Design and Performance of an Advanced Communication Network for Future Active Distribution Systems

Abstract

The design of a future active distribution network is crucial for the deployment of a smarter grid. The increasing penetration of renewable power generation and of dynamic loads increases the demand for information and communication technologies to monitor and control the distribution system. With the use of a phasor measurement unit, the distribution system can control dynamic issues, and by utilizing an advanced metering infrastructure it can manage, control, and monitor several loads. As a way to support the bidirectional flow of data, an advanced automated machine communication infrastructure becomes essential for effective real-time monitoring and control. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper is to design and to implement a machine-to-machine communication network based on mobile technologies applied to machine-to-machine communications to access the network performance and requirements under real smart operation. By considering a smart grid scenario, besides coverage and data rate analyses, assessing the effect of growing grid smartness on power consumption is necessary. For this purpose, an accurate analysis of current operational requirements and future smart machine operation demands is carried out in this work. Two scenarios are designed, tested, and validated using the IEEE distribution systems under several communication constraints.