Key Players and Pilot Projects

Smart Grid and Smart Homes Key Players and Pilot Projects

T VEHBI C. GUNGOR, DILAN SAHIN, TASKIN KOCAK, Salih Ergüt, Concettina Buccella, Carlo Cecati, and Gerhard P. Hancke

he smart grid (SG) is envisioned as providing a communications network for the energy industry, similar to that which the Internet now provides for business and personal communications. The SG offers new business opportunities for different kind of industries, such as smart-meter vendors, electric utilities, and telecom operators from all around the world. This article deals with issues related to smart homes (SHs) and smart metering, which are key elements in the new SG. It introduces the key players in this field and points out the research challenges. Finally, SG pilot projects and field tests from all around the world and the deployment of advance metering infrastructure projects in North America, Asia, and Europe are summarized. The existing power grid is a hierarchical system in which power plants are at the top of the chain and loads at the bottom, resulting in a unidirectional pipeline managed without any information about the exchange among sources and end points. This situation has severe drawbacks: the system is sensitive to voltage and frequency instabilities as well as to power security issues caused by load variations and dynamic networks reconfigurations, the implementation of demand-side management strategies, very useful for reducing the risk of failures and blackouts and for increasing system efficiency is not allowed; moreover, it is not suitable for integration of renewable energy sources [1]. An SG, instead, is capable of bidirectional power flow, has full visibility and control over the grid assets, and allows full integration among different and delocalized energy sources (traditional and renewables). Such results are achieved thanks to advanced two-way digital communication infrastructures fully connecting suppliers and consumers and allowing intelligent remote sensing, metering, control, monitoring, and analysis [1]. In addition, consumers have full control and management of their own consumption and production (in case they hold a photovoltaic or another generator), while companies, in agreement with end users and achieving mutual benefits, can implement advanced demand-response Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIE.2012.2207489 Date of publication: 10 December 2012

18 IEEE industrial electronics magazine ■ december 2012

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services such as peak shaving and load shifting, if combined with timedependent electricity prices, strong incentives for efficient energy usage. Demand-side management, in particular, relaxes the power grid system by changing pricing policy in real time and adapting pricing and demand response programs. By providing intelligent distributed generation and distribution, long-distance transport and the associated energy losses are reduced or eliminated [2]; cost is optimized by the wide use of building automation and smart loads, thus enhancing energy efficiency, security, and comfort in buildings and industry [3]–[5]. A key element of the SG is the availability of a sophisticated advanced

metering infrastructure (AMI), capable of real-time communication with the utility company. AMI is an advanced system, incorporating twoway communications to the SG with intelligent applications and communication infrastructure. In view of their efficient use, the latter, in partnership with telecom operators and smartmeter vendors, are developing pilot projects aiming to realize envisioned SG applications [6], [7]. All these partnerships define the main requirements and features of the necessary communications infrastructure, integrating distribution automation, advanced sensors, smart meters, monitoring systems, outage detection, line-fault and electric-fraud detection, underground cable system monitoring, tower and

pole monitoring, conductor temperature and dynamic thermal rating, and computer hardware (HW), software (SW), and data management systems that enable the collection and distribution of information between meters and utilities [8]–[10]. This article attempts to give a short overview of the main pilot projects driving the present and future development of SGs and SHs from the end-user side, in view of a better understanding of basic concepts and of future developments. It is worth noting that most of the discussed concepts can be extended to industry; however, the power level and the complexity of industrial plants require a different approach, which has not been addressed in this article.

december 2012 ■ IEEE industrial electronics magazine 19

Smart Homes The residential, tertiary, and commercial building sector is responsible for over 50% of the electricity consumption in Europe. Homes and working environments are now isolated, energy-consuming units with poor energy efficiency and sustainability. Based on the SHs concept, these units can be transformed into intelligent networked nodes where a significant part of the energy is locally produced by renewables (typically photovoltaic generators) and the whole, i.e., the generator and the loads, is intelligently managed. Because of the complexity of the problem and the different goals, this article attempts to deal with some basic concepts, saving a deeper exploration for a future article. Several projects are developing information and communication technology (ICT) architectures adopting holistic concepts and technologies for SHs. With this approach, SHs are considered proactive customers negotiating and collaborating in an intelligent network in a close interaction with the local environment and the higher hierarchical level SG. The newly developed houses and their appliances (heaters, air conditioners, white goods, entertainment equipment, domestic tools, etc.), control strategies, and network architectures will enhance the overall energy efficiency, improve the management of local and remote power grids through active demand-side energy management, and integrate a large amount of low-power distributed renewable energy resources, thus significantly reducing the use of traditional sources. In summary, the SH concept will represent the link between the SG, with about half of the final users and their loads being a fundamental element for ensuring full exploitation of the available resources. Three main categories of technologies can be identified for SHs [11]: ■■ In-home technologies include local monitoring and control capabilities. They address the intelligent management of devices available in the SH, extracting and utilizing both internal and external information; if present, they provide

■■

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the optimum usage of the locally produced energy, supplying local loads and injecting the surplus on the grid. Alternatively, as a result of a demand-side management strategy, it reduces local consumption for satisfying external power peak demand, thus improving customers’ profits, due to favorable tariffs. In short, in-home technologies are those allowing the implementation of energy management systems based on users’ feedback, real-time tariffs, intelligent control of appliances, and provision of services to grid operators and energy suppliers for improving the use of energy and ensuring benefits to customers and service providers. Home-to-grid technologies include measurement capabilities and remote control and monitoring. These are mostly used to interconnect houses and to connect them with grid operators and utilities, thus enabling reciprocal real-time information exchanges. Current research addresses these issues, with SW architectures utilizing agent technology, for service delivery by clusters of SHs to wholesale market parties and grid operators. Home/grid-to-enterprise technologies are mainly used to link the information generated within the SH with enterprise services; they support the management of the infrastructure via decision-support functionality that can be used to apply control strategies. A full integration of different devices with other in-home devices and with enterprise systems requires an information bus which, at a high abstraction level, can be implemented using Internet-based technologies and languages [11], while they will be physically connected through wired and wireless nodes using either the same Internet HW infrastructures and end points (e.g., Ethernet interfaces and protocols) or traditional but enhanced power-line communications (PLCs) as well as emerging systems such as ZigBee, WiFi, and others. Full and automatic interoperability will


be guaranteed to the entire system, i.e., control stations, grid operators, energy traders, down to controlled electrical generators (such as photovoltaic or wind generators and in a future electric vehicles, acting as storage systems) and loads (e.g., cooling and heating systems, washing machines, measurement units, grid devices as transformers, relays, protections, etc.). To fully exploit available technologies, most of them need a deep or complete redesign to be fully and efficiently integrated with the others. This development has to be be carried out taking into account the need of user-friendly systems and devices, an intrinsic robustness toward user behavior, plug-and-play installation, the need for data protection, and a highly efficient communication framework. Data protection and data security should be addressed for successful SG and smart-metering deployments. For instance, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) developed a protection profile (BSI Schutzprofil) for the gateway of a smart-metering system, since gateways are considered the critical part of smart-metering systems in Germany. The security objectives and requirements of a gateway to provide privacy for consumers and reliable billing operations are defined in this protection profile [12]. Demand-side management requires transmission of price as well as other sensitive information and operative decisions within a few seconds or minutes at the most, and the existing communication infrastructures should be used for reasons of lower costs. Hence, strict cooperation should be established among power and communication utilities as well as among HW and SW developers and producers. Because of the wide range of problems and their high complexity, the main specifications and the numerous proposals already available will be discussed in a future article. However, it is worth noting that they are mostly not interoperable, hence efforts in defining standards

