There are many dynamics affecting how the electric grid is operated in normal conditions as well as during significant events such as major storms. The factors affecting the dynamics include the retirement of coal generation, increasing natural gas generation, increased adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV) and new loads like electric vehicles (EV) – all having an impact on where electricity is generated and where it is delivered. As we consider all of these factors, one thing is clear; the flexibility of the grid is becoming increasingly important. Flexibility is needed to support distributed energy resources, new loads and changing generation mix to enhance reliability and the customer experience.

Utilities are finding that a key enabler of a flexible grid is the ability to apply information and communication technology (ICT) to electric transmission and distribution systems as well as end-use loads and resources.

A number of information and communication technologies enable utilities to achieve greater flexibity. These include deployment of communication technologies to field devices, emerging standards and protocols, cyber security measures that address threats to an interconnected grid, data analytics, and enterprise architecture applied to electric grid operation technology (OT). Each of these ICT areas can be applied to address industry needs such as wide area situational awareness, operations and planning and mobility to accommodate increased numbers of distributed energy resources on the distribution system as well as to improve operations and reduce system restoration times during major events.

Bennett Gaines, Senior VP and CIO at FirstEnergy is the first Chairman of the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) new ICT Council, and enthusiastically embraces utility research, development, and application of information and communication technologies stating, “There is a heightened appreciation for IT knowledge, tools, and techniques used by electric utility operational groups. This growing dependency on information and communication technology is resulting in stronger intra-department relationships which are key to continue to provide our customers safe and reliable service that responsibly leverages emerging technologies.”

For information and communication technologies to have the most impact, they must be considered foundational in the evolution of utility systems, both from a technical and organizational perspective. Many EPRI member utilities agree, and are participating in programs to research, develop and demonstrate these technologies. Following are highlights of utility views, progress, and research needs.

IT/OT Convergence
Information technology (IT) is increasingly being applied to electric grid operations--an observation confirmed by a 2012 EPRI survey of utility chief information officers (CIO’s). We learned that convergence of IT and OT is underway at many utilities, although pace and approach differ. How utilities are managing internal IT/OT convergence can be distilled into three main themes: re-engagement in IT/OT convergence discussions, partial re-organization, and, for some, a complete re-organization. Regardless of the approach, utilities are benefiting from advances in ICT by aligning technology and organizational structures. (For more details on CIO’s views of IT/ OT convergence and technology change see EPRI’s publicly available Utility Chief Information Officer (CIO) Outlook Report).¹

Fig. 1 CIO Responses to IT and OT Alignment
 

The prominent use of Internet Protocols (IP) around the world is changing the way utilities look at their communication systems. Cisco’s Visual Network Index (VNI)² and its forecast of global IP traffic indicates that by 2017 there will be 19 billion IP connected devices globally. If this forecast proves correct, there will be up to three times as many IP connected devices as people in the world, a huge increase from 12 billion in 2012. In that same time frame, traffic from wireless and mobile devices will exceed traffic from wired devices.

EPRI’s research assessing utility field area networks (FAN’s) is paralleling global trends. We see a growing interest in pursuing unified IP-based networks in a variety of scenarios (public, private, licensed, unlicensed) for communications to field devices and work crews. Interest has been spurred because the business case justifying the combination of multiple, disparate communication systems into a single system is becoming closer to reality as the costs continue to drop, availability of products continues to increase, and network performance continues to improve.

That doesn’t mean IP-based communications is without risk. As more and more devices on the grid become connected, the cyber attack surface area is becoming larger and a ‘Defense in Breadth’ approach is required. This approach relies on overlapping protective measures so that if one measure fails, it will be caught by another. As more remote devices are connected to the grid, it is becoming increasingly important to have architectures, tools, and procedures that provide end-to-end security. Technology needs to be deployed in such a way that if it is compromised the full risk is known and can be mitigated. In addition, other complexities such as remote employees, field crew with mobile devices and BYOD (bring your own device) initiatives may pose similar risks and need to be considered.

Legacy Equipment
Advances in communication technology are accelerating development of new and exciting business approaches for utilities, but this is not without challenges. Utility assets (transformers, meters, capacitor banks, etc) have a lifespan that may be decades long, while emerging communication technologies and hardware may have an evolution lifespan of 18 to 36 months before it could be replaced by higher performance products. Furthermore, the proliferation of IP-based communications doesn’t mean everything should and will be IP-based. These factors create uncertainty about investment, making development of a modular communication architecture that preserves the useful life of legacy equipment, while enabling deployment of new communication technologies, is increasingly important. One example of a modular communication approach is the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) new standard for a modular communication interface for demand response – CEA- 2045. This standard defines a port/plug that enables an off-the-shelf consumer product that is compatible with multiple utility demand response systems and enables a customer-installable plug-in communication module.

Fig. 2 CEA-2045 Modular Communication Interface
 

This standard is unique in that it makes it practical for manufacturers to make their mainstream products (water heaters, clothes dryers, etc) ‘demand-response ready.’ A physical connector (CEA-2045 compliant) that is compatible with utility demand response communication systems can be available through normal retail supply channels – independent of the communication technology or architecture. With this architecture, an appliance with a useful life of even 20 to 30 years may function in utility demand response programs without risk of obsolescence due to evolving communication systems. At EPRI, we are demonstrating this standard with numerous utilities, and exploring other applications of a modular architecture that may be beneficial for transmission and distribution equipment.

