V6_Brunner_Buchholz_Naumann_PowerGrid+Europe+8-10+Oktober+2010+Amsterdam

8/9/2019 V6_Brunner_Buchholz_Naumann_PowerGrid+Europe+8-10+Oktober+2010+Amsterdam

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Interoperable information and

communication technologies from the

electricity socket up to the network controlcentre

Ch. Brunner, IT4Power, Switzerland

B. M. Buchholz, NTB Technoservice,

Germany

A. Naumann, Otto von Guericke University

Magdeburg


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Summary

The enhancement of distribution networks into smart grids is accompanied by new functions

and technologies like:

• Energy management on distribution level,

• Distribution system automation,

• Smart metering,

• Smart building automation and involvement of consumers into the energy market.

All these technologies require an intensive exchange of data. As a consequence, the

information and communication technology (ICT) will penetrate the distribution systems

down to the end customers (Consumers and/or producers) on the low voltage network.

Today on the different control levels of electric networks various communication protocols

and information systems are applied. The data models and services of these systems are

different and do not allow seamless information exchange between the levels:

• Network control center – substations, traders, power plants and virtual power plants

• Inside the substations,

• Substation – medium and low voltage (MV and LV) distribution networks and its

consumers and power producers,

• Inside the buildings and industrial enterprises.

As a result of the analysis, the demand of information exchange of all participating clients is

defined. The function, the integration into the ICT system and the services of new

stakeholders in the smart grid environment like “Virtual Power Plants”, “ICT provider” or

“Metering service provider” are considered.

For economic reasons, the communication technology in the distribution level should be

based on the existing infrastructure. Depending on the location the most economic technology

can be applied like Distribution Line Carrier (DLC), radio, telecommunication cables (copper

ore fiber optics).

Otherwise there is a strong need that the data models and the services of the communication

system will be uniform for the overall network control and data acquisition. The paper

describes how the data models and services of IEC 61850 will be applied for this purpose.


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The power network wide application of IEC 61850 data models and services shall be

supported by standards for gateways:

• To home automation and smart meters (were simplified models and services are applied),

• To data base systems using Common Information Models (CIM / IEC 61968).

Relevant efforts in the IEC working groups are considered. Recommendations about further

standardization efforts are given.

Finally, the paper describes the pilot application “Web2Energy” - a European lighthouse

project funded by the European Commission.

1. Smart Distribution

The establishment of Smart Grids in the distribution level is driven by the European Targets

20-20-20 in 2020 what means 20 % reduction of carbon emissions, 20 % share of renewable

energy in the primary energy balance and 20 % increase of energy efficiency. A significant

contribution to achieve these targets will come from a new quality of distribution networks

providing the three pillars of “Smart Distribution systems”:

•

Smart Terminal: Self-healing capabilities for the distribution networks based on ICT-enabled response and thus automated fault elimination in MV feeders to increase the

reliability of supply significantly.

• Smart Aggregation: Active distribution networks with flexible and reconfigurable

aggregation and management of distributed secure and unsecure (fluctuating) power

sources, storage and controllable loads in virtual power plants. The goal is to reach an

optimum combination of environmental protection (lower CO2 emissions) and

economical value.• Smart Metering: Customer integration into the electricity market by variable tariffs

effecting efficient demand-side management and response to improve the efficiency of

energy production, to achieve energy savings and to reduce peak power demand, leading

to lower system costs and improved embedding of renewable energy sources.

The new functions are demonstrated in Figure 1.


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D a t a

C o l l e c t i o n

+ -

smart meteringsmart terminal

automation

smart energy

managementD yn ami c

t ar i f f s

Market

Billing

Home automation

• Remote reading of shortcircuit indication•Remote control of switches•Shorting supply

interruptions after faultsfrom hour to minutes

• Aggregation of dispersedgeneration with and withoutsecure production for flexiblemarket participation

•System service provision•Scheduling and balancing

• Market integration ofconsumers - motivation forload shifting through

variable tariffs

•Higher efficiency ofmetering processes

+ - + -

QVL

+ -

VPP

Figure 1 – The pillars of smart distribution

The realization of the 3 pillars of smart distribution requires the wide spread implementation

of advanced technologies which are still not broadly applied today:

• Smart meters which are remotely readable and which can operate with variable tariffs

through receiving and visualizing tariff signals,

• Communication facilities for data exchange on all levels of the power system down to the

LV consumers,

• Building automation facilities to achieve higher efficiency of electricity use in households,

business and industry.

