Secure Real-Time Monitoring and Management of Smart Distribution Grid Using Shared Cellular Networks
Electricity production and distribution is facing two major changes. First, production is shifting from classical energy sources such as coal and nuclear power toward renewable resources such as solar and wind. Second, consumption in the low voltage grid is expected to grow significantly due to the expected introduction of electrical vehicles. The first step toward more efficient operational capabilities is to introduce an observability of the distribution system and allow for leveraging the flexibility of end connection points with manageable consumption, generation, and storage capabilities. Thanks to advanced measurement devices, management framework, and secure communication infrastructure developed in the FP7 SUNSEED project, the distribution system operator (DSO) now has full observability of the energy flows in the medium/low voltage grid. Furthermore, the prosumers are able to participate pro-actively and coordinate with the DSO and other stakeholders in the grid. The monitoring and management functionalities have strong requirements for communication latency, reliability, and security. This article presents novel solutions and analyses of these aspects for the SUNSEED scenario, where smart grid ICT solutions are pr
Assessment of LTE Wireless Access for Monitoring of Energy Distribution in the Smart Grid
While LTE has been widely rolled out for human-type services, it is also a promising solution for cost-efficient connectivity of the smart grid monitoring equipment. This is a type of machine-to-machine (M2M) traffic that consists mainly of sporadic uplink transmissions. In such a setting, the amount of traffic that can be served in a cell is not constrained by the data capacity, but rather by the signaling constraints in the random access channel and control channel. In this paper, we explore these limitations using a detailed simulation of the LTE access reservation protocol (ARP). We find that 1) assigning more random access opportunities may actually worsen performance and 2) the additional signaling that follows the ARP has very large impact on the capacity in terms of the number of supported devices; we observed a reduction in the capacity by almost a factor of 3. This suggests that a lightweight access method, with a reduced number of signaling messages, needs to be considered in standardization for M2M applications. Additionally we propose a tractable analytical model to calculate the outage that can be rapidly implemented and evaluated. The model accounts for the features of the random access, control channel, and uplink and downlink data channels, as well as retransmissions.
Assessment of the energy efficiency enhancement of future mobile networks
We assess the energy efficiency of mobile networks in 2020, and compare it with a 2010 baseline. A comprehensive assessment approach is taken, considering all relevant scenario aspects such as data traffic growth, hardware evolutions, mobile network deployments and operations including network sharing and the dynamic switching on/off of radio resources. In order to show the best technical capacities of mobile networks in achieving energy efficiency in 2020, while ensuring a fair comparison with the 2010 baseline scenarios, we apply a realistically appropriate approach for network dimensioning, determining suitable site densities that are in line with up- and downlink coverage and performance requirements. The results show an energy efficiency improvement factor of about 793 in 2020 over 2010.