2011 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies – India

Abstract-- Smart Grid is seeing one of the largest

implementation of Communication infrastructure in the

power utilities. The basic component that makes the Smart

Grid work is this underlying robust information &

communication technologies (ICT), which enables shared

understanding between each of the complex systems in the

grid. Traditionally utilities have implemented operations

technology (OT) independently of information technology

(IT). However in smart grid you see diverse

communication networks and advanced IT systems

coalesced into the traditional electrical grid, for a huge

implementation of intelligent infrastructure. Therefore the

greater challenge is to efficiently maintain and manage this

mountain of infrastructure across diverse technologies,

with multiple protocols and from different vendors in a

coordinated manner.

This paper therefore brings out the critical need of a

Unified management system for a complex Smart Grid and

proposes a system which is a combination of the Telecom

Network Management System (NMS) and Utility

Infrastructure Management System. This management

system is built on the industry accepted and proven model

of FCAPS (viz. Fault Management, Configuration

Management, Accounting Management, Performance

Management, Security Management) along with the set of

best practices for IT Service Management (ITIL). This

blend of concepts in a single pane view would provide a

better platform to manage the complex Smart Grid

infrastructure.

I. DEFINITION SMART GRID

NIST in its Smart Grid Conceptual Reference Model defines

Smart Grid as “A complex interoperable system of systems for

which a common understanding of its major building blocks

and how they interrelate must be broadly shared”. In real time

Smart Grid allows multiple applications to operate over a

shared, interoperable network, which allow utilities to

optimize and regulate demand and supply. And underlying

communication network facilitates real-time, two-way

communications along the grid and enables interaction

between each component from source to end user.

II. NIST SMART GRID ARCHITECTURE

Smart Grid is a complex system, and the conceptual reference

model of NIST has divided the Smart grid into seven domains:

bulk generation, transmission, distribution, markets,

operations, service provider and customer. This consolidates

the smart grid components into these domains, determine the

mode of interfacing between these domains for intelligent

information exchange and identify the details of interfaces.

Any system or device that participates in Smart Grid

functionality is termed as an Actor. The actor in one domain

which interfaces with another actor in another domain is called

a Gateway Actor. An information establishes a logical

communication path between these actors (with in or across

domains) using a variety of communication technologies

LAN

Enterprise

bus Enterprise

bus

Generation

Gateway

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Premises

Network

Customers

Gateway

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Operations

Markets

Gateway

Actor

Actor

ActorActor

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Wide Area

Network

Transmission

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Field Area

Network

Distribution

Gateway

Actor

Actor

ActorActor

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Service providers

Internet/

E-business

Transmission ops

Distribution ops

Actor

Actor

Actor

ActorActor

Actor

Actor

Internet/

E-business

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Gateway

Actor

Actor

Communication path

Communication path across

domains

Information

network

Conceptual Reference Diagram for Smart Grid Information Networks 978-1-4673-0315-6/11/$26.00©2011 IEEE

A Unified Management system for Smart Grid Nampuraja Enose, Research Analyst, Infosys Labs, Infosys Technologies Limited

2011 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies – India

The challenge however is the variety in interfaces and

protocols required to exchange information between each of

these actors and domains. The initial release of the NIST

Smart Grid Framework has identified 75 standards,

specifications, or guidelines that will be immediately

applicable to the ongoing transformation of the Smart Grid

III. CHARACTERISTICS OF A SMART GRID

The fundamental objective of a smart grid is to make the

existing grid self‐healing, adaptive, interactive, optimized,

predictive, distributed, integrated and reliable, so that it can

manage flow of eclectic energy from thousands of different

sources to the millions of customers- homes, businesses, and

industries.

IV. EVOLUTION OF A SMART GRID

The Smart Grid of now is the one which is making the existing

grid “smarter” by deploying intelligent technologies. The next

one is one which has a longer-term promise of a grid being

independently intelligent. This Smart Grid will ensure grid

reliability by better managing and preventing power

disturbances, increase customer interactions to offer them

greater choice and flexibility in consumption and reduce price

of power usage. It has also promise to promote environmental

quality by utilizing cleaner low-carbon emission energy and

promoting distributed energy resources resulting in more

deployment of renewable energy sources.