and designing universal HW and SW interfaces (middleware) should be developed as much as possible. In this development, the concept of service-oriented architectures appears very appealing, as it does allow easy integration among a large number of flexible and intelligent devices. Services could be delivered directly, either by intelligent nodes embedding smart-metering capabilities too or by other independent devices. The idea behind a service-oriented approach within collaborations of SHs is that data are processed at the place where they are needed, and all devices can subscribe to those services that they actually need. For instance, a billing process neither needs instantaneous up-to-date information on energy consumption nor does it need to know exactly which devices consumed how much electricity. It only needs aggregate data, coupled with the applicable tariff at the time of consumption, which could be provided by an according service. A consumer who wants to compare his consumption pattern with that of similar households would be interested in the distribution of

Applications and Billing

consumption among different appliances, but he would probably not care for the availability of electricity from renewable sources at the time of his consumption. So he could subscribe to a service that offers him exactly this information, without transmitting further unnecessary data. In such a scenario, services can be seen as tradable goods, and the service providers can generate income from offering the service to other parties.

Smart Metering The metering unit represents the interface between the grid and the end user, hence it is the main element of the present evolution toward full integration between SHs and SGs (Figure 1). Traditional meters only measure the energy consumed through human reading, following numerous drawbacks and the impossibility of implementing any automatic action useful for improving efficiency. In the 1990s, utilities began addressing these problems by introducing automated meter reading, with the ability of unidirectional communications of the energy consumption to a central unit by means

User Interface

Telecom Companies

Smart Oven

DistributionSystem Operators

Aggregators

of power-lines or wireless communications, yielding significant reductions in billing costs and improvements in accuracy. A smart meter is a digital, advanced device with high accuracy, control, and configuration functionality with better theft-detection ability [13], [14]. Smart meters have high HW/ SW capabilities to run transmission and control protocol (TCP)/internet protocol (IP) suite and applications on top of TCP or UDP, which enable remote connect/disconnect, real-time pricing, power-quality measurement, load management, and outage notification [13]. With these communication capabilities, a communication path between the electrical utility and the consumer is created to exchange information for billing and monitoring purposes. Meter communications can be from the meter to the devices in the buildings and from the meter to the energy utility [15]. AMI represents a full exploitation of meters’ capabilities, allowing full automation of the billing process and adding flexibility to time-of-use billing. AMI meters maintain continuous bidirectional communications with the utility and

Gateway

Washing Machine Refrigerator

Power Plant

Communication Figure 1 – An SH with smart metering.


automatically read either on schedule or on demand by the enterprise billing system. This mechanism provides an opportunity for the utility to perform real-time system analysis and gather feedback on power utilization as well as to upload information on the smart meter, allowing local policy aiming for energy management and consumption reduction. For each case, many transmission techniques exist: PLC, cellular networks, third-generation (3G) wireless technologies, telephone lines, radio, and asymmetric digital subscriber lines. But there are many factors affecting the choice of the transmission technique, such as the area of coverage of the telecommunication network, the population of the consumers within the area, and the availability of the Internet connection, among others. Thus, the communication technique should be chosen intelligently according to the factors mentioned above. PLC has no extra cabling costs; cellular networks feature wide coverage; telephone lines are highly reliable, relatively inexpensive, and simple; short-range radio-frequency technology features low power consumption; and 3G/4G technologies (long-term evolution, WiMAX, highspeed downlink packet access) feature flexibility, ease and high speed of deployment, scalability, and higher bandwidth features [13], [16]. The end

user participation into the system also has positive effects for the overall system. He takes an active role in management of his consumption behavior, which results in efficient energy usage. Thus, real-time information has a direct effect on consumer satisfaction as well as electric utility’s profitability [17]. A 10–15% reduction in electricity use at residential premises in the United States is almost equivalent to the yearly power generation of 16 nuclear power plants or 81.3 million tons of coal, according to a recent study in [18]. This striking statistic clearly shows the positive effect of energy reduction by using a smart power infrastructure. Hence, overall system savings and carbon emissions reduction can be achieved by providing feedback information to the customers, such as instant reward incentives, detailed data about the consumers’ energy consumption, or information about the consumers’ contribution [19]. With this online feedback, customers can track and manage their energy consumption [20] and get informed about how they can make smarter eco-conscious decisions. There are a number of online/offline services in the SG market. Greenbox Customer IQ is an example that provides customer services via an online monitoring Web site. The Onzo Smart energy kit and GEO Home Energy Hub are installed at customer premises to

Table 1–Smart-meter vendors and the SG. Company/ Country

Product

Technologies

Participants

Echelon-USA

EM-502XX ANSI meter

PLC, GSM

Duke Energy, Verizon

Itron

Centron residential meter, OpenWay residential meter

GPRS, ZigBee, WiFi, CDMA, WiMAX

Italgas Vodafone, Avista, Spirae, SCE, SDG&E, CenterPoint Energy, DTE

Sensus

FlexNet AMI system

GSM, GPRS, ZigBee

Lakeland Electric, PECO, Southern Company, PGE, Hawaiian Energy

Elster

REX meter and REX2-EA meter

GSM, GPRS, ZigBee

Arizona Public Service, Toronto Hydro Electric, Cleveland Utilities

Landis+Gyr

Gridstream SG solution

RF technology, GSM, GPRS, PLC communication

PG&E, Oncor, Pepco, Texas, Austin Energy and CPS Energy

GE

I-210+c smart meters

GSM, GPRS, ZigBee, PLC

AEP, FPL, PG&E


display the consumption behaviors of customers [21]. UFO Power Center is another offline application that measures the electricity consumption of electric appliances and helps the customer to manage the energy use of home appliances and eliminate standby power [21]. To monitor and manage the electricity consumption, the UFO Power Center can join the WiFi network and can be controlled via iPhone or iPad applications. It is always the electric utility’s job to install a reading collection device at consumers where the meters can send their readings, but sometimes telecom companies may take on this mission. Deutsche Telekom installed communication boxes at residences and provided a data connection to the meters to transmit the data readings through DSL technology to the electric utility. Table 1 shows the SG vendors, the related technologies, and the participants.

