IEEE PES T&D Conference & Exposition 2022 - 92

Table 2 recognizes the existing and evolving challenges
faced by distribution utilities and maps them to
ongoing technology evolution to provide future-proof
suggested solutions.
As illustrated in Figure 13, advanced industrial wireless
technology offers inexpensive installation, rapid
deployment, widespread access, and mobile/portable communications
which wired technologies and older wireless
technologies often cannot provide. As communication
networks evolve and data demand from the network
increases, advancements in industrial wireless technology
are demonstrating strong applicability for various power
grid applications. There have been recent advancements in
industrial wireless communications that can be utilized by
new protection, automation, and monitoring applications in
distribution and industrial facilities to provide robust and
reliable performance.
The ability to have smart meters send customer use and
outage data, monitor and control a greater number of fieldmounted
reclosers, reconfigure circuits automatically, and
deploy flexible demand programs can provide significant
benefits to utilities now and in the future.
Industrial strength wireless technology can provide the
power utility with industrial-grade reliability, security, and
performance. Today's wireless devices are built with various
substation-hardened standards, such as IEEE 1613 and
IEC 61850-3, with the devices able to withstand electrostatic
discharge and electromagnetic field radiation as well as
mechanical vibrations and extreme temperatures commonly
encountered in grid applications. Wireless networks are
equipped with encryption technologies such as IP security
and virtual private network with key rotation used to enable
an end-to-end encrypted IP tunnel through which data can
flow securely between utility assets.
Like a private network, a public wireless network
allows authorization, authentication, and accounting services.
Suitable wireless technology should be selected based on
criteria such as bandwidth, range, data latency, and regional
frequency spectrum availability. Industrial wireless has
already been applied for DER transfer trip, line/feeder
fault location, distribution automation, PAC IED configuration,
and remote DER or substation monitoring. The
grid of the future will continue to rely on a strong communications
infrastructure; hybrid approaches that can
extend or supplement existing wired systems with wireless
solutions will be in the best position to meet current
and future grid needs.
Conclusions
There is no question that grid innovations and modernization
are helping to power the energy transition forward. Globally,
the power grid industry needs more investment in grid
System Operation
SCADA/
EMS/DMS
Substation Control Room Applications
SCADA Data
Enterprise Applications
Asset Management
Protection and Control
Maintenance and Engineering
Central Security Server
Non-Operational Data
Substation
Data Gateway
Substation HMI
Substation Security
Gateway
Online Condition
Monitoring
S
in
Substation Data
Concentrator
SW-Defined App Containers
in a Substation Gateway
Data and IED Integration
Substation IEDs
Asset M&D Digital Fault
Recorders
Substation
figure 11. Software-defined grid control architectures.
92
ieee power & energy magazine
April 2022 Show Issue
Power
Quality Meters
Legacy Devices
IEEE PES T&D Conference & Exposition 2022

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