International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ELECTRONICS AND ISSN 0976

6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), IAEME

COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (IJECET)

ISSN 0976 6464(Print) ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Special Issue (November, 2013), pp. 163-172 IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijecet.asp Journal Impact Factor (2013): 5.8896 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com

IJECET
IAEME

Role of Communication Schemes for Power System Operation and Control

J Sandeep Soni1, Smita Pareek2
1Faculty/ 2Faculty/Electronics

Electrical Engineering, BKBIET, Pilani, Rajasthan, India & Communication, BKBIET, Pilani, Rajasthan, India

1j.sandeepsoni@gmail.com, 2pareeksmita@rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT: The demand of electrical power is increasing with a very fast rate, so the
transmission and distribution system (Power System) should be capable to overcome the demand with the most excellent quality of supply. Uninterrupted electric power distribution with adequate quality is fundamental requirement for modern society. Without proper communication between the devices used in the field and the control & protection equipment installed in control room with smooth operation & efficient control of such a big and complex power system is not possible. The proper communication scheme is used to transfer the data catch from the outdoor units to the control center for controlling and protecting power system. Communication is the enabling technology which plays a significant role in the modernization and atomization of the electric power system. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are very much helpful to provide totally integrated computer environments based power system with more flexibility in control and operation. In this paper the authors covers most of the communication schemes used and helpful to provide accurate & precise control of the operation of the power system to mitigate the huge amount of power increasing day by day.

KEYWORDS: Power System Automation, Power Line Carrier Communication, Fiber Optic
Communication, Satellite Communication, Cellular & Mobile Communication

I.

INTRODUCTION

Power system including production, transmission and distribution is a very complex and wide infrastructure, which is essential for the growth and development of the society and economy. For such a huge & complex electrical network, protection and control is not possible without perfect and effective communication system, which is used to transfer the data & information from control centers to sub-stations located at same station or at different place, also to consumer ends. For this Electrical communication systems are designed to send messages or information from a source that generates the messages to one or more destinations.

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Fig. 1: The overall communication architecture for power system New communication channels and techniques provide opportunities to advance the speed of operation, security, dependability, and sensitivity of protection with optimized cost. No single communication technology is best suited and capable for all power system needs. The requirements must consider with following factors type of technique, type of communication, source of information, amount & frequency and delivery requirements of data transmitted. Due to these requirements a smart and intelligent electricity network has to be designed that can integrates all users connected to it and makes use of advanced information, control, and communication technologies to save energy, reduce cost ,increase reliability and transparency [2,3]. Almost countries are working on research and developing for such a smart and intelligent electricity network, known as smart grid.

II.

POWER SYSTEM CHALLENGES

For such a critical infrastructures designing, monitoring and controlling is more challenging job as a consequence of the steady growth of their size, complexity, level of uncertainty, unpredictable behavior, and interactions [4].Utilities and system integrators face a lot of difficult challenge regarding characteristics and protocols for data communication whenever equipment from different vendors was integrated into a single system. To mitigate the challenges and fulfill the requirements, now day power system automation is recommended in most of countries. Power system faces various problems like as:

Cost effectiveness Capacity to handle data rates Adequate to meet response requirements Security (of data and of control actions) Quality of electrical supply Behavior during fault condition System adequacy System stability and Reliability

III.

POWER SYSTEM AUTOMATION

Power System Automation: Power system automation is the process of automatic monitoring & control within the station or control commands from remote users to control power system devices by using IEDs, communications protocols, communications methods and some relevant software programming to enhance efficiency, reliability, and quality of electric service. Application of automation of power system can be defined as automatically monitoring, protecting and controlling switching operations by using suitable group of devices to restore power service in normal operating conditions after or during fault occurs in system [5].
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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), IAEME

In past the operation and control of power system using automation was very expensive but now a day by using latest technologies, scientific achievement and communication technology modern power systems are more reliable and cost effective. With the help of automation process by using computer interface with I& devices, the process as data acquisition, power system supervision, and power system control can work together in a coordinated automatic fashion.