SG Key Players SHs and SG technologies have been gaining momentum in the energy power market lately. It is a new opportunity for different kinds of companies to develop new products and services. There are three dominant players that will receive the big piece of pie of the SG/home sector, i.e., electric utilities, telecom operators, and companies developing intelligent devices for energy control: the first are the leading players, the others have a key role, since they provide the backbone of the communication infrastructure and the end user apparati (Figure 2). In the following part, this article will focus on those who can be considered the key players in the SG/SH arena, i.e., utility and communication companies [21]. There are also some invisible players who have important roles in the realization of the SG: distribution-system operators (DSOs) and SG aggregators. For instance, EURELECTRIC explained its role as a DSO responsible for providing a reliable and secure power distribution system and enabling the system to meet the demand for the continuity of power delivery,

operation, and maintenance [22]. The DSOs’ role is to collect smart-metering/ network data and to transfer these to third parties and cooperate with end users on load-management measures [23]. Furthermore, the role of an aggregator is to ease the control of energy consumption for end users without any reduction in their comfort. The energy management companies, ENERNOC in United States and Diamond Energy in Singapore act as demand response aggregators between utility companies and end users for balancing demand, energy saving, and capacity reduction [24]. Telecom Operators The SG cannot be considered smart without an advanced communication infrastructure. The major problem of the existing grid has been the lack of communication techniques between devices and systems for better, reliable, and secure power delivery and improved customer satisfaction. The achievement of interoperability

The SG opens up a new area for business opportunities for telecom operators, hence they have to take a big responsibility to build and manage the communication infrastructure for advanced functions of SG systems. between SG components and management of data traffic produced by advanced appliances can be successfully carried out with the integration of robust, flexible communications networks. The SG opens up a new area for business opportunities for telecom operators, hence they have to take a big responsibility to build and manage the communication infrastructure for advanced functions of SG systems. Many electric utilities have been struggling with the complexity, reliability, and maintenance costs of their own private networks, thus many of them have signed agreements with telecom operators to perform this function. Table 2 shows an analysis of

AT&T

the involvement of telecom operators in the SG sector [21]. Utility Companies The reaction of utility companies to innovations for a smarter grid is the slowest among the others. The cost, long-term return on investment, and reliability issues make them rethink before making any investments into new infrastructure for the power grid. However, the demand-response applications of the SG will make it easy to manage the power grid and to prevent massive peak demands for the utility company. The best way for utility companies to get involved in the SG process is to understand the

Turk Telekom

T-Mobile

DoComo

GE

Elster

Deutche Telecom China Mobile

Landis+ Gyr

Telecom Operators

British Telecom Verizon

AMI Vendors Sensus Deutsche Telekom Echelon

PG&E Itron TEDAS Duke Energy Southern California Edison

Electricité de France

Electric Utilities

San Diego Gas and Electric

Baltimore Gas and Electric Enel

Figure 2 – SG key drivers.


Table 2–Telecom operators and the SG. Name/Country

Application

Techniques

Pilot Project

Participants

T-Mobile USA

AMI

GSM

No pilot yet

Echelon

Telefonica Spain

AMI

GPRS, SMS, DSL, ZigBee, Satellite

No pilot yet

Endesa

British Telecom

AMI

Long-range radio network

200,000 smart meters

Arqiva, Detica, Sensus

Telecom Italia

Home Energy Management

GSM, ZigBee

Trial phase of 32 million smart meters

Enel, Electrolux, Indesit

DoComo-Japan

Home Energy Management

3G

No pilot

NEC, Sekisui House, NAMCO BANDAI

China Mobile

AMI

GSM

No pilot yet

China Southern Power Grid, Huawei

Mobiltel-Bulgaria

AMI

RF

No pilot yet

Sensus

Vodafone Germany

Smart Metering

DSL, GPRS

12,000 smart meters

Alcatel Lucent, DIEHL Energy Solutions

Vodafone-U.K.

AMI

GPRS

Over one million trial installation of gas meters

British Gas, Landis+Gyr, OSIsoft, SAP

Vodafone-New Zealand

Smart metering

GPRS

Deployment of smart metering

AMS

AT&T-USA

AMI

RF


SmartSynch, Texas-New Mexico Power

Verizon-USA

AMI

RF, CDMA, Zigbee, WiMAX, 802.11

No pilot yet

SmartSynch Texas-New Mexico Power

Orange-U.K.

AMI

GPRS

2,000 smart meters

National Grid

Etisalat-UAE

Femtocell

Using femtocell as a small cellular base station

No pilot yet

Alcatel-Lucent

Qwest-U.S.

AMI

DSL, PLC, BPL

Xcel Energy’s SmartGridCity

CURRENT

Telenor-Norway

AMI

GPRS, GSM, SMS

In phase of deployment in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Netherland

Siemens, HT, PowerAR, Landis+Gyr

Sprint-Canada

AMI

WiMAX

No pilot yet

Clearwire GE, GridNet

Telus-Canada

OSM

Via DNP3 communication protocol

No pilot yet

NOJA Power

Deutsche Telekom Germany

AMI

DSL/wireless

200 meters

Stadtwerke Emden

cost and benefits of the new system and investigate which communication technology will best serve the needs of the SG infrastructure. They also need to make strategic partnerships to handle the requirements of the SG better. Table 3 briefly shows the investments and strategic partnerships of electric companies [21]. They should get involved in SG standardization efforts to make the SG a reality. Some electric utilities have taken incremental steps toward the SG: Electricité de France (EDF) is in the pilot phase of its SG project with a 300,000-meter, 7,000-concentrator deployment with an estimated cost of US$6.4 billion; the Southern California Edison SmartConnect project has deployed 5.3 million electricity meters between 2008 and 2012 with a cost of US$1.63 billion; the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) SmartMeter project consists of 5.3 million electricity meters

and 4.5 million gas meters with a cost of US$2.2 billion [21]. Customers In the past, a customer relationship with utilities was not an expected phenomenon. However, the SG puts customer adoption and satisfaction at the center of the system. Customer participation and feedback into the system will enable advanced applications to operate properly; the implementation of energy-efficiency programs, demand response, and outage-management applications will be effectively achieved through active customer participation in the system. Home energy-management systems and demand-response programs will improve energy efficiency and system reliability with customer participation. However, the SG concept is not known at the user level and many users do not have positive feelings


toward the SG. The first step of the utilities should be the education of customers on the advantages of the SG system and the ways in which they can contribute to energy savings and how they should respond to energy demand. Consumer education case study programs help customers to get a better view of SG benefits. For instance, PG&E has carried out a consumer education case study that resulted in an increased awareness of SG and its benefits. The Energy Demand Research Project (EDRP) is a two-year, large-scale trial, which tests the consumer’s response to the feedback of their energy usage with 26 trial groups and six different categories across Britain [21]. Providing two-way information flow to the customer and giving them more decision-making ability and control of energy usage patterns will shape their judgments toward SG positively.