V. UNIFIED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Smart Grid implementation is totally dependent on the

Communications and IT infrastructure that collect and

communicate energy data in real-time. The communication

infrastructure is a mix of heterogeneous wired and wireless

networks; from the basic PSTN, Ethernet and Power-line

communication (PLC) to the back haul Optical and Microwave

networks. Smart Grid could use multiple broadband and

narrowband transport technologies like DSL, IP, BPL

(Broadband Power Line), 2G, 3G, E1/T1, SDH, SONET etc.

interfacing with a large number of utility specific protocols.

The management of such an interconnected network is

therefore complex; a successful Smart Grid implementation is

very much dependent on a flexible and efficient management

system. In addition, the Smart Grid implementation calls for

huge setting up of Intelligent Electrical Infrastructure with its

immediate Applications and IT Infrastructure (data centre)

which run these intelligent systems and applications. Therefore

it is equally important to manage the Utility IT Infrastructure.

This Unified Management System (UMS) is therefore a

combination of Telco’s Network Management System (NMS),

the ISO’s globally accepted TMN model for Network

Management and Utility Infrastructure Management System.

It is built on the industry accepted and proven model of

FCAPS (viz. Fault Management, Configuration Management,

Accounting Management, Performance Management, Security

Management) along with the set of best practices used for IT

Service Management.

A. Unified Management System Framework

On an architectural perspective this Smart Grid can be split

into different layers: the Energy Infrastructure layer

(Transmission & Distribution), the Communications

Infrastructure layer (Data transport and Management), IT

& Security Infrastructure (IT systems), the Applications

layer, the Presentation layer which uses the data from the

underlying layers and the Service Management layer

1) Energy Infrastructure Layer

The energy infrastructure is the foundation for the basic energy

transfer in a grid. For analysis, the physical infrastructure can

be divided into three parts; generation, transmission, and

distribution. The physical layer therefore includes all electrical

infrastructure components for Generation, Transmission,

Storage, Distribution and Consumption of electrical energy.

Generation is the first process in delivery of electricity to the

customers. It is connected to the transmission domain which

supports bulk transfer of electrical energy from generation to

distribution, through multiple substations. The transmission

network is normally controlled through a SCADA system

together with its communication network and control devices.

Customer domain is where the end user operates and has sub-

domains such as home, commercial building, and industrial.

Each of these domains contain different devices such as

generators, turbines, transformers, protection relays, remote

terminal units, capacitor banks, fault recorders, and

programmable logic controllers which aid in delivering of

electricity to customers

Smart devices- To realize smart grid, the basic requirement is

to have each of the devices smart or smartness enabled (built

in intelligence). Smart devices are computer-based or

microprocessor-based systems, including controllers, sensors

and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). They form the basic

interconnect between the unified management system and grid

devices for data information like,

- state of devices in the grid

- condition monitoring of devices

2) Communication Infrastructure Layer

The increased coordination between each of the systems to

realize an effective smart grid operation is enabled through bi-

directional flow of information, enabling benefits, and mutual

synchronization. The communication infrastructure can be

broadly classified into the following segments

a) Home Area Networks (HAN)

Referred to as the Premise Area Network or Building Area

Network; this includes devices within a single premise

(industrial, commercial or home) communicating over one or

more networks. They communicate through a home gateway,

bridging utility and home networks.

b) Field Area Networks (FAN)

These devices communicate over one or more networks

and backhaul WAN‟s. This network primarily supports the

Advanced Metering Infrastructure deployment.

2011 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies – India

c) Substation Area Networks (SAN)

These include devices communicating over one or several

networks inside a single electric substation. These could be

relays, capacitor banks and other substation automation

equipment. IEC 61850 is gaining momentum as the prominent

protocol used for Substation Automation.

d) Wide Area Networks (WAN)

This is referred as „backhaul‟ communications and all

broadband technologies like PDH, SDH, SONET and WDM

make the communication network between the control room

and substations. This could use Wireless or Wire line

communication modes over Fiber or free space. Power line

communication is also used for wide area communication,

however has a narrow broadband.

e) Local Area Networks (LAN)

These include a “close” set of devices in communication, in a

local configuration, often in a single building or office

location. However each of these domains and technologies

would interact with each other

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Telecom Network Management System(FCAPS)

Generation Transmission Distribution Customer Storage

LAN

Ethernet, Sever Infra

FAN

Wimax, RF, Fiber, PLC/BPL

SANWimax, Substation

LAN, IEC-61850, PLC/BPL

HAN

WiFi, Zigbee, Home plug

WAN

Cellular, Fiber, Wireless, Satellite, PLC

Cyber Security

OMS MDMS AMI SCADA LMS EMS

Data center Cyber SecurityData center

WMS ERP Asset Mgmt. CIS GIS DSM

Utility Infrastructure Management System(FCAPS)

3) Infrastructure Layer

Data centers play an important role in collating appropriate

information from the underlying network. It should have

strong infrastructure for quickly collecting the data collection

and storing it for further data analysis and decision making.

