Communications in the Smart Grid

Utilities use private networks for critical requirements, but can adopt public networks for other data needs.

The Role of

By John D. McDonald

In considering the role of communications networks in the smart grid, its important to emphasize that the first enables the second. Adding intelligence to the electric grid primarily means automating various grid functions. And automation isnt possible without communications networks that enable a two-way flow of data. In fact, electric grids have always relied on communications networks for controls and visibility, at least at the transmission level. This relationship is glaringly apparent in a disaster recovery scenario, when utilities often discover that the route to restoration depends on whether their communications networks are operating. Examining how electric utilities approach their mission-critical communications tasks and less-critical data flows will help illuminate the topic for power, communications and publicsafety audiences, which in disasters have interrelated concerns. Our survey will reveal areas where all three sectors can and should cooperate for mutual benefit. Its also important to consider how various data flows map to communications options, how utilities and energy

service companies will approach the global market for those communications options, recent standards work in this area and how smart grid and public-safety networks might interact. Its important to emphasize a second point as critical as the first: Automating the electric grid must be undertaken in a holistic manner, based on an understanding of the interactions and interdependencies of a variety of systems and how technology advancements propel business process changes across the utility organization. The creation of a smart grid road map keeps the horizon in view even as it articulates steps leading to that horizon. Put simply, you have to know where youre heading to determine the most effective route to your destination. In technology terms, the effective implementation of a succession of systems is based on how well those systems can be integrated for the greatest possible value. Diving deeper, that means understanding how data flows most effectively to and from a control center to far-flung devices on the grid, which will dictate many of the design parameters and implementation issues for the enabling communications networks.

Electric utilities have a long tradition of owning and controlling their own communications networks for mission-critical applications because of concerns about reliability, safety, security and cost. Even in cases where the cost in terms of capital and operational expenses is greater than a nonutility alternative, the guarantee of reliability, safety and security inherent in a proprietary utility-owned network often trumps cost concerns. Therefore, its worth defining what constitutes mission-critical communications in the electric utility and energy sectors likely to remain the exclusive purview of utilities in the near-term and identify the noncritical communications needs, which are beginning to yield to the entreaties of the telecom sector that offers a variety of public networks. Mission Critical vs. Mission Casual Power utilities most critical data is backhaul, a high-volume data flow with high-bandwidth requirements. Backhaul comprises enterprise data such as customer usage and billing information headed from meters to

Photo courtesy El Paso Corp.

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utility headquarters, as well as operational data flowing from grid devices to the control center. Backhaul is, by definition, mission-critical data that enables the utility to operate the grid and stay in business. Despite its importance, missioncritical data is not homogenous; its various strands dont all have the same needs in terms of reliability, speed, latency, bandwidth and throughput. Specific data flows use a variety of communications network options, based on the particular need for speed, bandwidth and throughput. Thus, utilities typically take a hybrid approach to communications networks, mixing and matching technologies to enable various data flows. Operational supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data is real-time, mission-critical data, and it is protected by firewalls from unintended consequences of internal mistakes and intentional acts by external malefactors. Backhaul of SCADA data from the grids sensors, controls and protection systems has the most stringent requirements in terms of redundancy, bandwidth and throughput. Backhaul needs the most secure pipe, regardless of the means, whether wired (fiber optics) or wireless (typically microwave). Utilities need to meet response requirements, as well as latency and bandwidth requirements. An operator in a control center might need to send a control command down to a substation to open up a breaker and isolate a fault. That act begins when the operator selects the point, the SCADA system sends a message to the device in question and a response confirms that the operator selected the correct point in the field. Then, the control command is implemented, and a verification message is returned. This is called selectbefore-operate (SBO). Traditionally, utilities have met response requirements by building dual (redundant) fiber-optic rings around the perimeter of their service territories. Utilities have also been comfortable using leased phone lines for SCADA communications from the control center to substations, based on

Smart Grid Complexities

Biofuels City B Transmission Substation Network Operating Center Farm Power Plant