Table 3–Electric Utilities and the SG. Name/Country

Southern California Edison—USA

Project Objective

Technology

Participants

Pilot Project

AMI

RF Mesh, ZigBee

eMeter, Itron, IBM

Edison SmartConnect, 5 million electric meters

Electricité de France(EDF)-France

AMI

Not mentioned yet

IBM Atos Origin Elster Actaris Landis+Gyr EPRI

Pilot in Indre-et-Loire department

TEDAS-Turkey

AMI

Not mentioned

Elektromed

1.5 million smart meters

KIBTEK-Turkey

AMI

Not mentioned

European Union


Enel-Italy

AMI

Not mentioned

Alcatel, Current, Ericsson Espana

RWE AG Address Project

Schneider Electric-Germany

AMI

Not mentioned

ComEd, Pjm, Metropolitian Energy BOMA, Chicago

BOMA Chicago Project

Baltimore Gas & Electric-U.S.

AMI

PLC

Accenture PLC Oracle Silver Spring Networks


San Diego Gas & Electric-U.S.

AMI

ZigBee

Itron (providing the meters), Oracle, Microsoft (SQL Server for Meter Data Management)

Smart-Metering Project 2,300,000 meters

AMI

RF Mesh network

Silver Spring S&C Electric and Cooper Power Systems, IBM

110,000 meters

PG&E Enersis-U.S.

AMI

RF mesh, PLC

Silver Spring GE, Landis+Gyr Aclara

SmartMeter program

Lake Land Electric-U.S.

AMI

Wireless Technologies

Sensus, Science Applications International Corporation


PPL Electric Utilities-USA

AMI

WiMAX

Alvarion, Alcatel-Lucent

1.3 million meters

American Electric Power-U.S.

Portland General Electric

AMI

Wireless network

Sensus


PECO Energy Company

Smarter energy grid project

Wireless communication

Sensus


Austin Energy

Smart Grid 1.0 deployment project

Combination of ﬁber and wireless

GE Energy, Elster Landis+Gyr, Cellnet+Hunt’s

500,000 devices installed

CenterPoint Energy

AMI

Not mentioned

Not mentioned


Consumers Energy

Smart Street program

Not mentioned

Michigan Public Service Commission, Honeywell Utility Solutions, Silver Spring Networks, Cascade Renewable Energy

1.8 million electric meters

Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (OG&E)

Smart grid project

Wireless communications network

EnergyICT (MDMS) Corix Utilities, Silver Spring, Comverge

42,000 smart meters

Progress Energy

EnergyWise program

Not mentioned

Not mentioned


Salt River Project

AMI

CDMA

Elster

1 million smart meters deployement

Xcel Energy

Smart Grid City

Dynamic communications network

Accenture, Current Group, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, and Ventyx

A fully interconnected system

Tenaga Nasional Berhad-Malaysia

AMI

Itron meter-datamanagement SW

Itron

90,000 smart meters

Government The SG concept can be a reality with the cooperation of electric utilities and IT companies. The role of government is to provide the creation of working groups and organizations while other various perspectives integrate their forces to build such a complex system. Providing financial support and R&D funding and encouraging agreements for SG projects should be the initiatives taken by governments. The government needs to accelerate the development process of standards as many protocols

cannot communicate with each other. This situation impedes the implementation process of the SG. On the other hand, in most countries, the customer does not have the choice of purchasing electricity from the provider that they prefer. Thus, governments must introduce regulations toward the flexibility and transparency of the electricity market.

SG Research Challenges As mentioned before, the SG is the modernization of existing electrical infrastructure and is highly equipped

with automated and distributed controls and modern communication technologies that provides efficiency, reliability, and safety to electricitydelivery systems. Hence, there will be a variety of communication technologies and requirements that will be applied to a variety of advanced applications. Moreover, end-to-end system solutions will bring many challenges and research issues. This section gives an overall picture of SG research challenges. ■■ Reliability: Reliability has always been mentioned as one of the


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biggest headaches of electric utilities due to the cost of outages to the customers. Reference [25] reports that in the United States the estimated cost of outages in 2002 was in the order of US$79 billion, which is equivalent to a third of the total electricity retail revenue of US$249 billion. The lack of automated analysis, poor visibility, slow response times of the mechanical switches, and lack of situational awareness [26] of the current power infrastructure are some of the reasons for the blackouts over the past 40 years. Blackouts cost the electric companies approximately US$1 million every minute, according to a Sun Microsystems analysis [26]. A similar new grid infrastructure is ready to change the general perception of inadequacy of the existing grid; moreover, there will be better communication, autonomous control, and management structures needed to control the overall system for better reliability. Hence, the SG architecture needs to be ready for dangers and uncertain situations to guarantee secure and quality power to the customers [27]. Robustness/resilience: The communication network needs to be prepared for critical situations such as snow/ice storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. Hence, the survivability of the communication network is very important to recover communications quickly. Contingency steps should be in place to ensure reliable communication during critical situations. These could include providing redundant communications links, multiweek diesel and oil power backup facilities, and extensive emergency situation planning, among others. Telecom operators also need to be prepared to satisfy the communication requirements of the utilities in emergency situations Availability: The quick restoration of service in such an emergency situation will increase the availability of system services, save billions of

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dollars for the utility, and prevent major damages to the communications network. Complexity: The SG is a set of solutions and requires a complex communication infrastructure that supports two-way communications, real-time information flows, demand-response/load-management programs, and customer participation. Hence, dealing with the complexity and management of the overall system is a big challenge [3]. For instance, a California utility, PG&E, had problems with smart-meter installations in the Bakersfield area because of complaints from customers about overcharging [21]. Inability to recover real-time readings data and HW problems originating with PG&E vendors were some of the problems that PG&E has experienced. Coverage: Communication services must cover all the operational areas of the electric utility, even where the population density is lower. Utilities have to involve telecom operators to provide full communication coverage in these areas. Interoperability: SG systems consist of different components provided by different actors, and these are linked to work together. Interoperability is challenging to fully accomplish. Hence, different communication protocols and standards need to be harmonized for reliable and flexible information exchange. It can be achieved through standards in terms of interface, work flows, messages, and signals. For instance, remote meter reading should be achieved regardless of meter type; seamless data exchange should be accomplished by devices of all brands. Furthermore, interoperability needs to be applied between any type of meter, home display, and electrical appliance. Pursuant to the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007 (P.L. 110–140), The U.S. Secretary of Energy gave directions to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to publish and impose a set


■■

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of interoperability standards for emerging SGs, and the GridWise Alliance, a consortium of public and private stakeholders, agreed to develop a basic understanding of interoperability in the SG by using actual case study examples [28]. We give detailed information about the interoperability standardization efforts for SG (e.g., IEEE P2030, ANSI C12.22) in the first of a series of articles on the SG, of which this is the third. There is no standardized technique that will meet the needs of SG deployments in all regions. The communication techniques, the components, services, and functionalities that are preferred to be applied to the system differ from utility to utility, region to region, and country to country. Hence, backward compatibility to the existing installations should be taken into consideration while implementing the new infrastructures in terms of time and cost issues. Latency: The electric utilities need to provide low-latency communications for some mission critical applications, such as demand response, emergency restoration process, teleprotection systems, and substation monitoring and control. The communication technique should be chosen appropriately to provide the required latency for specific applications in order to achieve system reliability and flexibility. Security: The nature of the SG could attract potential cyber security attacks and terrorist attacks. Therefore, governments, utility companies, and technology vendors should take appropriate actions. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation published a set of compliance standards for critical infrastructure protection [29]. The IEC 62351 standard defines cyber security requirements for communication protocols, endto-end networks, power-system management, and information exchange [30]. Physical security systems, centralized management

