Smart Grid Consumer-Provider Relationship AnalysisUsing System Modeling Approach

Omar Alriyami∗, Husam Suleiman†, Davor Svetinovic∗, and Hatem Zeineldin‡∗Computing and Information Science

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAEEmail: {oalriyami, dsvetinovic}@masdar.ac.ae

†Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringUniversity of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

Email: hsuleima@uwaterloo.ca‡Electrical and Power Engineering

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAEEmail: hzainaldin@masdar.ac.ae

Abstract—One of the main goals in the smart grid de-velopment is the continuous evolution of the smart grid asa cyber-physical system to accommodate electricity storage,provide safe power delivery, accommodate the needs of the localcommunities, facilitate the integration of innovative technolo-gies, and enable active participation of consumers. The mainpurpose of this paper is to analyze the underlying complexitiesof the relationship between the consumers and providers in thesmart grid in order to facilitate its planning and evolution. Weelicit and specify the main actors, processes, and sequencesof actions that occur in the smart grid to help smart griddesigners properly plan its infrastructure and evolution.

Keywords-smart grid; system modeling and analysis; system-of-systems

I. INTRODUCTION

The smart grid is a modernized power grid that aims

to enhance grid’s performance, quality, consumers benefits,

etc. [1]. The smart grid is evolving towards decentralized

electricity generation [2]. In a decentralized smart grid,

customers act as prosumers, i.e., they provide and consume

the electricity. Prosumer-based smart grid increases the

efficiency and the reliability of the smart grid [3]. However,

Rathnayaka et al. [4] indicated that there are no approaches

or frameworks that discuss the relationship between the

consumers and providers in a prosumer-based smart grid.

In our previous work [5], we used the inter-domain anal-

ysis to analyze the complex dependencies and relationships

between technical and business domains of the smart grid.

In this paper, we expand on our previous research and we

continue analyzing and investigating the consumer-providerrelationships in a prosumer-based smart grid by specifying

the use cases and activity diagrams. This study is important

for successful development, management, and deployment

of the smart grid, and it exposes the underlying challenges

and problems in the smart grid. These models can help

smart grid designers and architects identify and realize the

scenarios and hidden complexities in the smart grid as a

complex cyber-physical system-of-systems, and specify the

requirements and functionality to properly proceed with the

design, synthesis, and validation of the system at the later

stages of the system development life cycle.

II. BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK

Dave et al. [6] study the smart grid from the systems

point of view. They use the systems approach to examine

the requirements and the emerging behaviors of the smart

grid.

Durana et al. [7] model the smart grid as a complex system

to understand its behaviors. They present different issues

such as layers and inter-layer devices and sub-systems to

serve as a base for an agent-based system model.

Kim et al. [8] propose a secure decentralized data-

centric information infrastructure for the smart grid. The

infrastructure addresses the power grid-related requirements.

This infrastructure can reliably, securely, and cost-effectively

support the operation of the smart grid.

Zhou et al. [9] discuss the design of data services in grid-

based future control center. The data service is considered as

the base of other services inside the future control centers.

They give introduction of the current data collection and

processing system as well.

Wu et al. [10] describe the function and architecture of the

control centers. An introduction to the object and middle-

ware technologies that could be used to make control center

decentralized, integrated, flexible, and open is described as

well.

III. SMART GRID MARKET SYSTEM

A. Smart Grid Market System Infrastructure

The smart grid market system consists of the distribu-tion network, AMI, central authority, and end users. The

distribution network is the transmission medium for the

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603

electricity flow. To monitor and control this flow, networkcontrol agents are installed in the distribution network in-

frastructure with the ability to re-route the electricity flow

[11]. Smart Meters (SMs) can be programmed to perform

specific functionality depending on external signals or enduser inputs. We use the network control agents and SMs as

a two-keys mechanism to control the end users’ connections

to the grid.

The central authority, in addition to control of the oper-

ations within the smart grid market system, acts as a broker

agent between the consumers and providers. The providersshare their information regarding the offered electricity

with the central authority. The consumers request these

information from the central authority and then directly

communicate with the providers to purchase electricity from

them.

B. Smart Grid Market System Models

Figure 1 provides an overview of the four phases within

the smart grid system; the registration phase, request phase,

delivery phase and confirmation phase. Table I gives a

description for each of the phases.