Fig. 2: Power System automation and supervision A. Communication is the key to power system automation To manage modern power system almost generating, transmission & distribution stations are to be interconnected by some means of communication to exchange data or to provide voice communication. Power system automation includes control, monitoring and protection of power. Also transmission & distribution, load management and remote metering of load centers. The designing and implementing a country-wide communication network to serve the electrical transmission and distribution level is complex task. The following points should be considered before selecting a suitable communication system [6].

Redundancy & Availability Multi-Service & User expectations Alternative transmission technologies Network Management & maintenance Environmental conditions

IV.

COMMUNICATION FOR POWER SYSTEM

In past all devices in communication for power system are according to available features at that time but now according various requirements like: to increase flexibility in operation & control, reliability, stability the system should be modified. So by using modern & latest technology, up gradation of devices, computerized environment modern smart and intelligent power system can be developed. To control this system best communication system is also required. According to the present need & need in future of system various strategic plan with

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the help of practice and planning, an overall communications system is designed. A common architecture for a small distribution system is shown by figure 3.

Fig. 3: Communications architecture for small distribution system A. Electrical Communication System Elements According to name the communication system is designed to transfer data & information in between various locations of power system. In general, a typical communication system can be represented by following block diagram in figure 4. The parts transmitter, the channel, and the receiver are the main parts of the communication system.

Fig. 4: Functional block diagram of a communication system B. Customer load management by using communication system According to fundamental requirements of communication system the utility should be capable to manage the load by any direct control of the load, indirect control or by price incentives etc methods. All of these methods of communication have their own requiems and can be used in following manor:

Communication within a Customer Premise Communication between the Customer Premise and the Local Distribution Control Center Communication within a Substation or a Distribution Station Communication within a Bulk Generation Plant Communication between the Transmission Network and Operations Center Communication between the Bulk Generation Plant and Operations Center

C. Communication challenges and Issues Even though by using communication technology power system is very much smart, intelligent, robust, secure and reliable but there are number of challenges and requirement as discussed by table-1[3].
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Basic Requirement for CS Enhanced Secure Networks Restorability Reliability Interoperability Mobility Survivability Scalable Bandwidth Affordability Addressability

Description of communication system

Priority management of the system for Voice and data services should be provided preferential over other traffic. The system ensures the availability and survivability of the network without unauthorized access to the data & signal. The service of system for voice and data must be capable to reprovisioned, repaired, or restored to required service levels on a priority basis if required. The system should be capable to perform every time and accurately according to its specifications & design requirements. Voice and data services must interconnect and interoperate with other government or private facilities, systems, and their networks. The system should capable to support, portable, reorganize, or fully mobile for voice and data communications. The system should be robust to support users under a broad range of circumstances and conditions. The users must be able to manage the capacity of the communications system services to support variable bandwidth requirements. The system should be compatible with new Public Network (PN) capabilities to minimize cost by using existing infrastructure. Addressability of the system is the ability to easily route voice and data traffic to users regardless of users location or deployment status. Table 1: Basic requirement for communication system

D. Communication requirement classification According to requirements of utility, the communication systems is the most important part of power system and according to available facilitates to handling of requirements and the order of requirements in the available communication these can be classified into three categories, namely :

Real-time operational communication requirements Administrative operational communication requirements Administrative communication requirements

This classification is based on works at the Swedish National Grid and introduced first time in 2001/2002.This classification scheme is very much suitable in present environment and widely used in most of counties [7].

V.

COMMUNICATION SCHEMES

There are various different communication schemes which are available these days, after evolution of various communication systems best method is opt by planning. The fundamental requirements for best communication system are:

Average rate of massage transfer should be high without any loss of information.
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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), IAEME

System response time for data transfer should meet various application requirements. It should capable to handle the requisite amount of data and multitasking operations. It should allow the network growth & added new applications.