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and control, real-time monitoring and logging capabilities, and strong authentication mechanisms are the requirements for keeping an SG system secure [31]. The European Smart-Metering Industry Group (ESMIG) has the objective to deliver the benefits of smart metering across Europe. The OPEN meter project specifies a comprehensive set of open and public standards for AMI, supporting electricity, gas, water, and heat metering, based on the agreement of all the relevant stakeholders in this area, and taking into account the real condition of the utility networks to allow for full implementation. These standards include the IEC 61334 series PLC standards, the IEC 62056 DLMS/ COSEM standards for electricity metering, and the EN 13757 series of standards for utility metering other than electricity, using M-Bus and other media. Supply–demand match: The ability to balance the load and demand is one of the key points for reliable and flexible power delivery. The power demand is always changing, hence better demand-side management and customer participation are needed to change the consumption behaviors and shift demand to minimize peak load requirements [3]. The emerging technological movements towards real-time information flow and customer participation can make the active-demand side a reality [32].

SG Field Tests and Pilot Projects There have been many activities in smart-metering standardization, legislation and regulation efforts, regulatory recommendations, and technical functionalities in European Union (EU), member states and different EU institutions [33]. The smart-metering actions are grouped into three categories: dynamic movers, market drivers, and other movers. Dynamic movers can be described as the countries that create a clear path toward a full rollout of smart metering: Denmark, Finland,

The smart-metering actions are grouped into three categories: dynamic movers, market drivers, and other movers. France, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom belong to this group. Market drivers are the countries that have no legal requirements for a rollout: Estonia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Romania are in this group. Other movers are the ones that have a situation where a legal and/or regulatory framework has been established to some extent, and the issue is high on the agenda of the relevant stakeholders: Austria, Belgium, and Portugal belong to this group [33]. This section briefly discusses major SG pilot projects from around the world. Table 4 summarizes the deployments of AMI projects in North America, Asia, and Europe [21]. Dynamic Movers ■■ Italy: Italy made a large investment in the SG by ENEL SpA. Started in 2001, the “Telegestore” (i.e., “remote manager”) project is the largest implemented project, consisting of the replacement of 30 million standalone electricity meters and the building of an advanced metering communication infrastructure through a hybrid wireless/ANSI 709 power line capable of managing peak demands [34]. The installed smart meters have multiple abilities, including advanced power measurement and management capabilities and SW controllable disconnect switches to homes and businesses. Another project, named Energy@Home, was conducted with partners Enel Distribuzione, Telecom Italia, Electrolux, and Indesit, delivering the energy data (e.g., price) via a home gateway to smart appliances and get the customer’s involvement to improve the energy management of the home [35].

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France: France is one of the countries that has taken further steps toward installing SG technology with the Linky project. This project started off with the deployment of AMI all over the country in three phases: the first is the research and development phase conducted by Atos Origin, an international IT services provider, with partners Landis+Gyr, Itron, among others; the second is the middle-scale deployment and test phase with a deployment of 300,000 meters; and the third is the replacement phase of existing meters with smart meters [21]. The United Kingdom: The U.K. government has announced that smart meters will be installed in every residence by 2020. Centrica (British Gas), Scottish and Southern Energy, and EDF are some of the major suppliers that have been testing smart-metering technology and installing smart meters and in-home displays at premises as a part of the EDRP [21]. The main purpose of the project is to understand how the customers react to the information about their energy consumption behavior over a period of time. British Gas, the largest UK energy supplier, has targeted the deployment of 2 million smart meters by 2012; First Utility, an independent energy company and first UK energy firm plans to provide smart meters to its customers free of charge as a real market implementation; nPower, the largest electricity company, has carried out independent trials in the Midlands and Yorkshire and the North East [21]. The Orkney project is a Scottish and Southern initiative that aims to learn how to connect renewable energy sources to constrained networks in an economical and quick way [35].


Table 4–AMI Pilot Projects. Utility

Location

Year

Scale

Meter Vendor

EUROPE

ENEL

Italy

2006–

29,800,000

—

Acea Distribuzione

Italy

2004–

1,500,000

Landis+Gyr

TEDAS

Turkey

2009–

1,500,000

Elektromed

Vattenfall

Sweden

—

600,000

Echelon

E.on

Sweden

2009–

390,000

Landis+Gyr

Electricité Réseau Distribution France (ERDF)

France

2010–

300,000

Landis+Gyr/Actaris/Iskraemeco

Syd Energi

Denmark

2005–

246,000

Landis+Gyr

Delta Comfort and Evides

The Netherlands

2008–

200,000

Iskraemeco/Sagem/Actaris

Linz Strom

Austria

2007–

175,000

Echelon

EnergyMidt

Denmark

2008–

150,000

Echelon

RWE

Germany

2008–

100,000

—

CEZ Group

Czech Republic

2010–2011

85,000

Landis+Gyr

Fortum Espoo Oy

Finland

2007–

63,000

Landis+Gyr

Vattenfall Verkko Oy

Finland

2009–

60,000

Landis+Gyr

Elro Net

Denmark

2007–

50,000

Echelon

NORTH AMERICA

PG&E

Northern and Central California

2008–2012

5,400,000

GE/Landis+Gyr

AEP

Midwestern United States

2007–2015

5,000,000

GE/Landis+Gyr

Southern California Edison (SCE)

Southern California

2007–2012

4,800,000

Itron

Georgia Power

Southern United States

2008–2013

4,800,000

Sensus

Florida Power and Light

Florida

2008–

4,600,000

GE

Oncor

Texas

2007–2012

3,000,000

Landis+Gyr

DTE

Detroit, MI

2008–

2,600,000

Itron

CenterPoint

Houston, Texas

2009–2014

2,400,000

Itron

Pepco Holdings (PHI)

Delaware, MD, NJ

2009–2013

1,900,000

GE/Landis+Gyr

Duke Energy

Indiana, Ohio

2008–2014

1,500,000

Not announced

Sempra/San Diego Gas and Electric

San Diego and southern Orange counties

2008–2011

1,400,000

Itron

Ontario Smart-Metering Initiative

Ontario, Canada

2007–2010

1,300,000

Elster Ozz/Trilliant, Sensus

Portaland General Electric Co.

