Editorial Smart Grid: ICT Control for Distributed Energy

EditorialSmart Grid: ICT Control for Distributed Energy Resources

Jose Ignacio Moreno,1 Manel Martínez-Ramón,2

Pedro S. Moura,3 Javier Matanza,4 and Gregorio López1

1Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganes, Spain2University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA3University of Coimbra, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal4Institute for Research in Technology, 28015 Madrid, Spain

Correspondence should be addressed to Jose Ignacio Moreno; [email protected]

Received 27 April 2016; Accepted 4 May 2016

Copyright © 2016 Jose Ignacio Moreno et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.

1. Introduction

The fact that the electrical grid represents a critical andcomplex infrastructure has prevented it from experienc-ing major breakthroughs during decades. Therefore, someproblems and inefficiencies have been carried around for along while, up to the point that traditional electrical grid isfar away from being prepared to face incoming challenges,such as properly integrating the foreseen high penetrationof Distributed Energy Resources (DER), mainly intermittentand stochastic renewable generation, electric vehicles andenergy storage, or proactively controlling the energy demandbymeans of the so-called Demand Response (DR) programs.

As a result, the electrical grid is currently undergoingslowly but surely its inexorablemetamorphosis under the newparadigm of the so-called Smart Grid. This metamorphosisbasically entails evolving from a highly centralized and staticsystem, where few energy generators supply electricity toa huge number of consumption points without exchanginginformation in real time, into a highly distributed anddynamic system, with many low capacity, geographicallydistributed generators, which are able to communicate withthe consumption points in order to coordinate and optimizetheir operation.

Ensuring the balance and stability of the electrical gridunder this new paradigm requires the deployment of avast number of sensors and actuators which will gener-ate an unprecedented huge amount of data. Thus, high-performance, reliable, secure, and scalable communications

networks and Information Technologies (IT) systems playa central role in the Smart Grid, which is driving the nextwave of research and innovation in the Information andCommunications Technology (ICT) sector.

The aim of this special issue was to gather high-qualitycutting-edge research papers addressing the use of dis-tributed sensor and actuator networks in SmartGrids, includ-ing topics such as novel ICT architectures, wireless and wiredcommunications technologies, interoperability and confor-mance testing, big data and analytics, and cloud computing,and applications such as Advanced Metering Infrastructures(AMIS), Demand Response (DR), Wide Area MonitoringSystems (WAMS), or transportation electrification.

The special issue has attracted the submission of 17papers. After a thorough peer-review process, seven papershave been accepted for publication. The topics covered inthese papers range from Advanced Metering Infrastructuresand Demand Response to substation automation and smartlighting, including wireless and powerline communicationsnetworks and cybersecurity.

2. Related Works

Specifically, in the paper entitled “Analysis of Secure TCP/IPProfile in 61850 Based Substation Automation System forSmart Grids,” O. Khaled et al. bring together such trendytopics within the Smart Grid as IEC 61850 and cybersecurity.The paper focuses on analyzing the proposed secure TCP/IPprofile for Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS),

Hindawi Publishing CorporationInternational Journal of Distributed Sensor NetworksVolume 2016, Article ID 1329421, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1329421

2 International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks

testing different cipher suite combinations, and examiningwhether by applying TLS the strict performance require-ments of IEC 61850 can be achieved or not. As a resultof the study, the authors recommend a list of cipher suitecombinations under IEC 61850.

In the paper entitled “𝜆-Augmented Tree for Robust DataCollection in Advanced Metering Infrastructure,” J. Kamtoet al. address the robustness of data collection in wirelessmesh neighborhood area networks for advanced meteringinfrastructure (AMI). In order to mitigate the weakness oftree topology of smart meters (SM), the authors design ahighly connected tree with a set of backup links. A topologyrepair scheme is also proposed to address the impact ofa SM node failure on the connectivity of the augmentedtree network. Such a topology repair scheme specificallytargets highly critical SM (the so-called cut SM) by selectingbackup parent SM to cover its children. Detailed algorithmsand related theoretical and complexity analysis are providedalong with simulation results pointing out that sufficientredundancy is provided to alleviate data loss at the cost ofsignaling overhead.

In the paper entitled “Planning and Performance Chal-lenges in Power Line Communications Networks for SmartGrids,” M. Seijo et al. provide an overview of Power LineCommunications (PLC) technologies, paying special atten-tion to Powerline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME)and Broadband over Medium Voltage Power Lines (MV-BPL). The authors identify some of the most relevant chal-lenges that PLC networks face nowadays when being used tomonitor and control the power distribution networks of theSmart Grids, presenting also a set of cutting-edge softwaretools that aim to provide solutions to such challenges. Suchtools include a traffic analysis and diagnosis tool and anetwork simulation tool for PRIME technology and a cellsimulation tool for MV-BPL technology.

In the paper entitled “Automated Residential DemandResponse Based on Advanced Metering Infrastructure Net-work,” J. Seo et al. address such an interesting topic astaking advantage of advanced metering infrastructure inresidential demand response. The international standardprotocolOpenADR2.0 is used to realize a fully automatedDR(ADR). Smart meters are modified to support this protocolwhilemaintaining current structure and function. Simulationand demonstration tests are conducted in order to confirmconformance of the protocol and to verify load variations ofhome appliances under the proposed ADR model.

In the paper entitled “Errors Nature of the Narrow-band PLC Transmission in Smart Lighting LV Network,” P.Kiedrowski provides a characterization of Frame Error Rate(FER) versus Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in Smart LightingLow Voltage (LV) networks based on gas-discharge lampsand Light Emitting Diodes (LED) individually controlledvia Narrowband Power Line Communications. The work isbased on measurements collected from field trials over aperiod of one year. A different influence of the frame lengthon the FER versus SNR was observed for the gas-dischargeand LED LV networks, which led to examining the bit errordistributions. As a result, the study concludes that bit errordistribution characteristics of gas-discharge lamps present

extra oscillation compared to LED.These results can be usefulto future deployments of Smart Lighting systems based onNarrowband PLC networks.

In the paper entitled “Pilot-Less Time Synchronizationfor OFDM Systems: Application to Power Line Receivers,”A. S. Lalos et al. address the communications issuesrelated to time and sampling frequency offsets in Orthogo-nal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulationschemes for Broadband Power Line Communications. Inparticular, the authors propose a novel OFDM receiverarchitecture that mitigates jointly time and frequency errorswhile being compatible with Broadband PLC technologies.Simulation results show, under realistic channel and noiseconditions, that the proposed receiver provides enhancedrobustness to synchronization imperfections as compared toconventional approaches.

In the paper entitled “Optimizing Data Access for WindFarm Control over Hierarchical Communication Networks,”J. Madsen et al. provide an evaluation of the impact ofcommunication network delay to estimate the fatigue of awind turbine based on a sensor placed on it. The automaticcontroller in charge of estimating the fatigue was shown to bevery sensitive to communication delays and packet losses. Forthis reason, a number of wired andwireless technologies weretested to assess their behavior. As a conclusion, 3G wirelesstechnology is pointed as the best alternative to optimize thecontroller’s performance.

Acknowledgments

As guest editors, we would like to express our appreciationto all the authors for their informative contributions and tothe reviewers for their support and constructive critiques thatjointly made this special issue possible.

Jose Ignacio MorenoManel Martınez-Ramon

Pedro S. MouraJavier MatanzaGregorio Lopez

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Editorial Smart Grid: ICT Control for Distributed Energy