Data management refers to all aspects of collecting, storing,

and analyzing data from applications with accuracy.

Cyber security in IT infra layer, addresses the prevention of

damage due to unauthorized access and intruding, to ensure

confidentiality, availability and integrity. Protection is a

serious concern as multiple systems are interconnected for

seam less data transfer between them in a Smart Grid set up.

4) Application layer

Application layer consolidates all the applications such as

SCADA, MDMS, CIS and other ERP systems, which are

available in the control center. Applications range from low

level systems which are already available to manage their daily

operations, to the mature and intelligent systems, forming the

foundation for Smart Grid. Advanced applications with

increased functionality and centralized management allow

operators and executives to make business decisions from the

real-time information from a Smart Grid. However the

challenge is to collate all the information from different

systems which are in different formats to a meaningful single-

pane view, needed to take necessary action(s) and drive the

business needs.

The different applications are supervisory control and data

acquisition systems (SCADA), customer information systems

(CIS), energy management systems (EMS), outage

management systems (OMS), geographic information systems

(GIS), distribution management systems (DMS), meter data

management systems (MDMS), asset management systems or

other enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Normally

these systems are supplied by different vendors and have

different protocols with independent managing systems,

making it quite impossible manage end to end operations from

one point.

The industry is therefore seriously looking for a single

management platform and this unified management system

addresses this concern by providing a unified, single pane view

of the management console showing the state of all assets in

real-time including their network connectivity.

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5) Presentation Layer

The Presentation layer can be conceived as a Manager of

Managers. Each of the systems in the application layer may

have different systems that manage their respective systems

and functionality

For e.g.

- The SCADA system does real time monitoring of RTU‟s

distributed in the filled (Substation and T&D)

- The MDMS system collect and manage data from

individual meters

- The GIS system presents data with reference to

geographic location of the assets

The Presentation layer therefore collects data specific to

FCAPS functionality from each of these individual

management systems or applications. The layer is therefore

interfaced with the application layer by means of different

probes connected through an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).

The interconnecting probes can be industry-standard protocols

or tailored and vendor specific plugs wherever standard

interfaces are not available. Vendor ready management

systems like HP‟s TeMip and IBM‟s Netcool could also be

configured to capture most of these functionalities if not all.

The high performance presentation layer segregate the

collected data between F-C-A-P-S, using built in intelligence

and analytics. This layer also initiates proactive monitoring

and most importantly it ensures that critical services like

demand response, billing services and automated

outage/restoration management applications get required data.

The layer should have flexibility for scaling up to biggest

deployments

APPLICATION LAYER

ENTERPRISE SERVICE BUS

CORBA/ SNMP Legacy/ OthersASCII/ XML/ httpQ3/ Qx

IT

Infrastructure

Applications

Communication

Infrastructure

Applications

Energy

Infrastructure

Applications

PRESENTATION LAYER

Data Management, Filtering, Analytics & Integration

SERVICE MANAGEMENT

LAYER

Logical

Logical

FAULT CONFIGRATION ACCOUNTING PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTING

Alarm

correlationKPI’s/

Threshold

Topology

correlationFiltering

SERVICE DESK

Ticket Mgmt.

SystemCIS/ GIS

Self helpEvent

Mgmt.

BUSINESS

MANAGEMENT

Capacity

Mgmt.

Business

Intelligence

Asset

Mgmt.

Billing &

Usage

Utilization

Mgmt.SLA’s mgmt.

Performance

Mgmt.Availability/

QOS

PROBLEM/

EVENT

MANAGEMENT

SERVICE

LEVEL

MANAGEMENT

6) Service Management Layer

The Presentation layer provides useful information to the

Service Management (SM) Layer. The service management

layer aligns people, process & technology of diverse nature

using standard best practices like ITIL. One of the underlying

success factors of smart grid is how effectively you tie your

service management process for better managing the complex

and diverse, networks and systems to improve customer

satisfaction. The available new technologies could also be

leveraged well for providing better value to customers as

services.