A proper applicable technology is needed to provide reliable data transfer with a secure communications system. Following are the methods commonly used for communication in power system: A. Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) In PSTN Dial-up and dedicated leased line telephone networks are generally used for up gradation and automation of power system. The PSTN was designed for two way voice communication between any two points or users. The telephone network is the same network used for public uses daily for carries voice and data transmissions. PSTN generally use standard Bell or Conductive Committee for International Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT) modems. Packet Switching Network (PSN), cellular radio or rural radio are most suitable communication networks, which can provide reliable communication with cheaper cost but the cost increased with an increase in distance and decrease in accessibility[8].

Fig. 5: General Structure of PSTN network B. Power Line Carrier Communication (PLCC) PLCC is an approach to utilize the existing power lines for the communication of data and voice signal as well as protection of transmission lines. This technology was widely used in grid stations to transmit information at high speed since 1950[9].In a power line carrier communication system there are three basic elements:

Transmission line, presenting a channel for the transmission of carrier energy. Tuning, blocking, and coupling equipment. Transmitters, receivers and relays.

The simplified functional diagram of a power line carrier system is shown in Figure 6. The fundamental requirement for PLCC is wire-line communication infrastructure which is already available so the main costs are associated with the terminal equipments only [10, 11].

Fig. 6: Power line carrier communication system

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C. Cellular Radio Communication Cellular radio Communication (CRC) is one another kind of communication system generally used to transport information using electromagnetic waves to provide a feasible communication link between a transmitter and receiver. There are a number of varieties of cellular/mobile radio communication systems which are in use today and its up-gradation is going on [2]. Modern mobile communication systems are networked by using mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) or mobile switching center (MSC) or public switched telephone network (PSTN) etc. Cellular radio transmission systems can be classified into three categories, as simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex.

Fig. 7: Cellular radio communication system Some modern Multiple access techniques like frequency -division multiple access (FDMA), time-division multiple access (TDMA), and code-division multiple access (CDMA) are implemented in modern systems to provide simultaneous access to many users without interference. D. Packet Switching Network (PSN) A packet switched network (PSN) is communications network that groups and sends data in the form of small packets and it does not create a permanent connection between a source and destination node. Each packet contains various details like as source IP address, destination IP address and unique data and packet identifiers. PSN uses low power Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spread spectrum (typically 935 MHz band), that does not require licensing and it is the best solution to frequency management using spread spectrum technology[12]. This network is a computerized nodes based data transmission network send short burst of digital information over low power radios. In Many power utilities it is implemented on local networks and the Internet, used generally for real time SCADA, EMS, AMR and various administrative data flow inter and intra utilities.

Fig. 8: Packet switching network system

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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), IAEME

E. Fiber Optic Communication Fiber optic communication system is the most suitable method for power system control, protection and monitoring functions. Even though, the fiber optic solution is expensive but it gives two main benefits, first one is, it allows utilities to bring back large amount of data on a frequent basis and second, it can provide true, real-time communications. These two benefits are enough to select the fiber optics communication and these provides an attractive alternative if getting large amounts of data on a real time basis is critical and the location is not extremely remote[8,13,14].

Fig. 9: Fiber- optics communication system The main properties and characteristics of fiber optics which make it very useful are:

Low attenuation High bandwidth Electromagnetic interface immunity Security

F. Satellite Communication Satellite communication system is another reliable communication media which provides geographical coverage solution not only for remote control and monitoring of power system but also used for Global Positioning System (GPS) based time synchronization, which can provides fine accuracy in time synchronization [15]. This is an alternative communication system for power system in order to reach remote locations where other communication system such as telephone or cellular networks might not exist.

Fig. 10: Satellite Communication System By using satellite communication systems, service providers can:

Expand the network coverage to new areas Improve the quality of basic communications services Reduce the costs of services to allow more users Add new services to increase the value of telecommunications services to users.
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VI.

