In a recent report, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) defines the Smart Grid as “a modernization of the electricity delivery system so it monitors, protects, and automatically optimizes the operation of its interconnected elements—from the central and distributed generator through the high-voltage network and distribution system, to industrial users and building automation systems, to energy storage installations, and to end-use consumers and their thermostats, electric vehicles, appliances, and other household devices.”

That’s a mouthful, for sure, and it spans a plethora of communication and automation technologies. So it’s not surprising that the Smart Grid means different things to different individuals. “If you took a poll of people in the industry and asked them what the Smart Grid is, you’d get a different answer from every one,” observes Bob Gilligan, vice president, transmission and distribution, for GE Energy Co., Atlanta, a provider of Smart Grid technologies. “The Smart Grid is not a single product, but a set of solutions.”

When Automation World set out to provide coverage of the Smart Grid as part of the “Networks & Connectivity” focus for this issue, we decided to touch base with some of the end-users of Smart Grid technologies to find out what the Smart Grid means to them. We caught up with folks-in-the-know at three major utilities, and at a major U.S. military base. In the individual reports that follow, readers will get an idea of some of the elements needed to make the Smart Grid a reality, some of the considerations involved and some of the benefits to be achieved.

[Case #1] National Grid Sees Smart Grid “Data Explosion”

It’s a funny thing about the Adirondack pine trees found in upstate New York. They make it difficult to communicate via 900 megahertz (MHz) radio, says Vince Forte, principal engineer, Smart Grid, for National Grid, in Albany, N.Y., one of the nation’s largest utilities.

“When they’re fully grown, those long-needled pines happen to be a perfect fractional wavelength of 900 MHz,” Forte says. “They actually absorb the signal and round it out, so it’s like a black hole—you just can’t get through them. You either have to be above the trees with your antennas, or you need to find another technology,” he relates. And in the 6.1 million-acre Adirondack Park, a New York State-protected area, there are restrictions on tower height.

It’s a reality that National Grid confirmed during a Smart Grid distribution automation (DA) pilot test conducted recently by the utility, which supplies electricity to some 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. The company used 900 MHz spread spectrum radios for peer-to-peer communication of data between devices installed on its distribution feeder lines in the pilot test area, says Forte. But when National Grid tried using the same technology to send data gathered in the field back to its control centers for analysis, it ran into the piney communications problem. As a result, says Forte, “we’re exploring other communication options” for that portion of the network.

The experience points out the fact while robust, broadband two-way communications will be essential to effective Smart Grid operation, no single communication technology will do it all. “I don’t think that you will see one type of communication dominate around the country,” Forte observes. “I think you’ll see a mix, depending on the needs of particular utilities and the physical environments they operate in.”

Big pipe

One thing that is certain: For many applications, “a very large pipe” will be required to handle the huge anticipated volumes of Smart Grid-generated data, Forte says. That might mean anything from fiber optic or T1 communication lines to 900 Mz spread spectrum or WiMax (for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access).

With the Smart Grid, “there’s going to be an explosion of data,” Forte predicts. Though utilities have long had the ability to control transmission-line devices from a central facility, the Smart Grid will extend that capability down to the distribution level. “So instead of hundreds of transmission lines, we’re talking about thousands of distribution lines and all the associated substations,” Forte points out. That means data from many more devices coming back to the control room.

Further, the amount of data transmitted for many of these “smart” devices will amount to orders of magnitude more than that seen in traditional grid communications. In a typical transmission supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) environment today, two-way communication for a device might be limited to a simple set of “open” or “close” data exchanges, ...