The IEEE has announced publication of a new standard intended to improve the communications and distribution-automation capabilities of smart grids. It also has embarked on the development of three additional standards for smart grids.
The news standard is IEEE 1591.1-2012 – “Standard for Testing and Performance of Hardware for Optical Ground Wire (OPGW).” OPGW combines optical fiber with electrical ground wire in the same cable, thus providing both grounding capabilities for transmission lines and the transmission of communications signals such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). IEEE 1591.1 offers manufacturing, testing, and procurement specifications for use with OPGW hardware.
Meanwhile, new smart-grid standards projects now underway include:
- IEEE P1909.1, “Recommended Practice for Smart Grid Communication Equipment -Test methods and installation requirements” will document test and installation procedures specifically for communications equipment to be installed in various domains of the smart grid, including generation, transmission, and distribution. Tests will target safety, electromagnetic capability (EMC), environmental, and mechanical factors.
- IEEE P1703, “Standard for Local Area Network/Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) Node Communication Protocol to complement the Utility Industry End Device Data Tables” will aims to improve the cost-efficiency and flexibility of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployments. The standard will define uniform, managed, adaptive, and secure network data and message delivery for plug-and-play, multi-source utility meters, home appliances, communication technology, and other ancillary devices.
- IEEE P1854, “Guide for Smart Distribution Applications Guide,” will categorize and describe important smart distribution applications and fill gaps for standardized definitions of such systems. The guide is intended to cover advanced automation and SCADA systems for reliability improvement, outage management, fault location and management, voltage and var management, distributed-resource and renewable-generation integration, demand response, advanced protection, equipment diagnostics and asset management, real-time simulation for system optimization, microgrids, and many other applications.
“Many of the benefits that the world hopes to achieve through smart-grid development—such as empowering greater consumer choice in energy use, improving the reliability of power generation and distribution, and more efficiently meeting skyrocketing power demand—are dependent on integrating significantly more robust systems for communications and distribution automation,” said Dr. W. Charlton Adams Jr., past president of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). “The new standards activities approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board are designed to enhance those very capabilities—and, in doing so, accelerate realization of the smart grid’s revolutionary promise.”