Communication Technologies for the Smart Grid

Introduction- The communication infrastructure of a power system typically

consists of SCADA systems with dedicated communication channels to and from the
System Control Centre and a Wide Area Network (WAN). Some long-established
power utilities may have private telephone networks and other legacy communication
systems. The SCADA systems connect all the major power system operational
facilities, that is, the central generating stations, the transmission grid substations and
the primary distribution substations to the System Control Centre. The WAN is used
for corporate business and market operations. These form the core communication
networks of the traditional power system. However, in the Smart Grid, it is expected
that these two elements of communication infrastructure will merge into a Utility
WAN.

An essential development of the Smart Grid is to extend communication throughout

the distribution system and to establish two-way communications with customers
through Neighbourhood Area Networks (NANs) covering the areas served by
distribution substations. Customers’ premises will have Home Area Networks
(HANs). The interface of the Home and Neighbourhood Area Networks will be
through a smart meter or smart interfacing device.
Ethernet

Ethernet has become the most widely used network technology for wired LANs due
to its simplicity, ease of maintenance, ability to incorporate new technologies and
reliability. It has a low cost of installation and is easy to upgrade. It is a frame-based
communication technology that is based on IEEE 802.3. Its baseband is defined in a
number of standards such as 10BASE5, 10BASE2, 10BASE-T, 1BASE5, 100BASE-
T, and so on. The first number, that is, 1, 10 and 100, indicates the data rate in Mbps.
The last number or letter indicates the maximum length of the cable and type of the
cable.

Data transmission devices for Ethernets-

Repeater-A Repeater has two ports. Once it receives a signal, this is amplified to
eliminate any distortion (which has been introduced when it was travelling through
the communication channel) and forwarded to the output port.

Hub- A Hub is a multiport repeater which links multiple Ethernet devices. A Hub
passes the incoming signal to all the devices connected to it.
Bridge- A Bridge has two ports and operates in the data link layer. It transmits the
incoming frame only if the channel to its destination is free or the frame is a broadcast
frame. Each port on a bridge supports a full duplex operation.

Switch- A Switch is a multiport bridge. Unlike a hub, a Switch will not broadcast
frames across the entire network (unless it is a broadcast frame), it only sends the
frame to the intended ports.

Router- A Router is used as a gateway between a LAN and a WAN. A Router makes
intelligent decisions on how to route traffic. Routing protocols are composed of
different algorithms that direct the way routers move traffic. A Router operates in the
network layer.

Wireless LANs

Wireless LANs consist of the following components:

1. Station: This describes any device that communicates over a WLAN, for example,
a notebook computer, or mobile phones that support WiFi. In ad-hoc networks these
devices can communicate between themselves by creating a mesh network Such a
collection of stations forming an ad-hoc network is called an Independent Basic
Service Set (Independent BSS or IBSS).

2. Access points (AP): When an AP is present in a network, it allows one station to

communicate with another through it. It needs twice the bandwidth that is required if
the same communication is done directly between communicating stations. However,
there are benefits of having an AP in a network. APs make the system scalable and
allow wired connection to other networks. Also APs buffer the traffic when that
station is operating in a very low, power state. When an AP is present in the network,
the collection of stations is called an Infrastructure BSS.

3. Distribution system (DS): A Distribution System interconnects multiple

Infrastructure BSSs through their APs as shown in Figure 3.9. It facilitates
communication between APs, forwarding traffic from one BSS to another and the
movement of mobile stations among BSSs. Such a set of Infrastructure BSSs is called
an Extended Service Set (ESS).

Bluetooth

Bluetooth, defined by IEEE standard 802.15.1, is a wireless LAN technology

designed to connect mobile or fixed devices using low-power, short-distance radio
transmission. It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to EIA 232 data
cables. Bluetooth has its classic version currently defined by Bluetooth 3.0+HS and
the recently introduced low-energy.

Bluetooth defines two network architectures called Piconet and Scatternet. Piconet is
a Bluetooth network consisting of a master device and up to seven slave devices. A
device in a parked state can move to an active state if the number of slaves in the
Piconet falls below seven. Piconets can be interconnected through a Bridge which
could be a slave for one Piconet and master for another Piconet or slave for two
Piconets that are interconnected. Two types of Bluetooth links can be created for data
transfer. They are Synchronous Connection Orientated (SCO) link and Asynchronous
Connectionless Link (ACL). SCO is used when timely delivery is more important
than error-free delivery. On the other hand, ACL is used when error-free delivery is
more important than timely delivery.
Mobile communications

Mobile communication systems were designed initially to carry voice only. The
standard that has enabled this technology is GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications). As an addon data service to GSM technology, the General Packet
Radio Service (GPRS) was developed.