After TMN layered structure, ITU-T came out with FCAPS

concept which consolidated key aspects of management

functionality into five areas (Fault, Configuration, Accounting,

Performance & Security)-the information types handled by a

management system. These functionalities will be performed at

different layers of the TMN layered architecture.

FCAPS and Service Management Layer overlap in terms of

concepts; however they do different levels of abstraction.

FCAPS is focused on the concept of technology management,

where as SM layer on Service Management. FCAPS starts

with a technology centric view while SM layers on top a

service oriented view. A comparison between FCAPS and

Service Management framework shows that FCAPS has most

of the critical capabilities necessary for manageability and

operability. In SM layer the services are divided into smaller

groups and to incorporate the features of FCAPS capabilities

within the service. There will be more than a single FCAPS

functionality, managing a particular service in the SM layer.

The different FCAPS capabilities are examined in a Service

Management context and mapped in the functionality grid

below.

For example, the Problem Management module in SM can be

implemented using Fault Management data from FCAPS.

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FCAPS components & role Presentation layer Service Management layer

Fault Management

(widely implemented element)

Role- log & notify users and

automatically fix network problems

and keep the network running

efficiently

- Real-time alarm & event reporting

- problem detection & issue resolution

- Alarm correlation

- Color-coding & visually identifies

severity (critical, major, minor).

- SLA violations, Statistics/ Logs

- interfaced with problem management, event

management & Service desk

- diagnosis of root causes, fault isolation &

restoration

- built-in intelligence to explain probable

causes and takes necessary correction

- proactive problem management to eliminate

recurring incidents/outages, prevent future

problems and minimize impact

Configuration Management

Role- To monitor network &

system configuration so that

different versions of hardware and

soft wares are easily managed

- Centralized management device

configuration

- Auto backup & Auto discovery

- Software upgrades

- interfaced with problem management, event

management & Asset Management

- Inventory/Asset Management

- Change Management

Accounting (Asset/ Inventory)

Role- To measure network

utilization of users for billing and

efficient capacity management

- gather usage statistics for users

- Analyze usage pattern

- Billing management

- interfaced with Service Level Management

and Billing Information system

- utilization management, Capacity

Management

- fraud reporting, & Cost of services

Performance Management

Role- To monitor and measure

different aspects for performance

monitoring and optimization.

Includes throughput, utilization and

response times

- Performance monitoring

- Data collection and correlation

- Maintaining historical logs

- Manages performance thresholds.

- interfaced with Service Level Management,

Problem management & Service desk

- advanced topology and graphical

performance monitoring capabilities

- forecasting and trend analysis tool

Security Management

Role- To efficiently manage the

access to resources so that the

network is not sabotaged and

sensitive info is accessed with

authorization

- Granting access to authorized users

- Preventing unauthorized users

- Monitoring intrusion

- Verification

- SM can be interfaced with Access

management, Service desk & Service

Level Management

- Execution of policies & actions as per

Information Security

B. Benefits of a Unified Management system

The unified smart grid management system adds value to

business by providing end-to-end visibility of diverse, multi-

vendor devices and applications thereby helping operation

and services align to business objectives.

Additionally, - Helps in optimizing and enhancing processes, faster

decision making and reducing overall costs.

- Improve the efficiency of the grid and the utilization of its

assets

- Improves efficiency with the integration of operation and

service delivery and the utilization of grid assets

- Provides single view of the geographically distributed

utility devices

- Provides one end-to-end integrated monitoring and

management system

- Improves asset utilization

- Reduces cost through standardization, integration and

consolidation

- Increases business value by improving quality of customer

service

- Provides insights on performance measures, KPI‟s, SLA‟s

to make optimal business decisions

- Predicts, fixes and quickly isolates outages by critically

comparing data from both communication and energy

utilities and using graphical user interfaces

- Optimal planning and designing an integrated network

C. Challenges of implementation

As utilities implement smart grid, millions of “new” and

"smart" devices across the value chain are getting added each

day, creating an infrastructure of a size and complexity the

utilities have never envisioned before. Therefore these

heterogeneous networks and the millions of devices with huge

amounts of data bring their own set of challenges in

implementing a unified management system

1) Interoperability Standards

The biggest concern today is the issue of interoperability

standards, as a multitude of actors and technologies will have

to seamlessly communicate with each other to have and an

end-to-end intelligent grid. This will require highly syntactic

and semantic interoperability between various devices, and

systems that build up the grid. Ideally you can‟t have a “smart”

6

grid if the different vendors produce products with

incompatible and varied technologies. The problem is that

there‟s no unifying standard for building smart grids, as

highlighted by Reuters. NIST has promised to release

standards for small grid deployments, but admits: “what

desperately needed is an overall road map.” Evolving

standards holds the key.

