Smart Grid Projects

The development of the Smart Grid has become critical to reliable, efficient, and renewable electric energy. Xanthus has participated in many of these efforts, including the ones described below:

a.       NIST Phase 2: Support for Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) and Priority Action Plans (PAPs) as a subcontractor to EnerNex, assisting in the establishment of the SGIP and its governing board, as well as technical support of the NIST Priority Action Plans and the Cyber Security Coordination Task Group (CSCTG).

b.      NIST Smart Grid Interim Roadmap, as a subcontractor to EPRI in developing a roadmap and action plan for NIST to identify the appropriate standards and to coordinate any needed standards development. This process has included two Smart Grid workshops to gather input from stakeholders and provide direction to NIST.

c.      AMI and HAN Cyber Security Requirements, to develop the security requirements and methodology for utilities to utilize for developing implementation-specific security requirements, based on NIST/EPRI FERC4+2 diagrams, the NIST CSCTG efforts, and the DHS Catalog of Control System Security.

d.   Specification for PV & Storage Inverter Interactions using IEC 61850 Object Models, to develop the interactions between utilities and inverters for energy management, var support, and other functions, and then map these to existing and new IEC 61850-7-420 object models.

e.      Smart Grid Projects Assessment, to provide EPRI with a methodology and accompanying spreadsheet for evaluating the “Smart Gridedness” of Smart Grid projects. The report, “Smart Grid DER Projects Assessment” develops a methodology and quantitative metrics to evaluate Smart Grid projects related to integrating Distributed Energy Resources (DER) into the grid and market operations, including distributed generation, storage, demand response, and renewables. This project includes a Smart Grid Project Assessment spreadsheet that identifies the important characteristics of Smart Grid projects to achieve integration of distributed resources. i.e. those characteristics that indicate the extent to which these projects can fulfill the Smart Grid objectives.

f.      CEC: Smart Grid: Distributed Generation using IEC 61850-7-420, to implement this international communication standards for distributed energy resources such as photovoltaic systems and other renewable systems in a project for the California Energy Commission (CEC).

g.       Utility Standards Board (USB), a group of many of the largest North American utilities, to develop de facto standards for the interface between AMI systems and the many functions on the utility’s “Enterprise Bus”, such as meter data management systems, billing systems, revenue protection systems, maintenance systems, outage management systems, and other utility systems. The USB de facto standards for Meter Headend Event Codes and for Remote Connect/Disconnect have been accepted by the IEC TC57 WG14 as part of the Common Information Modeling (CIM) for AMI interfaces in IEC 61968-9 to be standardized shortly. MultiSpeak has also accepted the Meter Headend Event Codes and will review the Remote Connect Disconnect models shortly. The USB de facto standards for Outage Detection and Restoration will be submitted to the IEC and MultiSpeak shortly.

h.     CEC: Value of Distribution Automation, to provide the California Energy Commission (CEC) with descriptions of distribution automation functions, possible scenarios for implementing these functions, the potential utility, customer, and societal benefits from these functions, and the technical challenges to implement them. The CEC has made it public as a draft document.

i.      IEC DER Object Model Standards (IEC 61850-7-420), which includes communication object models for Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The DER device types covered are reciprocating (diesel) engines, fuel cells, photovoltaic systems, and combined heat and power (CHP). IEC 61850 is the international communications protocol standard for field communications. It has been expanded to include DER communications, hydro plant communications, inter-substation communications, and substation-to-control center communications. It will be expanded for distribution automation.

j.       Stirling Energy Systems, SES is currently developing two solar thermal power plants in California. The two plants - Solar One and Solar Two - are significant first steps in deploying large-scale renewable solar technology as a commercial energy project. Solar Two is the first to be implemented and will provide 750 MW of energy when fully deployed. The management of the SES power plant needed a SCADA system, and the decision was to implement IEC 61850 for the plant communications.