Transmission Substation

Wind Turbine City A Wind Farm Distributed Generation Distribution Substation

Distributed Generation

Solar Farm

Network Operating Center

Distribution Substation

Factory

Smart Appliances Home Solar PHEV

Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)

Demand Management Smart Meter

This is a dynamic and integrated network, and the management and optimization of these elements will require a smarter power grid.

the quantifiable costs. Still, the urgent nature of utility maintenance requirements has remained a concern, even with a service level agreement (SLA) in place. In contrast, some enterprise data, if effectively encrypted, could be transmitted via a public network. Personally identifiable, customer usage and billing information may fall into this category, depending on the jurisdiction, governed by state laws on the handling of personally identifiable information (PII). Both of these data flows are considered mission critical, yet the first is likely to be routed via a utilitys proprietary network, while the second potentially could be encrypted and carried via a public network. Data Flow Utilities use a network operation center (NOC) to monitor the health and performance of the communications infrastructure 24/7, by assessing the flow of data on various communications channels. With the advent of standards and protocols, communications infrastructure is modular, making it plug-and-play and allowing users to mix and match technologies. In the upper grid, closest to the con-

trol center, point-to-point technology such as fiber-optic cable typically is used to connect the control center with the substations. The number of locations of transmission-level substations that need to be connected with the control center is small, but the density of points in each is high. High bandwidth is needed for reliability. Further out on the system, in radial fashion, point-to-point technology yields to point-to-multipoint systems. The further you go from the control center, the number of substations increases but the criticality of those substations and the data they generate falls off, meaning the cost of communications also needs to fall. Typically the largest number of substations exists as points scattered over a broad area where the network relies on licensed and unlicensed wireless spectrum to provide high throughput at relatively modest cost. Wireless public networks are a cost-effective solution under these circumstances because one technology can blanket a wide area, unlike fiber optics point-to-point functionality. At the edge of the grid unlicensed, spreadspectrum technology provides a costeffective solution. Although unlicensed spectrum can carry mission-critical

Image courtesy GE Digital Energy

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Despite its importance, mission-critical data is not homogenous; its various strands dont all have the same needs in terms of reliability, speed, latency, bandwidth and throughput.
SCADA data, the prevailing concept is that a rural area doesnt have competing uses, thus theres little interference. Communications also takes place within substations, between various intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), an exchange governed by the standard International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850. The United States has about 48,000 distribution substations, of which less than half have any sort of automation an opportunity for collaboration between the power industry and the communications sector. Global Adoption Patterns As traditional and new communications strategies and technologies are applied in grid modernization across the globe, three distinct architectures are apparent: existing power infrastructure/legacy systems, legacy systems with new technologies added, and greenfields that can adopt the latest technology. The first two categories are typical in developed countries with mature economies and represent the majority of the market, while greenfields may be found more often in developing nations. Regional preferences for communications systems also become apparent, often based on local experience with technology. For instance, in Europes densely populated cities, power line carrier (PLC) remains a leading option for two-way data flows between grid operators and end-use meters. The main driver is the European Union policy mandate that 80 percent of all homes are required to have a smart meter by 2020. Meter vendors must enable PLC. The United States, in contrast, is a more market-driven region and regulations fall within the purview of individual states. The Asia-Pacific market, perhaps the worlds largest, is too complex for generalizations; it has a mix of developed and developing nations, each of which has urban and rural components. Yet personal experience in Colombia in the late 1990s illustrated the complexities of greenfield situations. The national utility had 10 different digital control systems for its highvoltage transmission substations from six different suppliers (many of them foreign) in 14 substations, each seeking to institute its own communications scheme. That approach precluded the needed interoperability. The company separated the bids for the substation infrastructure from the automation and communications system needed to link them and the control center. That automation and communications system needed to be built by one vendor only, to ensure interoperability. So automation and communications vendors will encounter nuances wherever they seek business. Worldw ide Standards The Colombia example underscores the importance of global standards for communications networks and the weakness of employing regional or ad hoc solutions, which typically raise costs and limit the availability of experienced vendors and narrow the range of technology solutions. Theres one worldwide standard for communications between control centers thats the IECs inter-control center communications protocol (ICCP). Only two worldwide standards are commonly used for communications from the master station down to the substation and field equipment: distributed network protocol (DNP3), which is also Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1815; while the Europeans favored approach is IEC 870-5-101 for serial communications and IEC 870-5-104 for network communications. Within the substation there are more choices, but the predominant ones are DNP3, IEC 870-5 and IEC 61850. To place the standards affecting grid communications into perspective, think of them as belonging to one of two groups. One group of standards addresses communications media itself wired or wireless and their sub-categories, such as IEEE 802.11g. The other group contains the communications protocols, the format of the data being sent back and forth, such as IEEE 1815 and IEC 870-5-101 and 104. Standards are complex and numerous in this context, and its important to note that worldwide efforts in this area during the past two decades have whittled down the options to a finite number. Utility and industrial concerns with grids and related infrastructure should insist that their vendors use global standards for cost effectiveness, interoperability and the widest range of vendors and technology choices. Public Safety Performance is the single most critical factor in any smart grid-related type of communications network, and performance is based on metrics for update rates, consistency and interference. In discussing the efficacy of any public-safety network on a specific band of spectrum, the first question is: Who else is using it? Sharing spectrum bands can impact performance, and interference can corrupt data transfers. Utilities will naturally gravitate toward ownership or assignment of a dedicated slice of spectrum thats exclusively theirs to use to ensure predictable performance and quality of communications. It remains to be seen what mutual interests power utilities and publicsafety personnel can or should exploit. I can envision utilities sharing outage information from its service territory to guide public-safety responders to locations that need their services. Conversely, I can see publicsafety personnel communicating what

