to building a meter. GRID NET proclaims that their smart meter will eventually be cheaper than proprietary systems on the market which can be said to be a key benefit of open-standards.

If smart grid is made to grow, the need is to have the ability to manage power inside homes and buildings. For this purpose, internet connectivity and automation is a key. WI-MAX may then be a suitable solution for providing internet connectivity as it is flexible in terms of the connectivity speeds that the consumer may want to offer. WI-MAX will also have the right price points and can be positioned as a DSLCable replacement. WI-MAX can also provide strong security which is based on licensed bands and allows more predictability and reliability for the smart grid. The solution can be as simple as designating a narrow band of frequency for wireless electrical infrastructure. A small portion of existing ISM bands could be sufficient to for this purpose, regardless of the underlying technology (LaMonica, 2009).

Analysis of Standards  Requirements

An appropriate technical or reliability standards organization, like the North American Electric Reliability Council, that could supports investments and innovation in technologies, should be provided with the task of developing the smart grid performance standards which can assure much more security, reliability and availability, and increased power quality. New technologies will require tens of billions of dollars to meet the satisfactory power standards and to support such deployment of technology, a trust fund (with the continuous support of federal and state government, industry and the consumers, including all the stake holders), needs to be established. The fund should meet standards of equity in spending and in addition to that, regulatory policies by the federal and state governments regarding transmission and distribution rates must enable incentives for continuous innovation in technologies.

 Standards do vary with respect to time and place for example, System Average Interruption Frequency Indices (SAIFI) or System Average Interruption Duration Indices (SAIDI) are utilized in some jurisdictions today to measure performance, but higher levels of SAIFI and SAIDI might be more appropriate for todays standards, although in some countriesstates deviations from the SAIFI and SAIDI levels are authorized. Creating such robust set of technical performance standards will foster greater investment in smart grid technologies. State and federal governments may turn to these standards to determine the proper measure to embody appropriate regulations. The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are such standard bodies that typically develop improved technical standards. The IEEE is a globally recognized standards setting institution which develops its standards through a thorough and open process by engaging industry and bringing together a greater stakeholder community. The IEEE is thus able to set specifications and the best practices which are based on the modern scientific and technological knowhow. The IEEE has therefore formed the GRIDMAN study group to explore amendments in the IEEE current standards. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reaches out to stakeholders to communicate its plans to develop a framework and encourage the input put in by the utilities. NIST is at present assessing the smart grid interoperability of all stakeholders involved. NIST also provides technical assistance in assessing standards needs and developing a draft interim standards roadmap (Gunther, 2008).

Key Requirements Affecting Utilities

There are certain key requirements affecting utilities in the generation and distribution but impediments do exist in the progress of the smart grid technology. Utilities must always be appreciated for the positive work that they do and for this reason, regulatory environments should award utilities for better operational efficiency as this will inculcate a sense of pride and competition between competing utilities. All consumers doubts over privacy must be properly addressed as well as the social doubts over theftfair availability of electricity. The ability of utilities to take advantage of new innovations in smart grid technologies needs to increase manifolds by transforming business and operational environment. There is also a growing requirement that whenever utility decides to install and advanced metering system, the utility must make a business case for the investment it decides to carry as different utilities will start to create smart grids at different adoption rates (Grigsby,  Tchokonte, 2007).

Assessment of the Application and the Security Implications

It is important to ensure interoperability and security under the present operating conditions therefore, smart grid should be tested and verified for different systems and processes before implementation. Last year, in 2009, the current smart grid was valued at approximately 21.4 billion and the way it is progressing at the present rate, it might be exceeding around 42.8 billion by 2014. As the American smart grid industry attains greater successes, the world market is also set to further grow at a much faster rate than before. The companies that might benefit the most from this modernization might be the smart metering hardware sellers and the inventors of software which will be used to transmit, monitor, and organize massive amount of data gathered by the smart meters.  As more choices are coming in, including hybrid or full electric, natural gas, wind or solar power etc., we should be ready for the challenges and opportunities that may present themselves. Security implications on enterprises as new distribution technologies are presented should also be catered for (Terdiman, 2010) (Scheb, 2002).

There is growing need for implementation of the cyber security standards for the smart grid project. There is a concern that smart grid is not scalable and does not provide assure availability, so perhaps a different approach needs to be adopted to tackle the minor loopholes in the cyber security for smart grids as the IT based industry fails sometimes in the enterprise and might not be able to fully protect a critical infrastructure in the United States. Security has to be much more than encrypting information in the current threat scenario as issues have risen that are going to impact the smart grid and might not be properly addressed by merely putting in smart meters. Vulnerabilities and single points of failures need to be wiped off entirely in todays troubling economic times so the current security standards need to evolve. For a geographically distributed operation system, smart grid related security policy needs to be defined and implemented in a uniform manner with leverage to facilities and offices to determine their own best practices (Hacker, 2008).