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Internet of Things in Power Distribution Networks – State of the Art

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Internet of Things in Power Distribution Networks – State
of the Art
Aleksandar Janjić1, Lazar Velimirović2, Jelena Ranitović2 and Željko Džunić3
Abstract – This paper analyzes the most prominent smart grid waste less energy and, by doing so, reduce their own energy
functions from the Internet of Things implementation perspective. bills.
A Smart MV/LV substation is proposed as a solution that will Concerning the power distribution network, the process of
handle intelligent operations, such as real-time monitoring, automation and remote control historically started from high
control, and system management, in a successful manner.
voltages and transformer substations of large installed power.
However, these great benefits come at a price. With rapidly-
evolving IoT network, maintaining cyber privacy and security will The large portion of installed capacities in the medium voltage
present a great challenge in the future and solutions to efficiently (MV) and low voltage (LV) distribution network remained
overcome these weaknesses should be further investigated and without proper monitoring, control, and outside the usual
developed. SCADA utility systems. Fast development of information and
communication technologies (ICT) lead to the conception of
Keywords – Cyber security, Internet of Things, Smart grid, “intelligent transformer substation“, and its integration in the
Substation automation smart grid environment.
Considering that smart grid is a large and complex system of
interconnected devices that use different protocols for
communication between themselves, it is vulnerable to cyber
I. INTRODUCTION
attacks and IT threats. Some security concerns, among others,
are customers’ security, number of interconnected
Smart technologies are significantly influencing the way
devices/connectivity and software threats.
people live and work today. Objects used daily such as smart
phones and smart home appliances are connected to the Internet
via intelligent technologies and are able to provide us with large II. SMART DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATION
amounts of data on our habits and lifestyles. There are many
products and services on energy consumption that citizens may Due to the increasing penetration of dispersed generation,
use to make more informed and efficient decisions on problems there is a need to increase the intelligence of the components in
that matter to them. Technology has already altered our the MV and LV voltage networks. The increase in sensibility
behavior – how we live and what we do, for example, the use of devices for the quality of voltage and the increasing number
of social media, mobile apps and open data can help us to of power quality related problems are the reason to look for
reduce energy use. more functionality in the MV/LV station. The power flows in
Nowadays Internet of Things (IoT) applications allow smart LV and MV distribution grids will increase their fluctuation as
energy management and its optimization at all stages: utility well. To manage these fluctuations while maintaining power
operations are improved, power grids are more efficient and quality and reliability, several prototypes of Smart MV/LV
resilient, and stakeholders can use these data to allocate substation has been designed [1–5]. These prototypes were
resources appropriately, avoid energy waste, and make right focused on particular distribution network problems, like the
decisions on energy usage and generation harmonic voltages, resonance, and peak load reduction.
IoT empowers consumers (residential, commercial or In general, intelligent components are needed to:
industrial) by providing control signals and/or financial  Get information and influence the power and voltage
incentives to adjust their use of demand side resources at profile
strategic times. Energy consumption at the device level can
 Increase the immunity against power quality
now be tracked through the IoT platforms, and end users can
also use these data for processes such as when is the best time problems, such as harmonics, voltage dips, flicker
to start or shut down a machine, reduce its use at peak hours,  Reduce the unavailability (minutes of interruption)
 Create microgrids which will be able to work
autonomously to increase the reliability as needed
1Aleksandar Janjić is with the Faculty of Electronic Engineering at
 Enable the usage of condition based maintenance.
University of Niš, 14 Aleksandra Medvedeva, Niš 18000, Serbia, E-
mail: [email protected]. A Smart MV/LV substation is built to handle these items.
2 Lazar Velimirović is with Mathematical Institute of the Serbian The smart substation concept enables more reliable, more
Academy of Sciences and Arts, 36 Kneza Mihaila, Belgrade 11001, efficient, real-time monitoring and control of the facility nodes
Serbia, E-mail:[email protected] installed in the substation. Smart devices can be added to
2
Jelena Ranitović is with Mathematical Institute of the Serbian traditional substation devices to perform intelligent functions
Academy of Sciences and Arts, 36 Kneza Mihaila, Belgrade 11001, and provide ubiquitous IT techniques for monitoring, control
Serbia, E-mail: [email protected] and management of the system. Similarly to smart homes, each
3 Željko Džunić is with Junis, University of Niš, 2 Univerzitetski
device in the substation is considered as an object and is
trg, Niš 18000, Serbia, E-mail: [email protected]

.
assigned a unique IP address, transmitting its status and such as rebates, stimulus funds, incentives, with the aim to cash
receiving control commands from the utility authorized savings for both participants: utilities and their customers. The
operator via the Internet. general architecture of DSM is presented in Fig. 1 [7].