Portland, WA

2007–

850,000

Sensus

Korea Electric Power Corp

Korea

2009–2014

18,000,000

GE

Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN)

Indonesia

2010–2011

800,000

Itron

ASIA

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The Netherlands: The Netherlands is proactive in terms of smartmetering technology. The government stimulates utilities to provide residential customers access to smart meters. The Dutch Standardization Institute (NEN) has developed a prestandard for the smart-metering concept, NTA 8130, which defines a set of requirements for metering systems. NTA 8130 focuses on the basic functions of smart-metering deployments and

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the requirements of communication between the energy metering systems and the energy providers [9]. Ireland: Ireland has had a national smart-metering plan in place since 2007. A major smart-metering project was established by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) with the network operators for running smart-meter trials to estimate the costs and benefits of getting information about the full


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rollout of smart meters on national level [36]. Sweden: The government in Sweden obligated monthly electricity readings for utilities. Since then, investments in smart metering have increased, and more than 30 companies have come together to use new metering HW. Echelon’s Networked Energy Services (NES) product was selected as a metering system for the country [21]. Among the utilities, the Vattenfall electric

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utility has made important progress with testing different solutions and many communication technologies for meter deployment. Norway: The consumers in Norway have contracts with two entities: the Norwegian deregulated power system and the power retailer, which means that they have different tariffs for the electrical energy use and the use of the power grid. The Norwegian regulators see the smart-metering technology as the enabler for a more efficient power market, a more optional consumption of electricity and good management of the power systems [33, 37]. Hence, the regulators put some targets toward the implementation of the smart-metering technology: exact billing of the electricity consumption, easier to change power supplier, increased competition between the power retailers, reduced prices and new products/services, and increased information to the customers regarding prices and their electricity consumption.

Market Drivers ■■ Germany: The German concept of smart metering is different from the others. A multiutility metering system is deployed: gas, water, and electricity meters are connected to a multiutility communication (MUC) controller. The multiutility communication (MUC) controller acts as a gateway for the meters and collects the metering data back to the automated metering infrastructure system. The MUC concept is universal and free of PLC limitations. Neuhaus Telekommunikation, a management, distribution, development, and administration company, developed the ZDUE-PLC-MUC product based on a MUC system that is capable of remote data reading of a variety of meters via PLC [21]. Meters are connected to ZDUE-PLC-MUC via RS-232 or short-range radio. The consumption data from meters are transmitted to a data concentrator through communication interfaces. Large-area deployments

The multiutility communication (MUC) controller acts as a gateway for the meters and collects the metering data back to the automated metering infrastructure system.

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are supported by the usage of general packet radio service or global system of mobile communications technologies. E-Energy, ICT-based Energy System of the Future, is part of the technology policy of the German Federal Government, which creates E-Energy models to show how to achieve greater efficiency, reliability, security, and environmental compatibility in power supply and delivery from generation and transport to distribution and consumption chains [35]. Slovenia: Modest steps have been taken toward smart metering in Slovenia, but no discussions on data security, privacy issues, and the possibility of time-of-use tariffs have taken place [33]. The EIMV (Milan Vidmar Electric Power Research Institute) made an analysis to evaluate the costs and benefits of the systems for households and small business customers for AMI systems rollouts with 890,000 measuring sites. Elektro Gorenjska, one of the Slovenian distribution companies, rolled out a smart-metering system consisting of 80,000 customers in 2011. Romania: There have been no activities for a nationwide rollout of smart meters until 2012 [33]. Electrica S.A., a Romanian company, has plans for the rollout of 59,000 AMI-supported energy meters.

Other Movers ■■ Austria: The Flexible Electricity Networks to Integrate the Expected Energy Revolution (FENIX) Project aimed to provide an EU electricity supply system that is cost efficient, reliable, secure, and sustainable with the aggregation into a largescale virtual power plant (LSVPP) by enabling distributed energy resources (DER) [35]. Other projects

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are emporA, whose goal is to develop an overall system for electrical mobility, and AMIS/Energie AG 100,000 SM, whose aim is to switch to renewables. There are currently 24 projects run by private companies on the SG technology supported by the Austrian Klimafonds and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) that have been or are being concluded in the years 2011 and 2012 at a total of €10.3 million. The Austrian Institute of Technology opened up an SGs Lab in July 2010. Their research teams are helping the industry to develop new electronic network components and analyzing their interaction with the power grid. Portugal: The Portuguese government has been carrying out a project called Mobi-E with the involvement of 21 cities. The Mobi-E project targeted the installation of 320 recharging stations and the activation of 1,300 recharging stations [35]. Belgium: EnergyICT, a provider of Smart Metering and SG solutions to utilities, along with Eandis, an electricity and gas grid company in Belgium, has deployed components of Elster’s EnergyAxis portfolio of AMI solutions successfully as part of the large integrated SmartMetering pilot in Belgium. As part of the project, 4,200 Elster smart electricity and gas meters with an ElServer meter data management (MDM) application and EnergyICT data concentrators are deployed with PLC communication technology. Network Operator Sibelga in Brussels with the collaboration of three meter suppliers, Landis, Actaris, and Siemens, completed a pilot project including 200 electricity meters and PLC and GPRS communication technologies [33]. The


Flemish network operator Eandis plans to deploy smart meters to 40,000 households [33]. Outside Europe ■■ United States: The main motivation for using the smart-metering system in United States is to increase the power quality and power supply. Even though there are exciting forecasts about the future of the SG technology, switching to a smarter grid poses great challenges. However, there are many projects carried out in the United States. On 20 July 2006, a project for the deployment of smart meters to 9 million homes was carried out by PE&G. This action will enable PE&G to set pricing that is changed by seasons and time of the day. Most companies in the United States are ready for the deployment of smart meters, but PG&E’s program, with a US$1.74 billion investment, is the largest one. Southern California Edison conducted an SG development and deployment project from energy generation to the transmission, distribution, and finally its efficient use in customer premises, including 5.3 million electricity meters deployed, with US$1.63 billion in funding. Portland General Electric has completed the wide wireless smart-metering project with 850,000 meters deployed. Center Point Energy, a Texas company, which supplies gas and electricity to 3 million customers, has successfully deployed SG technology by installing 10,000 smart electricity meters and 500 smart gas meters in Houston and then received approval of a US$200 million grant to complete the installation of 2.2 million smart meters by the end of 2013. SCE is carrying out a smart-metering program called Edison SmartConnect which will enable customers to view near real-time energy usage information from a computer, cell phone, or other devices; make new dynamic pricing plans; include rebate programs for peak-time energy-use reduction and time-of-use rates

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for residential customers; enable remote service activations and long-term environmental benefits. SCE planned to replace 5 million residential electricity meters with smart meters between 2009 and 2012. China: The need for smart-meter implementation in China is large, since the population is growing fast, and it becomes harder to meet the high demand of power with a low rate of power effective utilization [38]. A number of projects on SG have been started in China. Old transmission lines cover 1.18 million kilometers and they deliver 3 million GW of electricity over the country. During power transmission 7% of the power is lost. Tianjin Electric Power Corporation is one of the key players in the SG project between China and Singapore, called Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city [39]. The project’s goals are to provide distributed power generation, intelligent and standardized transmission, and distribution systems with energy storage, smart end-use systems containing an information collection system, two-way communication, intelligent power district, building, and home and electric car charging/discharging stations [39]. Korea: South Korea, as a part of the country’s US$103 billion initiative, aims to increase the green energy generation from the current 2.4% of total power to 11% in the next two decades [35]. The Korea SG Institute (KGSI) plans to construct an SG, testbed on Jeju Island. The main target is to increase the energy efficiency and implement greenenergy infrastructures by building ecofriendly infrastructures, which decreases the CO2 emissions by testing the most advanced SG technologies, R&D results, and the development of business models [39]. Japan: Japan has been acknowledged as the world leader in microgrid demonstrations and renewable energy integration projects. The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development