CONCLUSION

Power system should bring significant advantages such as low up-front cost, easy network maintenance, robustness, flexibility in operation & control and reliable service coverage. The electrical utilities face various challenges such as equipment failures, lightning strikes, accidents, and natural catastrophes to provide reliable power to the end-users at competitive prices with reliability and good quality. To get highly reliable, self-healing electric system that rapidly responds to real-time events to maintain uninterrupted power services as well as to provide flexibility in operation & control, remote monitoring & control, high speed of operation, security, dependability, and sensitivity of protection etc. with optimized cost a high performance data communication network that supports both existing functionalities and future operational requirements are strongly recommended. According to the capabilities and locations of power system equipment overall communication system is decided, this system may be hybrid communication system consists of various types of communication system. By using various communication systems overall power system can be smart and intelligent. In this paper the authors tried to present a survey of various issues, challenges and need of the proper communication scheme including of various communication techniques & methods used for power system. Modern power system can be more effective, reliable in operation & control with the help of modern SCADA system by using state of the art communication techniques, programmable logic & control and human machine interface etc.

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[10] B. A. Mork, D.Ishchenko X.Wang, A.D.Yerrabelli, R.P.Quest and C.P.Kinne, Power Line Carrier Communications System Modeling, Presented at the International Conference on Power Systems Transients (IPST05) in Montreal, Canada on June 19-23, 2005, Paper No. IPST05 - 247 [11] Relaying Communication Channels. Application Guide. General Electric. GET-8034 [12] F. F. Wu, K. Moslehi and A. Bose, Power System Control Centers: Past, Present, and Future, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 93, No. 11, November 2005, PP:1890-1908. [13] W.H.Kwon, B.J.Chung, Real-Time Fiber Optic Network for an Integrated Digital Protection and Control System, IEEE Transaction on Power Delivery, Vol. 7, No.1. January 1992, PP: 160 166. [14] P.Lecoy, Fiber-Optic Communications, Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN 978-184821-049-3 [15] G.E. Ziegler, Protection and substation automation, Electra 206 (February) (2003) 1423. [16] E.Ekici, I.F.Akyildiz, M.D.Bender, A multicast routing algorithm for LEO satellite IP networks, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking 10 (2) (2002),PP: 183192. [17] Z.Fan, P.Kulkarni, S.Gormus, C.Efthymiou, G.Kalogridis, M.Sooriyabandara, Z.Zhu, S.Lambotharan, and W.H.Chin, Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities, available online at www. Arxiv.org [18] P.H.Young, Electronic Communication Techniques (5th Edition, Published by Prentice Hall (2003-08-17) ,ISBN 10: 0130482854 / ISBN 13: 9780130482853 . [19] B.A.Akyol, H.Kirkham, S.L.Clements and M.D.Hadley, A Survey of Wireless Communications for the Electric Power System, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy. [20] D.J. Dolezilek, Power System Automation, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. Pullman, WA USA. [21] P.Parikh, Distribution System Automation, Ph.D. Scholar, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Western Ontario. [22] L.A.Kojovic, and T.R.Day, Advanced distribution system automation, IEEE/PES T&D Conf. and Expo., Vol.1, PP:348 -353,Sept. 2003.

BIOGRAPHY
J. Sandeep Soni, Asst. Prof. in Electrical Engg. Deptt. at B. K. Birla Institute of Engg. & Tech., Pilani. He obtained Diploma (Electrical Engg.) in 2001 and B.E. Electrical Engg (Hons) in 2004. He worked for more than four years in corporate industries and more than four years in Engineering Education. He is an enterprising youth with the research bent of mind. He has number of papers in National and International Conferences and Journals of high reputes. His research interests are in Power System Automation, Quality Monitoring and Stabilization, Smart Grid Technology, FACTS, Electrical Drives & Control and Renewable Energy & their Applications. Smita Pareek, Assistant Professor in Electronics & Communication Department at B.K.Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology. She received B.E. & M.E. degree in 2002 & 2008 respectively .She is currently pursuing Ph.D. from N.I.T. Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra, India. She has also taught at Poornima College Of Enginnering,Jaipur and Government Engineering College Bikaner, Bikaner. She has more than eleven years of teaching experience. She is Co-Author of three books for Engineering Undergraduate Students. She has many papers in National and International Conferences and Journals of high reputes.
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