Smart Grid Last Mile Infrastructure

20 experts from 15 companies have drafted an architecture for “A Standardized and Flexible IPv6 Architecture for Field Area Networks”.

The “paper is intended to provide a synthetic and holistic view of open standards Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) based architecture for Smart Grid Last Mile Infrastructures in support of a number of advanced Smart Grid
applications (meter readout, demand-response, telemetry, and grid monitoring and automation) and its benefit as a true Multi-Services platform. … provide an efficient, flexible, secure, and multi-service network based on open standards.”

IEC TC 57 standards like CIM, IEC 61850, and IEC 610870, as well as DNP3, IEEE 1888, and Modbus are understood as crucial application standards.

Click HERE for the above architecture.

What is IEEE 1888? A new IEEE project …

Standard for Ubiquitous Green Community Control Network Protocol

Click HERE for some background information
Click HERE for the PAR
Click HERE to visit the project website.

I hope that the experts involved in the project IEEE 1888 will rely on standards like CIM, IEC 61850, and IEC 610870, … Hope that the energy automation market is smarter than the industrial automation market: keeping the number of protocol solutions very low!! The industrial automation domain has a lot of headaches with the proliferation of the many many protocols (100+)!!

IEC 61850 on every Pole?

Pole mounted power distribution equipment and communication could be found all over in big cities like the one shown in the following picture I took in Seoul:

In the future you may see many pole mounted boxes that function as routers supporting the hybrid grids (power, gas, heat, …), traffic control, … and may other applications.

Several companies are offering the needed communication infrastructure that connects many of the millions of devices.

One of these comprehensive solutions is the “Cisco Connected Grid – Deliver More Value from Your Operations Over a Single, Intelligent, Secure Platform”. A key element in this platform is IEC 61850.

Click HERE for a presentation on “Cisco Connected Grid” [pdf, 25 pages]

Cisco’s conclusion on FERC’s Non-Ruling on IEC Standards

FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) decided in July 2011 to not (yet) rule on five Smart Grid standard series suggested by the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) / Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). These families of standards defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) were nominated by NIST/SGIP for consideration by FERC in rule making in October 2011. These are:

• IEC 61968: Application Integration at Electric Utilities-System Interfaces for Distribution Management
• IEC 61970: Energy management system application program interface
• IEC 61850: Communication Networks and Systems for Power Utility Automation
• IEC 60870-6 series: Telecontrol protocols compatible with ISO standards and ITU-T recommendations
• IEC 62351: Power systems management and associated information exchange - data and communications security

Cisco’s position on this FERC non-ruling (according to their website – see below) is:

• "Are the IEC standards really not ready for prime time? This is unlikely because most of these standards are already in use outside North America.
• Is cyber security a solved problem? Not likely, as long as there are hackers in the world, cyber security will be an on-going challenge.
• Is cyber security an intractable problem? Far from it, the public Internet and private Internets (e.g. DoD) can be highly secure networks. And open-standards, community-based security mechanisms are far superior to "security by obscurity", or the status quo in utility networking which largely consists of hundreds of parallel SCADA networks.
• Is greater awareness and education required? Indeed yes. The utility industry and the regulatory commissions need to hear from the Internet community of vendors, service providers, network operators, system admins, and cyber security experts, how packet networks can be made secure.

The FERC non-action is both a temporary setback and a call-to-action for the Smart Grid community. The concerns expressed by FERC and the regulators are genuine and need to be addressed. Unfortunately, the need for standards in transmission and distribution networks can't be put off. Fortunately, the cyber security questions related to the Smart Grid have good answers available from the long experience of the Internet.

Click HERE for the Cisco Developer Network statement on FERC’s non-ruling.

What is true for the security issues (IEC 62351) is true for the other standard families, too! Many engineers need to become aware of the huge challenges by more education and training!!

Investment in peopleware is one of the needed actions to keep the power flowing.

Click HERE for more discussions on peopleware.

Next opportunity in North America:

Nashville (TN, USA)
20.-21. September 2011
Remote Conference
2 day Seminar (conducted by NettedAutomation) on Power System Communication covering IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, DNP3, NIST Interoperability Roadmap, Smart Grids, security standards, ...
http://www.remotemagazine.com/rem-conf11/rem11_workshop.php

CISCO to deliver IP Communication Infrastructure including Substations

EnergyAustralia selected Cisco's Connected Grid solution to build the core of its smart grid infrastructure with greater security, reliability, and operational efficiency, while complying with regulatory mandates and industry standards such as IEC 61850 and supporting new energy supply sources.

Click HERE for the news.

The next wave of Ethernet Switches and Routers for Smart(er) Grids

Have you heard of SISCO in conjunction with IEC 61850? Which S/C-isco? I mean the "C"-Cisco. May be you did not expect Cisco getting involved in the Power market!

But "In electric substations there are so many sensors, meters and other control elements," said Inbar Lasser-Raab, a senior director of network systems at Cisco. "Tens of millions of elements will be connected to the network through these routers and switches," she said.

If each element provides some 100 signals, we will have to manage billions of signals! What is the right approach to manage these signals? Signal lists? Signal lists provided by field busses? There is only one international standard that has the answer to that challenge: IEC 61850 - The standard for (process) information management! Or?

Click HERE for more information.