2) Bridging the Telco-Utility divide

Smart grid is realized by the integration of communication

networks with the existing electric infrastructure. But electric

utilities have never agreed to how to work together with the

telecom utilities, and therefore have built their own traditional

communications networks.

3) Convergence of technologies

Traditionally utilities have implemented operations technology

(OT) independently of information technology (IT). These

silos of technology and very different environments make

integration of newer technologies difficult. Unless these

boundaries are eliminated it becomes very difficult to

operationally fix an issue whenever something fails in the grid

and to integrate and align operations with business.

4) Security

The smart grid promises improved system security; however,

increased interconnection brings along challenges in security.

5) Regulatory Challenges

If you look at today‟s electric power utility system, it is more

similar to the telecommunications network of the past; there is

lot of monopoly for providing services. Energy Independence

and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) is however a big step

forward.

6) The ‘Big data’ & Data management

Big data is here. Managing millions of "smart" devices

installed across the value chain calls for handling huge real-

time data- the key asset of smart grid; which could be multiple

orders in magnitude. The challenge only broadens as we

discuss the expected consumer need to maintain detailed

information of the consumption history, creating long-term

archives, making it accessible when needed and making useful

business information out of it (analytics). The other challenges

could be in terms of different formats of data, from multiple

vendor systems and difference sources – Operational,

transactional, hierarchical, event data, meta-data and master

data.

It is therefore important to efficiently manage the data and use

it effectively; otherwise the effort to gather it makes no sense.

Data management goes beyond managing large volumes of

data; it should address the larger issue of knowledge

management- how, when and where to use the data. This will

also call for upgrading the existing IT infrastructure, to

improve and add software and systems to efficiently manage it.

7) Legacy systems & Aging Infrastructure

Smart grid is not a single, unified concept. It is a vision and is

evolving. Smart grid would therefore not revamp the entire

grid to a completely new set of devices and systems, but will

have to accommodate legacy systems as they will continue to

operate; some of them very mature. This will call for

continually evolving approaches to build customized tools and

interfaces, if they don‟t comply with the standard interfaces

and protocols.

On the other hand, large part of the existing grid infrastructure

was built in the late 19th century which means many of the

grid systems have reached their operational limits, thus a risk

to reliable operation

8) Remote management

One of the basic needs of a unified management system is to

remotely monitor and manage the entire grid devices. These

means extending visibility and management functionality to

the remote parts of the heterogeneous networks and enabling

facility to collect accurate real-time information and respond

to changing conditions. This definitely calls for providing a

new kind of communication and IT infrastructure which is

reliable and secure; a remote management breakthrough.

VI. CONCLUSION

Smart Grid is a huge deployment of devices, systems,

intelligence and networks. As utilities install millions of “new”

and "smart" devices across the grid each day, they are unable

to manage the underlying infrastructure of this size and

complexity, making it difficult to fully leverage the smart grid

capabilities. Utilities therefore have realized the need of an

integrated Unified Super NOC (Network Operation Centre)

which can manage both the communication infrastructure and

the energy infrastructure, at the same time provide a Service

Management view which can provide a business view to

deliver business value both to the utility and the consumers.

VII. REFERENCES

[1] NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability

Standards, Release 1.0

[2] DAVID J. LEEDS‟ “THE SMART GRID IN 2010: Market Segments,

Applications and Industry players”, GTM RESEARCH JULY 2009

[3] Erich W. Gunther, Aaron Snyder, Grant Gilchrist & Darren Reece

Highfill, “Smart Grid Standards Assessment and Recommendations for

Adoption and Development”, EnerNex Corporation, February 2009,

Draft 0.83

[4] Pankaj Goyal, Rao Mikkilineni & Murthy Ganti “FCAPS in the

Business Services Fabric Model”, 18th IEEE International Workshops

on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructures for Collaborative Enterprises,

2009

[5] V.K. Sood, D. Fischer & J.M. Eklund & T. Brown “Developing a

Communication Infrastructure for the Smart Grid”

AUTHOR PROFILE

Nampuraja Enose is a Research Analyst with the Infosys

Labs, Infosys Technologies Limited. He is a Post Graduate

(M.Tech) in Microwaves and has several years of working

experience in the Energy and Telecommunication space.