In the first priority, communication links have to be established until the last meters to

consumers.

2. New quality of information exchange in the distribution level

Today, an ICT infrastructure for control and supervision of distribution networks is not

widely and extensively applied to the medium and low voltage levels. Communication for

power system control currently ends at the MV- busbars of the substations 110 kV/ MV.

Secondly, the existing communication networks for control in the upper level of the power

system are mostly owned by the grid operators. Different communication standards are

applied for different control levels like:

• inside the substation,


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• between substation and ne

or for different equipment like

•

protection relays,• meters,

• switchgear and transforme

The current situation is shown

Figure 2 - Communication in pow

The current situation causes h

communication levels. Variou

future the communication has

Furthermore, uniform data m

distribution level public com

available and most economica

telecommunication cables or r

In the normal case, several tel

networks. They are able to tak

Distribution”. The stakeholde

trader, the distribution networ

twork control centre,

rs.

on the left side of Figure 2.

er systems today and in the future

gh engineering efforts for converting betwee

s interface testers and diagnosis tools have t

to move down and cover the whole distributi

dels and services have to be used an all level

unication networks should be used adapting

l communication physics e.g. power line car

adio.

communication providers cover the areas of

e over the functions of “Communication Pro

s of the electricity business in distribution sy

operator or the virtual power plant operator

n the various

be applied. In the

on system.

s. Thirdly, in the

the locally

ier,

the distribution

viders for Smart

stems like the

should conclude a


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common contract with the co

prices and services.

The meters and the remote ter

servers which will use a dedic

should offer flat- rates for bot

Figure 3 – Data content for infor

The data which will be excha

presented in Figure 3.

3. IEC 61850 - the core stan

Today, we can see worldwide

61850 will be used in the sma

• IEC 61850 is the first com

accepted.

• IEC 61850 provides gener

logical nodes (LN) attribu

• The data models are open

• IEC 61850 is open for ne

• The services of the previo

extended. The GOOSE se

and lead to a fundamental

munication provider in their area offering th

minal units on the consumer or producer side

ated or a dial – up connection. The communi

types of connections.

ation exchange

ged between the clients (control levels) and

ard of Smart Grids

a broad consensus that the data models and s

t distribution grids. The reasons for this tren

munication standard for power automation w

ic object oriented and self describing data m

es and data classes.

for any extension if requested in the future.

communication physics and link layers.

s standards are not only kept but significantl

vice, for example, allows a quick peer- to- p

improvement of the performance.

e best ratio of

build the data

cation provider

the servers is

ervices of IEC

are obviously:

hich is globally

dels based on

y improved and

er communication


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• The technical committees

applications like “power q

“wind power plants”. The

In this sense, the IEC 61850 a

physical and application layer

Figure 4 – Reference model of IE

On the left side of Figure 4 th

with the mapping on Ethernet

The application in distribution

communication mapping will

layers. But the data models (I

(ACSI - abstract communicati

In this way it can be ensured t

and clients in the substations

most economical communicat

area is now open!

One of the first projects apply

distribution is the project “We

The reference architecture of t

developed for this pilot applic

This figure demonstrates that

the complete ICT system need

of IEC are working on standard extensions f

uality”, “dispersed generation”, “hydro powe

standardization process is still ongoing.

pplication layer is suitable for combination

s as shown in Figure 4.

61850 using various layers 1 and 2

current coverage of the OSI/ISO layers is s

as it is defined in IEC 61850-8-1 for substati

networks can use all types of physical medi

adapt the layer 7 for a seamless interaction w

C 61850-7-4xx and IEC 61850-7-3) and the

on service interface - IEC 61850-7-2) will be

hat the communication uses the same semant

nd in the distribution level. Furthermore, the

ion channel which is available in the infrastr

ing IEC 61850 to provide the complete funct

b2Energy” [1] which is funded by the Europ

he whole information and communication sy

ation is presented in Figure 5.

EC 61850 is the core standard for communi

s more.

r further

r plants” and

ith different

own in accordance

ons.