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Organization started three renewable energy resources project in 2003: the Aomori project in Hachinohe, the Aichi project near the Central Japan Airport, and the Kyoto Eco Energy project focus on the integration of renewable energy sources into the distribution network [40]. Furthermore, the Nagasaki EV and ITS Consortium started a model demonstration of connecting energy grid and EVs in Goto islands, Nagasaki. In this project, it is aimed to encourage energy conservation with the advances of SG, hence, the Goto Eco-Island Plan focuses on a new energysaving approach for further power conservation and form an autonomous energy saving control system via the use of a building energymanagement system (BEMS) and home energy-management system (HEMS) [41]. Turkey: Turkey has embarked on the development of SG technology. Some initiatives have taken solid steps in this direction. The Elektromed utility company, which serves almost 3 million electric, water, and natural gas customers in Turkey, has installed 1.5 million smart meters so far [21]. On the other hand, the Cyprus Turkish Electricity Authority (KIBTEK) has been funded by the European Union to carry out a project of remotely reading electricity meters, where 132,000 mechanical meters will be replaced by smart meters [21]. Australia: The Essential Services Commission of Victoria is planning to install 1 million smart meters by 2013 [9]. EnergyAustralia, a stateowned corporation with the largest energy network, is planning to carry out Australia’s first commercialscale SG project using WiMAX communication technology with GE and Grid Net, by deploying 50,000 smart meters and 15,000 home energy displays [39].

Other Organizations ■■ EPRI is working on a wide variety of research, development, and

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demonstration projects to develop new electric power delivery technologies that support an SG. EPRI’s IntelliGrid project creates the technical foundation for a smart power grid and helps utilities to implement advanced metering, distribution automation, demand response, and wide-area measurement systems. The early product, the IntelliGrid Architecture, provides methodology, tools, and recommendations for standards and technologies for utilities to plan and specify IT-based systems, such as advanced metering, distribution automation, and demand response [42]. Electricity Advisory Committee: In 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) created an Electricity Advisory Committee, which is a group of industry experts working toward modernizing the nation’s electricity-delivery infrastructure and implementing the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 [43]. The Gridwise Architecture Council is a group of industry leaders who aim to provide guiding principles, or architectures, for interaction between participants and interoperability between many entities that interact with the electric power system [44]. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners have joined forces to work on how to make state and federal regulators collaborate to implement SG technology [45]. The U.S. DOE has an important mission in the energy industry. It provides funding to SG research, development and demonstration [26]. Providing self-healing from power disturbance events, enabling active participation by consumers in demand response, operating resiliently against physical and cyber attack, providing power quality for 21st century needs, and accommodating all generation and storage options are some of the goals of the DOE [26].

EPRI’s IntelliGrid project creates the technical foundation for a smart power grid and helps utilities to implement advanced metering, distribution automation, demand response, and wide-area measurement systems. ■■

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) plays a key role in SG research and is responsible for standardization efforts, protocols, and models to achieve a reliable, robust SG by providing interoperability at all levels, with integration, effective cooperation, and two-way communication among the many interconnected elements [39]. The NIST played a significant role in the development of a set of 75 SG standards, the priorities for additional standards, initial steps for cyber security of SG, and SG action plans [28, 21]. The IEEE Power and Energy Society (IEEE-PES) is the world’s largest forum, with members from all around the globe, that shares the latest technological developments in the electric power industry [39]. The IEEE uses the NIST SmartGrid Conceptual model, which has definitions of seven important SG domains: bulk generation, transmission, distribution, customers, operations, markets, and service providers. The stakeholders have a better understanding of the building blocks of an end-to-end SG system, from generation to customers, and searches for the interrelation between these SG segments. ESMIG is the leading group of companies in the European smartmetering market, which covers all the aspects of smart metering: electricity, gas, water, and heat measurement, meter manufacturing, installation, consulting, SW, communications, and system integration [38]. The major goal of ESMIG is to assist in the development of national and Europe-wide introduction, rollout, and management

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of smart-metering systems by providing knowledge and expertise on smart-metering and communication systems at the European level. ESMIG states that a smart-metering system is essential; however, without advanced meter management (AMM), none of the European Union’s ambitious energy and environmental policy goals can be achieved. ESMIG believes that the introduction of AMM will bring a 20% increase in energy efficiency, a 20% share of intermittent renewable energy in the system, and a reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020. The Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic, and related technologies. Over 100 IEC standards have been identified as relevant to the SG. The most important are IEC 62051-54/58-59 for electricity metering, IEC 62357: Seamless Integration Reference Architecture, IEC 60870: Transport protocols, IEC 61970/61968: Common Information Model CIM, IEC 62325: Market Communications using CIM, IEC 61850 and 61850-74XX: SAS and communications and DER, IEC 61400: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants, IEC 62351: Security for SG, IEC 61334: DLMS, IEC 62056: COSEM (smart metering) [46]. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) are now collaborating on their standards work in the domain of ICTs. Some important standards are


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Dis-1: Feeder and Advanced Distribution Automation Development, which supports feeder automation and advanced distribution automation and Ind-3: Smart Meter and Building System Interface on data exchange between the smart meter and the building management system. The European Standards Organizations should ensure coordination between CEN/TC 247 and CENELEC/TC 13 [46]. The German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE) is the organization responsible for the elaboration of standards and safety specifications covering the areas of electrical engineering, electronics, and information technology. Motivation for the German Standardization Roadmap is to support the vision “Smart Grid” during realization. A lot of standardization activities are starting in this intersectoral topic with a lot of stakeholders and interfaces. Standardization will be done mostly in existing standardization committees, in Germany in DKE and the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) [46].