Smart Grid Market System

Confirmation Phase

Delivery Phase

Request Phase

Registration Phase

Smart Meter(Provider)

Smart Meter(Consumer)

Network Control

Central Authority

Provider

Consumer

Figure 1. Smart Grid Market System Use Case Diagram

IV. DISCUSSION

The central authority is a trusted computational entity

within the smart grid, and as such, central authority carries

most of the administrative tasks. However, this introduces

some performance and availability concerns since the centralauthority becomes a single point of failure. Some solutions

exist to decentralize the functionalities of the central au-thority in the smart grid [8], [12], [13], but these solutions

fail to address the complexities introduced by a prosumer-

based smart grid where information exchange is required

Registration Phase Activity Diagram

Provider Central Authority

Initialize Registration Check Information

Send Rejection Update Providers List

Send Confirmation

Send Response

Check Response

Update Price Update Providers List

End

Stop

PricePrice

Price Change

Response

Response

Registration InformationRegistration Information

Start

[Registered]

[Registration Failed]

[Registration Successful][Registration Accepted]

[Registration Rejected]

[Not Registered]

Figure 2. Registration Phase Activity Diagram

between consumers and providers. The main security issues

in a prosumer-based smart grid are: prosumers verification,

information confidentiality and privacy, providers validation,

transactions non-repudiation, and network failures.

Some approaches are only considering the prosumer-

distribution network relationship [4]. Allowing all electricity

transactions to be handled by the distribution network raises

some privacy concerns for the prosumers, but, in the electric-

ity grid, the integrity and availability of the grid operations

are more valuable than the privacy and confidentiality of the

grid’s customers [14].

V. CONCLUSION

Understanding and addressing the behaviors of the com-

plex systems are beneficial to allow designers and architects

to explore the new emergent properties of the systems

and facilitate the understanding of the main challenges

in developing a more resilient and flexible systems. In

this paper, we explore the smart grid consumer-providerrelationship and analyzed it by defining the main entities,

actors, processes, actions, associations between actors, and

interactions between entities.

REFERENCES

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604

Request Phase Activity Diagram

ConsumerProviderNetwork Control Smart Meter (Provider) Smart Meter (Consumer) Central Authority

Get Providers List Send Providers List

Request Electricity

For Each

Receive Request

Generate Offer Receive Offer

Schedule Delivery

Schedule Delivery

Schedule Delivery

Schedule Delivery

Pay

Cancel Offer

Stop

OfferOffer

Request

Request

List

List

CriteriaCriteria

Start

[List Empty]

[Decline]

[Accept]

Figure 3. Request Phase Activity Diagram

Table ISMART GRID SYSTEM PHASES

Phase Activity Diagram DescriptionRegistration Phase Figure 2 Providers register their information and prices with the central authority.

Request Phase Figure 3 Consumers get providers’ information from the central authority and use this informa-tion to request electricity from the providers.

Delivery Phase Figure 4 Providers deliver purchased electricity to the consumers.Confirmation Phase Figure 5 Consumers verify that they received the right amount of electricity provided by the

providers they purchased from.

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Delivery Phase Activity Diagram

Provider Smart Meter (Provider) Network Control Smart Meter (Consumer)

Provide Electricity Connect to the NetworkConnect to the NetworkConnect to the Network

Monitor ConsumptionMonitor Provision

Disconnect from the Network

Disconnect from the Network

Disconnect from the Network

Start

Schedule Delivery Time EndSchedule Delivery Time End

Schedule Delivery TimeEnd

End

Scheduled Delivery TimeScheduled Delivery TimeScheduled Delivery Time

[Consumption>=Offer ]

[Provision>=Offer ]

[Provision<Offer] [Consumption

<Offer]

Figure 4. Delivery Phase Activity Diagram

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Confirmation Phase Activity Diagram

Smart Meter (Provider) Smart Meter (Consumer)

Get ElectricityProvision Amount

Send ElectricityProvision Amount

Compare ProvisionAgainst

Consumption

CompareConsumptionAgainst Offer

End

Send Alert toConsumer

Send Alert toNetwork Control

Amount

Amount

Start

[Consumption=Offer]

[Else]

[Provision=Consumption]

[Else]

Figure 5. Confirmation Phase Activity Diagram

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