. A specific

ith the lower

abstract services

kept identical.

ic for all servers

way to apply the

cture of the supply

ions of smart

an Commission.

stem (ICT)

ation. However,


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First of all, the security and th

“smart” and fulfill advanced e

needed approaches and reques

Secondly, the stakeholders of

communication: clients) use d

implemented its own data bas

SCADA, Geographical infor

However, a big amount of dat

changed than it had to be don

time. This variety of data base

the various applications. To o

Information Models (CIM) fo

Figure 5 – ICT reference architec

The project Web2Energy will

exchange between the data ba

A further issue is the fact that

based on standards, partly pro

The same situation is valid in

electricity consumers will incl

device controls the internal ge

households where the time of

machines, dish washers, air c

e performance of information exchange shall

xpectations. Therefore, the standard IEC TS

ts that this part of smartness will be achieve

the power supply process (on the terminolog

ata base system for operations. In the past ea

with proprietary formats for different appli

ation system (GIS), Asset Management or n

is relevant for different data bases and if on

in several applications with different data f

s inside one enterprise often leads to inconsi

ercome this issue, IEC 61968 defines UML

all data requested in the distribution networ

ure of Web2Energy

use the CIM model in the data bases of all st

es will be possible without any conversion.

meters still use their own communication pr

prietary protocols depending on the vendor a

the area of building automation. A market pa

ude the action of an “energy butler”. This int

neration / storage units and some switchable

operation is not important for life convenien

nditioners or heaters.

be on a high level

2351 defines the

also.

of

h vendor

ations like

twork planning.

e data will be

rmats in the same

tency of data in

based Common

k management [2].

akeholders. A data

tocols – partly

nd the sales region.

rticipation of the

elligent electronic

devices in the

e like wash


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Based on price signals from t

ratio of services and costs insi

has to consider the variety of t

4. Gateways

4.1. IEC 61850 data model -

The data management of all cl

common information models.

from the other system compo

Figure 6 – Relation between CIM

The data model of IEC 61850

In Figure 6 a metered value is

TotWh for metered energy an

number of counted pulses, pul

units e.g. in accordance with t

The amount of data in the CI

information is stored and the

presentation of the meter.

e higher communication level the butler ens

de the households or in the industry. The co

hese influences to become seamless.

IM data management

ients in project Web2Energy is consequently

Consequently, the incoming and outgoing in

ents has to be converted between IEC 61850

and IEC 61850 modeling

presents the current value and metadata of th

presented by the Logical Node MMTR for

the attributes actVal – the actual value expr

sQty – the puls quality in Wh/puls, Units to

he SI system and finally t - the time stamp.

data base is significantly higher – the gener

ctual metered value builds only a pixel in th

res an optimum

plete ICT system

based on the

formation to and

and CIM.

is value.

eter, the data class

essed in the

efine the applied

al meter

whole


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The IEC 61850 – CIM Converter has to define the locality of the submitted values and adapt

them how it is shown in Figure 6. The Web2Energy project will develop standard converters

for these gateway functions.

4.2. Meter and smart building communication

Currently there is no chance to implement IEC 61850 at the communication levels of meters

and building automation. The communication at these levels should be simple – services and

openness of data models don’t play a role. For this reason a large amount of proprietary

solutions and standards was developed and applied.

On the other side, the amount of data which is common on the lower levels of meters or

building automation and network control is low. In principle, it contains the metered values,

the price signals and the tariff forecast – much less in comparison with the thousands of data

required for power system control.

Figure 7 - Gateways between meter/ building communication and the system WAN based on IEC 61850

The energy butler in the buildings in principle needs only the tariff signal and the tariff

forecast from the system level. It can be received directly from the WAN or through the

meters as shown in Figure 7.

The meters communicate inside a closed system to a data server. Meters of other media like

water, gas, heat are incorporated in this system.

Therefore, in the project Web2Energy the converter for IEC 61850 based provision of

metered values to the clients is allocated in the data server.


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Nowadays, there run activities to define a common simple and efficient communication

structure for the multi-utility metering [3-5]. In Europe the favorites are the M-Bus (wire and

wireless) with SML in the application level. Hopefully, in the field of building

communication favorites like KNX [6] or Bacnet [7] can achieve in mid- term the status of

common standards in Europe as well.

5. Common data models from the consumer socket up to Control centers

The application of IEC 61850 as a core standard of Smart Grids is strongly supported by

several working groups in IEC.