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they see at an outage location back to the utility to speed restoration in the wake of the first response. Both scenarios would better serve the public, which bears the brunt of disasters and related power outages. As the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) initiative is in its early stages, prior to design, technology choices and implementation strategies, its perhaps unwise to speculate on how that project might create synergies, redundancies, opportunities or hurdles in relation to modernized, more intelligent power grids. But its a development worthy of discussion between power utilities and the publicsafety communications sector. Utilities will continue to determine

what data flows are mission critical and belong on a proprietary network that they own and operate. Yet, based on cost and traditional concerns about reliability, security and bandwidth, utilities also will determine which data can ride on public networks. As they gain experience and build a comfort level with public networks, its not inconceivable that at some point utilities may be willing to use third-party communications networks for mission-critical data. To the network providers: Dont try to eat the whole elephant at once. Listen to the utilities concerns about reliability, security, bandwidth, throughput and the urgency of utility maintenance needs in this context.

Build that comfort level first. Once utilities are convinced that public networks provide secure, reliable and cost-effective data transport, theyre likely to begin collaboration. I
John D. McDonald is an Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) smart grid subject matter expert, past president of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES), an IEEE PES distinguished lecturer and an IEEE fellow. McDonald is board chair of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative and president and chairman of the board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) 2.0, among many other affiliations. He is director of technical strategy and policy development at GE Digital Energy. Email comments to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.

RadioResource MissionCritical Communications delivers wireless voice and data solutions for mobile and remote mission-critical operations. Editorial content targets organizations in the United States and Canada with mobile and remote communications needs, including public safety, government, transportation, manufacturing, utility/energy, business, and industrial entities. The magazine covers industry news; case studies; innovative applications; product information; emerging technologies; industry reports and trends; and technical tips. In addition, each issue contains Public Safety Technology, a special section devoted solely to the needs of the publicsafety community. RadioResource MissionCritical Communications is published by RadioResource Media Group. Pandata Corp., 7108 S. Alton Way, Building H, Centennial, CO 80112, Tel: 303-792-2390, Fax: 303-792-2391, www.RRMediaGroup.com. Copyright 2013 Pandata Corp. All rights reserved. Reprinted from the April 2013 issue of RadioResource MissionCritical Communications. For subscription or advertising information please call 303-792-2390 or visit www.RRMediaGroup.com.