The main functions of the smart substation are summarized
as follows:
 Intelligent analysis for alarm processing, bad data
processing, etc.
 Intelligent control for auto-restoration, remedial or
predictive action, and emergency state estimation
 Intelligent maintenance and management
 Intelligent physical safety
 Interconnection and application with Geographic
Information System (GIS).
The solution presented in [6] relies on an energy
Fig. 1. Basic architecture of DSM
management sensors combining monitoring of electrical
energy consumption, power quality analysis, and management Three basic layers can be recognized: a) Cloud and Services
of electrical energy use in a single powerful internet connected – central part of the architecture that collects data from different
device. With Ethernet or WiFi connectivity and built in web sources, providing tools and technologies for mass data storage
server, sensors can be quickly and easily deployed in any and data processing. b) Utility – this layer collects information
energy management scenario. from different parts of the power generation supply chains
(production, transmission, and distribution) and forwards them
Micro RTU Hardware platform is based on ARM platform
to the cloud (data related to the level of current and future
making the device functional. Micro RTU is designed with two
production and consumption, the price of electricity, and other
processors: Cortex M4F real time processor with 8 MB of
information that may affect the DR relation). c) Consumers
external RAM, serving inputs and outputs in the real time, and
(smart home, smart buildings, industry) – each consumer
Cortex A9 processor with Linux operating system. Its role is to
represents a node in a complex microgrid. Nodes are equipped
serve the communication interface and data storage.
with so-called sink or hub that collects information from all
Central control application performs the periodic polling of
smart devices for that node and which has a data storage
remote units in the set of selected transformer substations.
capacity, local data processing and communication capability
Measured values are placed in the RAM of each individual unit.
to devices outside the node.
Modbus masters embedded in the central control unit read the
Coordination of the huge number of IoT devices which are
Modbus slaves in the remote units, by the TCP protocol through
distributed over the entire platform and acquisition of the
the Virtual Private Network (VPN) formed by the 3G network.
necessary data in economically viable manner are some of the
The system requires sophisticated security mechanisms and
major challenges for the implementation of DSM. Taking into
it is important to note that once performed security evaluation
account that the DSM applications rely on the IoT architecture,
is of a temporary validity only because we face everyday
the challenges facing the IoT are also projected on the success
advances regarding the methods for cryptanalysis of
of DSM
cryptographic algorithms. Accordingly, monitoring of security
and security re-evaluations of the cryptographic techniques
appear as a top-priority issue in the security critical ICT IV. DEMAND RESPONSE
infrastructures.
Demand Response (DR) is usually defined as the change in
III. DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT electric usage by end-use customers from their normal
consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of
electricity over time, or to incentive payments designed to
The basis of the new smart grid is a trend that reinvents the
induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market
functioning mode of electric utilities companies - Demand Side
prices, or when system reliability is jeopardized. In order to
Management (DSM). DSM represents the interface between
achieve this feature, data about the current consumption of
the utility company and smart devices that consume power with
multiple sites during an event should be consolidated in real
the aim of reducing peaks in power grid demand, minimizing
time through the IoT platform, so the consumer (or the third-
power losses in the grid, and increasing the use of unrealized
party aggregator) can gauge the performance of the entire
energy savings during low demand periods.
portfolio almost instantaneously.
In this way, DSM covers energy efficiency and demand
The system enables the aggregator to collect customer
response domains for customers. IoT based management
demand flexibility and provide access to the market. For this
platforms, in other words, deploying energy management
purpose, with the development of new features, the aggregator
measures units at the point of consumption, are a prerequisite
will study which customers can provide profitable DR, actively
for the successful implementation of DSM applications.
promote the DR service to customers, and provide financial
Electricity customers have at their disposal a variety of options
incentives to the customers to provide DR.
 Most DR approaches involve a data concentrator that on changes in architectural and silicon level, it is clear that
advises a pool of consumers to reduce their current demand. achieving the energy efficiency for IoT will not be easy.
This approach has repeatedly been shown to be effective for Energy efficiency of the devices can be achieved through
relatively small pool sizes of industrial and commercial knowledge extraction from data collected in the early stages. In
consumers. While it remains feasible to signal a small number that way, sending huge amount of data and latency can be
of consumers and expect an immediate response, DR at a wider avoided. This kind of challenge is better known under the name
areal level is more complex. On these bases, cloud architecture Edge Fog.
of aggregated consumers is proposed, and the data concentrator Another aspect relates to the expected energy efficiency,
with advanced features should be developed. which is achieved by using DSM-based IoT platforms.