Today it is possible to use the common data models in all levels of power system control as

presented in Figure 8.

Figure 8 - Coverage of the power system levels by common data models

At the level between substations and Control centers a global and widespread use found the

standard IEC 60870-5-101 (point to point) and -104 (WAN). The weakness of this standard is

that the data have to be defined in the engineering process by assignment of numbers –

uniform on both sides. This approach requires expensive engineering and leads often to

inconsistencies.

But it is more expensive to change the running communication systems and to introduce IEC

61850 with all its convenient services. The short term solution is now offered by IEC 61850-

80-1: Mapping the data models of IEC 61850 to the structures of IEC 60870-5-101/4.


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In the lower levels new consistent data models are brought to standards – for hydro power

plants, for dispersed generation and for wind power plants as shown in Figure 8.

IEC is still open to take off further data models if the need is demonstrated in pilot projects.

This extension is a further target of the Web2Energy project.

Today, the working group (WG) 10 of the IEC technical committee (TC) 57 is responsible for

all the generic parts of IEC 61850 that are not domain specific as well as for the parts related

to the substation automation. For other domain specific parts, specific working groups exist:

• WG17 for dispersed generation

• WG18 for hydro power plants

• TC88 / Project team 25 for wind power plants

It is planned, to establish a coordination group to ensure consistency of the modeling across

the different working groups. It is as well intended to publish in the future the complete set of

data models for the different domains as a database. This as well to facilitate the reuse of

already defined models from one domain in another domain – e.g. elements that have already

been defined in the context of hydro power generation may be reused for thermal or nuclear

generation.

These activities show: In the context of “Smart Grids”, the interoperable data exchange over

all levels from the electricity socket up to the network control center is toady a reachable

target.

6. Application of IEC 61850 Data Models for Smart Distribution

In the framework of the lighthouse project Web2Energy the data models for implementation

of the 3 pillars of smart distribution are defined in accordance with Figure 3. A standard data

model exists in the published documents for the most of data to be exchanged.


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Figure 9 – Three pillars of smart

However, each of the applicat

comparison of some available

Web2Energy has the target to

7. New service providers in t

Smart Meters with communic

well. Advanced concepts are f

distribution to the relevant sta

via a multi-utility controller

protocols are applied.

Figure 10 – System with data acq

The metering service provider

the next level the information

functions, e.g. trader, VPP or

compressed data into the IEC

in the same way: selection an

subsequent conversion into th

A further market role is the IC

communication.

istribution and the relevant data models - exampl

ion requires more or less new data models. F

and additionally proposed data models used

extend the related standards accordingly.

he environment of smart distribution

tion facilities are offered on the markets for

ocused on a common multi-utility data acqui

eholders. The communication of the various

UC as presented in Figure 10 [5]. At this lev

isition from various multi-utility meters

is responsible for the data acquisition of the

provider selects the required data for the vari

NO on the electricity supply field and conv

61850 protocol. The information provider se

compression of the required data for each st

requested communication protocols.

T provider who offers the requested physical

s

igure 9 presents a

in Web2Energy.

other media as

sition and

meters is bundled

el the meter

metered values. At

ous stakeholder

erts the

ves other markets

akeholder with the

infrastructure for


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8. Conclusions

A first experience regarding the implementation of the 3 pillars of smart distribution is

achieved in the European Lighthouse project “Web2Energy” by strictly use of the most

advanced IEC standards for communication and data management. Today the standards do

not cover the whole amount of information which is requested in the practice. The need for

further extension is considered.

The pilot applications are necessary

• to qualify the standardization work,

• to investigate new approaches and services including the relevant business models

• to recognize legal and regulatory barriers and demonstrate alternatives

In the context of “Smart Grids”, the interoperable data exchange over all levels from the

electricity socket up to the network control center is toady a reachable target.

9. References

[1] www.web2energy.com

[2] www.smartgrids.eu, SmartGrids Strategic Deployment document, Deployment Case 4.

[3] www.dlms.com

[4] www.figawa.de

[5] www.m-u-c.org

[6] www.knx.de

[7] www.bacnet.org

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V6_Brunner_Buchholz_Naumann_PowerGrid+Europe+8-10+Oktober+2010+Amsterdam