Improving Reliability
ICT is being used more and more to improve reliability of the grid. Data analytics can predict outages or equipment failures and communication networks can automatically indicate when and where an outage has occurred. After a major storm, assessing the damage and improving tools to communicate restoration activities from field crews may significantly reduce recovery times. For example, in major events, it may be difficult to dispatch crews to assess physical damage due to downed trees or icy conditions. Any efforts or technology that can speed up the damage assessment process could reduce restoration times by hours or even days.

The UAV restoration solution requires that a number of technologies create a system that communicates data back to the utility, analyzes data for image recognition, utilizes standardized messages compatible with utility back-office systems using standards like the Common Information Model (CIM), and helps create work orders. Variations of assessing images from UAV’s could exist if access to high resolution satellite images was granted, but similar data analytics research is required to perform image processing.

Fig.3 EPRI Testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
 

Another tactic for restoration is arming field crews with tablets that have GPS sensors and cameras that allow field personnel to document damage and create work orders. This will mean that by developing standards for doing this in a common way can enhance field crew performance because in major storms, mutual assistance crews from other parts of the country could bring their own devices and will already be familiar with the interfaces and process and require minimal training.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) that can rapidly assess damage are an emerging technology option to aid restoration efforts. A number of research questions are associated with UAV’s on their own, but from a utility ICT perspective, a major research question is the performance of image/video recognition that automatically assesses photos and videos. Another issue is having standards to communicate data into utility systems, documenting the damage and automatically creating work orders to dispatch equipment and crew more efficiently.

Fig. 4 Augmented Reality Applications on Tablets for Field Crews
 

Data Analytics
How to derive information and knowledge from data collected and communicated with new technology is an essential research question for utilities. The following list of findings and interesting quotes from utilities on data analytics offers a view of the state of the art. These are excerpted from the EPRI November 2013 Data Analytics Newsletter³

1. There continues to be an underlying concern that there is more data being collected than there is value derived from that data. Getting value out of various data sources is therefore a timely and important objective regarding data analytics collaboration across the electric power industry.
    
2. Integration of disparate data sets and getting data out of silos is a major undertaking that has not been well resolved by the industry just yet. This is not unexpected, as most data collection has traditionally been departmentally funded and as such that department tends to own and protect its data.
    
3. Many of the data analytics efforts outside of smart meters are at the pilot stage and not fully deployed. While we don’t have an exact number, the majority of the value from analytics efforts to date is centered on AMI data.
    
4. Some utilities are making a concerted effort to reinvent the role and integrations of their IT groups. Some have brought in IT management with experience in the banking and data center industries where ‘big-secure-data’ and ‘streaming analytics’ is not a new concept. They bring perspectives on big data and understand the importance of data governance.
    
5. There continue to be hurdles with getting the (analytics area of the electric service business) funded. This is a twofold issue, first because many analytics projects and efforts to date involve point solutions for point problems, and secondly because of staffing and budget constraints.
    
6. Many utilities purport their programs and analytics capabilities to be much further along than they really are. This space is changing quickly but in general, a lot of the analytics are in the pilot demo stages.
    
7. Some utilities are successfully implementing secure cloud solutions for data cost management. These are again, point solutions and don’t yet traverse the enterprise.
    
8. Many utilities are grappling with the questions around ownership of analytics and applications. Most clearly believe this ownership should be across business units and not residing in IT for example. IT should own and maintain the platforms, tools, security, etc. but the corporate buy in and ownership is an area where best practices for utility analytics must be vetted.
    
9. Data Governance – Many believe this should be a corporate function and not an IT function so that any point solutions can ultimately get mapped to the corporate smart grid business plans and feed/support the longer range (Smart Grid 2020) vision.
    
10. Value Streams – At the end of the day, every data set and every data analytics project must stand on its own, based on the value it brings to the enterprise.
     

This list, as well as the topics mentioned in this article, touch on just a few areas where ICTs are being applied to improve performance of the grid. Moving forward, the continued coordination between IT and OT efforts will be a key enabler for a flexible power system.
 

About the author

Matt Wakefield is Director of Information and Communications Technologies research at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). His responsibilities include overseeing research in smart grid technologies, data analytics and cyber security. The focus of his research area is to further the development of a modernized grid with a focus on utilizing emerging information and communication technologies that can be applied to the electric grid infrastructure and how to make the grid more resilient from cyber security threats. Wakefield started his career in 1986 in the United States Navy serving as a Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Operator and Engineering Supervisor in the Submarine Fleet and specializing in electronic instrumentation and controls.

Wakefield then joined Wisconsin Public Service Corp. (WPS) in the Instrumentation and Control Group of the Kewaunee Nuclear Plant before becoming Manager of the Applied Technology group at Integrys Energy Group, the holding company of WPS. At Integrys, he focused on developing and applying information and communication technologies related to low-cost, real-time energy-related information transfer between control centers, generators, markets, and consumers. This team developed a number of innovative solutions including DENet® and eMiner® that utilized emerging open-source software and low-cost embedded hardware while leveraging the Internet for a virtually free communication infrastructure.
 

References

¹ Utility Chief Information Officer (CIO) Outlook – 2012, EPRI, Palo Alto CA: 2013. Product number 3002000085
² Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI): Forecast and Methodology 2012-2017
³ EPRI Data Analytic Applications Newsletter (DMD and TMD Demonstrations). Available at www.smartgrid.epri.com