GPRS uses the existing GSM network and adds two new packet-switching network
elements: the GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) and the SGSN (Serving GPRS
Support Node). LTE is a competing technology to Wi Max and supports user mobility
up to 350 km/h, coverage up to 100 km, channel bandwidth up to 100 MHz with
spectral efficiency of the Downlink 30 bps/Hz and the Uplink 15 bps/Hz. LTE has
the advantage that it can support seamless connection to existing networks, such as
GSM and UMTS.

Multi Protocol Label Switching-

Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a packet forwarding technique capable of

providing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service to users over public networks or
the internet. VPN provides the high quality of service and security required by
Applications such as that associated with critical assets. Some anticipated
Applications of point-to-point VPNs based on MPLS include Remote Terminal Unit
(RTU) networks and backbone network to the System Control Centre. MPLS-based
VPN is an attractive solution for wide area connectivity due to its relatively low cost
and ability to be implemented rapidly using the existing network resources.

Standards for information exchange

smart metering

Smart meters may be used in various ways and these lead to different requirements
for the metering communication system. Automated meter reading (AMR) requires
only occasional transmission of recorded energy data (perhaps once a month) while
advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) requires frequent bi-directional
communication (perhaps every 30 minutes). The use of smart meters to support Smart
Grid operation of the distribution network has not yet been implemented widely but
is likely to place severe demands on the communication system.
Modbus

Modbus is a messaging protocol in the Application layer and provides communication

between devices connected over several buses and networks.

Information Security for the Smart Grid-

The operation of a Smart Grid relies heavily on two-way communication for the
exchange of information. Real-time information must flow all the way to and from
the large central generators, substations, customer loads and the distributed
generators. At present, power system communication systems are usually restricted
to central generation and transmission systems with some coverage of high voltage
distribution networks. The generation and transmission operators use private
communication networks, and the SCADA and ICT systems for the control of the
power network are kept separate even from business and commercial applications

operated by the same company. Such segregation of the power system

communication and control system (using private networks and proprietary control
systems) limits access to this critical ICT infrastructure and naturally provides some
built-in security against external threats.

Obtaining information about customers’ loads could be of interest to unauthorised

persons and could infringe the privacy of customers. The ability to gain access to
electricity use data and account numbers of customers opens up numerous avenues
for fraud. Breaching the security of power system operating information by an
unauthorised party has obvious dangers for system operation.

Encryption and decryption

Cryptography has been the most widely used technique to protect information from
adversaries. As shown in Figure 4.1, a message to be protected is transformed using
a Key that is only known to the Sender and Receiver. The process of transformation
is called encryption and the message to be encrypted is called Plain text. The
transformed or encrypted message is called Cipher text. At the Receiver, the
encrypted message is decrypted.
Symmetric key encryption

In classical encryption both sender and receiver share the same Key. This is called
symmetric key encryption.

Substitution cipher

Substitution cipher was an early approach based on symmetric Key encryption. In

this process, each character is replaced by another character. An example of a
mapping in a substitution cipher system is shown below:

Plain text A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Cipher text W Y A C Q G I K M O E S U X Z B D F H J L N P R T V

The encryption of message or plain text HELLO THERE will produce KQSSZ
JKQFQ as Cipher text. Since a given character is replaced by another fixed character,
this system is called a mono-alphabetic substitution.

Public key encryption

Key distribution is an issue for all cryptography. Symmetric key encryption

algorithms require a secure initial exchange of secret Keys between sender and
receiver and the number of secret Keys required grows with the number of devices in
a network. Public Key encryption does not require secure initial exchanges of secret
Keys between the sender and receiver.

Public key algorithms involve a pair of Keys called the public Key and the private
Key. Each user announces its public Key but retains its private Key confidentially. If
user A wishes to send a message to user B, then A encrypts the message using B’s
public Key. Public Key algorithms are such that it is practically not possible to
determine the decryption Key even though the encryption Key is known as it uses
one key for encryption and another for decryption. RSA (this acronym stands for
Rivest, Shamir and Adleman who first publicly described it) is a widely used public
Key algorithm.

Authentication

Authentication is required to verify the identities of communicating parties to avoid

imposters gaining access to information. When user A receives a communication
from user B, A needs to verify that it is actually B, but not someone else masquerading
as B, who is talking to him.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY UTTARAKHAND

INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING

ECB-101

Power System-Smart Grid

MID TERM -02

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

Dr.HARIHARAN MUTHUSWAMY PIYUSH KUMAR

Mr.VIVEK KUMAR BT17EEE011