k.       IntelliGrid Architecture to develop a power system industry communications architecture, based on a complete set of power system functional requirements for supporting self-healing power systems, energy marketplace transactions, sharing and synergy among all types of utility operational functions, and integrated customer services. The project results are being contributed as appropriate to relevant Standards Development Organizations and industry consortia to effectively move the development of key open standards forward to develop a robust industry infrastructure. In the area of customer services, extensive Use Cases were developed on Real-Time Pricing (RTP), Time-of-Use (TOU), market opportunities for customers using distributed energy resources (DER) for both energy and ancillary services, direct and indirect load control, and customer portals as “gateways” to implement these functions.  Innovative communications technologies were discussed, ranging from Broadband Powerline Carrier (BPL) within the customer premises, to telephone, wireless solutions, the Internet, and certain proprietary radio systems. See http://IntelliGrid.info or http://intelligrid.ipower.com/IntelliGrid_Architecture/Overview_Guidelines/index.htm

l.      As Convenor of IEC TC57 WG15, have led the development of security standards for utility operations protocols, including ICCP, IEC 61850, and DNP. In addition, the development of Network and System Management data objects for power system operations, to help ensure security and reliability of end-to-end systems. These security standards, most of which have just been approved by the international committees, consist of IEC 62351: Data and Communication Security – Part 1: Introduction, Part 2: Glossary, Part 3: Profiles Including TCP/IP, Part 4: Profiles Including MMS, Part 5: Security for IEC 60870-5 and Derivatives (i.e. DNP3), Part 6: Security for IEC 61850 Profiles, Part 7: Security Through Network and System Management, and Part 8: Role-Based Access Control.

m.       On-going participation in IEC TC57 WG17 to develop IEC 61850-7-420 standards for Distributed Energy Resources and Distribution Automation. The DER IEC 61850-7-420 became a standard in March 2009. The DA standardization effort is on-going.

n.     On-going participation in IEC TC57 WG14 to develop standards for distribution information exchange models for the exchange of information between distribution operational systems.

o.      On-going participation in IEC TC57 WG19 for the harmonization of international standards, with the focus of integrating IEC 61850 with the Common Information Model (IEC 61970).

p.      As Chair of IEEE PES PSCC Security Assessment WG, am heading the development for the IEEE of Recommended Practices, educational material, and other information related to the assessment of information security risks in power system operations.

q.      AMI-SEC participation to develop the security requirements and potential security solutions for AMI systems. The “AMI System Security Requirements - v1_01” has been recently completed.

r.      Guidelines for Implementing Distribution Automation (DA) using IEC 61850, which provide guidelines for developing requirements for, and implementing, IEC 61850 for advanced DA. The IEC 61850 requirements for DA will be based on the existing IEC 61850 object models and design criteria, but will be extended as necessary to meet advanced distribution automation requirements, including interactions with DER, real-time pricing, market demand-response, and other functions of the future.

s.       System Integration Assessment, to provide the California Energy Commission (CEC) with support and recommendations for system integration projects and R&D efforts that will benefit the electric power consumers.

t.       Meshed Wireless Sensor System for Substation Monitoring Applications, (on-going) to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of meshed wireless communications network for retrieving sensor information in a substation environment.

u.       Assessment of Wireless Capabilities within Substations, EPRI 1011751, March 2006. The possible use of wireless communications in substations has raised a number of issues and concerns. This report determines that wireless communications is already being used in some applications, and that they could be used safely, reliably, and securely in many more applications, so long as the required data exchanges are not very time-sensitive and proper security measures have been applied. In addition, new standards and new product developments are underway to improve the performance, reliability, and security of these technologies in industrial settings.

v.      Guidelines for Implementing Substation Automation using IEC 61850, which provide guidelines for implementing IEC61850 for substation automation.  These guidelines were developed for EPRI clients.

w.       Communications Technology Assessment, which is a web-based product covering all aspects of utility business areas, telecommunications media, communications protocols, security, and R&D requirements for utilities.

x.     Network and System Management for utilities, which analyzes network management requirements for distribution automation, describes existing network management capabilities, and recommends network management approaches for distribution utilities.