EU Projects ■■ The EcoGrid EU project (an SG prototype for the future) will take place on the Danish island Bornholm with more than 50% electricity consumption from renewable energy production and aims to demonstrate the efficient operation of a distribution power system with high penetration of many and different renewable energy resources. With a total of 28,000 customers on Bornholm, approximately 2,000 residential consumers will have a chance to contribute to the trial with flexible demand response to real-time price signals. Dietrich et al. [2] show that the EcoGrid project is the first time that real-time control issues and marketbased price formation have a common ground. Creating a new and fine meshed electric system based on a bidirectional grid, distributed consumption and generation with realtime control and market prices and

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implementing high dissemination of multiple renewable energy resources to meet the EU 20-20-20 goals are some of the targets of the EcoGrid project [35]. Smart-A is a Smart Domestic Appliances in Sustainable Energy Systems project that focuses on the developing strategies to make smart appliances contribute to load management in future energy systems by assessing the potential options for load shifting and analyzing the local and regional energy systems requirements, such as potential changes to appliances’ operation, characteristics of local energy generation, and load-management requirements in the larger electricity networks. Some of the participants are the University of Bonn, Germany; Enervision GmbH, Germany; Imperial College, United Kingdom; the Inter-University Research Centre, Austria; the European Association for the Promotion of Cogeneration, (COGEN Europe), Belgium; EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, Germany; the University of Manchester, United Kingdom [35]. BeyWatch is an European project supported by the European Commission’s DG Information Society and Media, which focuses on ICT for energy efficient white goods and energy management, and aims to produce ultralow-power whitegoods, intelligent control of electrical devices in SHs and neighbors, provide hot water and electricity generation from renewable energy sources, prepare business plans for all stakeholders and create enhanced consumer awareness towards less CO2 emissions [35]. The Digital Energy Home Energy Management System (DEHEMS) focuses on creating new policies in carbon allowances and supporting the increased localized generation and distribution of energy. The task of a mix of European local authorities, private business, and universities is to develop and test DEHEMS for the home energy market in the frame of FP7. The sensor data on household heat


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loss, the appliances’ energy performance, and monitoring energy usage will enable real-time information on emissions and energy performance of appliances and services [35]. The ADDRESS project is a largescale integrated project cofounded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, which focuses on enabling the active demand in the SG deployments or the active participation of small and commercial consumers in power-system markets and assuring services to the different power-system participants [35]. The European SG Roadmap was prepared by the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Energy Technology Policy Division with the guidance of the IEA Committee on Energy Research and Technology. The roadmap contains many key findings related to the development and benefits of SGs, the urgent needs for large-scale pilot projects to test various SG scenarios, greater international collaboration to develop common SG technology standards and creating awareness on the value of SGs [47]. Moreover, governments, regulators, utility companies, and technology firms in many countries prepare SG roadmaps to provide recommendations and action plans during the SG realization process. Most of the recommendations are related to forecasting future demand, integration of renewable resources, and future transmission and distribution systems. Some of the key findings of the SG roadmaps are listed here [47]–[49]. ••There will be sophisticated DR regulations and two-way communication that will simplify demand forecasting. ••There will be high levels of distributed renewable generation, and advanced storage technologies. ••Near real-time online monitoring and control will be possible with the usage of synchrophasor data. ••Vehicle-to-grid systems will be integrated into the whole system

with the availability of charging infrastructure everywhere. ••Standardization efforts will be accelerated to address the gaps, specifications, and requirements of SG and ensure the overall system security, reliability, and flexibility.

Conclusion The SG vision is to exploit the latest technology to address the immense challenge of securing the energy supply in the 21st century. The concept of SG is at times put forward as a solution to a wide array of problems, ranging from the West’s dependency on Middle Eastern oil to global warming. A more realistic expectation is, however, that SG technologies will contribute to a greener energy production, improved efficiency and reliability in energy distribution, and better optimization in the allocation of resources and utilization of assets. It will offer new business opportunities for different kinds of companies. In this article, a comprehensive review on SG characteristics, SHs, and metering and key players have been presented. SG research challenges have been introduced, and SG pilot projects and field tests have been discussed. Hopefully, this article will provide a better understanding of the main characteristics and opportunities of the SG, motivating the research community to further explore this promising research area.

Acknowledgments The work of V.C. Gungor, D. Sahin, and T. Kocak was funded by Türk Telekom under Award Number 11316-01.

Biographies Vehbi C. Gungor received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2007 after working at the Broadband and Wireless Networking Laboratory. Currently, he is the codirector of the Computer Networks and Mobile Communications Laboratory

and the graduate programs (Ph.D. and M.S.) coordinator at the Department of Computer Engineering, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey. He received the European Union FP7 Marie Curie IRG Award in 2009 and the SanTez Project Award issued by AlcatelLucent and the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2010. He is also the principal investigator of the Smart Grid Communications Research and Development Project funded by Türk Telekom. His current research interests include smart grid communications, next-generation wireless networks, wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, cognitive radio networks, and IP networks. He has been a Member of the IEEE since 2008. Dilan Sahin received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer engineering from Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Her current research interests include wireless sensor networks and smart grid communication and applications. Taskin Kocak received his Ph.D. degree from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in 2001. He is currently a full professor of computer engineering at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey. Previously, he was on the faculties of the University of Bristol, England, and the University of Central Florida, Orlando. His research interests are in computer networks and communications. His research activities have produced over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including 38 journal papers. He served as an associate editor for the Computer Journal, and as a guest editor for the ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems. Salih Ergüt received his B.S. degree from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1998, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, and the University of California, San Diego/La Jolla, in 2000 and 2010, respectively, all in electrical and computer engineering. He was with Aware, Inc., Bedford, Massachusetts, an ADSL company, for a year in 2000. He then joined Ericsson Wireless, Inc., San Diego, in 2001,

and worked as part of an international team focusing on CDMA infrastructure for five years. He joined Türk Telekom, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2010, where he served as the research and development manager responsible for university collaborations. He has been with Avea, Istanbul, the sole GSM 1800 operator of Turkey, since 2011, and currently heads AveaLabs. Representing the innovative face of the company, AveaLabs consists of Innovation Center, Incubation Center, and Customer Experience Center. Concettina Buccella received her Dr.Eng. degree from the University of L’Aquila, Italy, and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” Italy, both in electrical engineering. From 1988 to 1989, she was with Italtel S.p.A., where she worked on the design of telecommunication equipment. Since then, she has been with the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of L’Aquila, where she is currently an associate professor and, recently, has become a cofounder of DigiPower, Ltd., a spin-off dealing with industrial electronics. Her research interests include smart grids, electromagnetic compatibility, electrostatic processes, numerical methods, modeling techniques, lightning, electrostatic discharge phenomena, and ultrawideband signal interferences. In these fields, she has authored more than 80 journal and conference articles. She has been a Senior Member of the IEEE since 2003. Carlo Cecati received his Dr.Ing. degree in electrotechnical engineering from the University of L’Aquila, Italy, in 1983. Since then, he has been with the University of L’Aquila, where he is currently a full professor of industrial electronics and drives at the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economy, and is a rector’s delegate. He is the founder and coordinator of the Ph.D. courses on the management of renewable energies and sustainable buildings at the University of L’Aquila. His research and technical interests include several aspects of industrial electronics, with an emphasis on power conversion. In


those fields, he has authored more than 100 articles published in international journals and conference proceedings. Since 2009, he has been the coeditor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. In 2013, he will be the editor-in-chief of this journal. He has been a Fellow of the IEEE since 2006. Gerhard P. Hancke received his B.Sc., B.Eng., and M.Eng. degrees from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and his D.Eng. degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, in 1983, where he is a professor and coordinator of the Computer Engineering Program, Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Computer Engineering. He is the head of the Advanced Sensor Networks Research Group, which has a close collaboration with the Advanced Sensor Networks Group, Meraka Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. His research interests include advanced sensors and actuator networks.

References

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