The possible solution is the platform containing two main Business model that should bring a revolution into energy
subsystems: Energy Hub which is consisted of a power efficiency domain of smart grid relies on DSM applications and
analyzer and appropriate data concentrator, and software services. It is a crucial change in the concept of energy
enabling the aggregator relationship with both customers and efficiency, which so far has focused mainly on energy savings
market. The basic architecture of this system is based on in single devices. In this sense, a lot is expected from the IT
Energy Hub and layered-controlled system (Fig. 2). community, which should contribute with adequate
applications, regardless of whether they are great players or
startups companies.
Related to the issue of security, there are several topics of
interest that need to be considered such as a) generic techniques
for cryptographic security evaluation of certain algorithms for
encryption, authentication and key-management in smart grid
application, and b) generic techniques for design of certain
cryptographic algorithms for encryption, authentication and
key-management.
Security is always a critical issue and challenge for the
architects of the system. With the huge number of connected
devices, smart grid solutions empowered by IoT are facing
Fig. 2. Communication infrastructure security risks both for consumers and for the entire business.
The following critical elements of DSM can be identified from
This architecture includes two embedded clouds. A small the standpoint of security:
cloud consisting of the elements which can operate  Wireless communication – the possibility of
independently is a sub-cloud of the great network cloud. Loads unauthorized access to the devices and collection of
and distributed generation (DG) are controlled by the nearest sensitive data
hub, while the information of loads, power flow, power quality
 Cloud-based servers – access and unauthorized use of
and power market can exchange among each hub and upload to
the aggregator dispatch center. The optimal load scheduling vast amounts of aggregated data
plan is made by the aggregator dispatch center. The aggregator  Local Network and Devices – sending spam,
dispatch center acting as the cloud core, coordinates the disrupting the normal functioning of devices,
exchange of information, and sends control instruction. shutdown power grid.
Risk of security issues could be reduced by encrypting,
V. IOT CHALLENGES using multilayered architecture and other techniques which
could be implemented during the product design. Regular
To build a successful DSM and smart energy concept it is software patching for all devices is always welcomed.
necessary to efficiently cope with several challenges such as Furthermore, IoT devices of the smart grid collect large
energy efficiency, security, privacy and data protection, big amounts of personal data relating to consumption and daily
data, interoperability, and standardization. consumers habits. Privacy and data protection challenge is
How big and powerful is the IoT network? The IoT refers directly related to security. By applying the encryption it is
to a fast-expanding worldwide network of devices connected to possible to protect data privacy. If IoT devices have the
the Internet – today there are 4.9 billion connected devices, and possibility of sending anonymized data, it is possible to further
it is anticipated that by 2020 there will be 25 billion of them. reduce the risk of unauthorized access to data.
Moreover, the IoT has the potential to add US$6.2 trillion to Data collected from different sources are accumulated in the
the global economy by 2025 [8]. cloud, which therefore must have a massive data storage and
Energy efficiency of IoT devices alone, some of which are processing capabilities. Big data analytics represents the
expected to be 'always on' and to automatically collect dominant technique for intelligent processing of data of
information necessary for users. This feature makes sense only different structures and formats. The application of the big data
if IoT devices operate on very little power. Otherwise, their concept should always be considered as risky, because there is
application will not have much sense. Although there are no simple and unique solution for its implementation. Also, the
significant developments and results in this area that are based energy efficiency challenge should be taken into account, since
storing the large amounts of data in the cloud also requires system have to be carefully designed, in respect of all network
power. stakeholders, and the choice between totally decentralized and
The complex architecture of DSM requires communication centralized system should result in the compromise between
of an enormous number of devices. In such an environment, the them.
choice of suitable protocols may directly affect the success of However, it should be noted that applying smart technology
DSM implementation. The complex communication requires solutions just for the sake of technology and without
adding advanced features which automatically affects the price understanding the needs of citizens, enterprises and other city
increase and performance reduction. In the last couple of years, stakeholders probably will not solve economic, social or
many institutions, such as industry consortia (IEEE, Zigbee environmental issues that we encounter today. Appropriate
Alliance, etc.), standardization bodies, and also some of the ICT-led solutions should be applied only when their purpose is
leading companies and startups have jointly defined protocols clear and the problems that need to be solved are identified .
necessary for the advancement of IoT (Fig. 3) [9].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technological Development of the Republic of
Serbia through Mathematical Institute SASA under Grant III
42006 and Grant III 44006.

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The IoT in power distribution networks is very alike to the
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