Kari Mäki

Survey of smart grid concepts, architectures, and technological demonstrations worldwide

This paper describes various smart grid concepts, architectures, and details of associated technological demonstrations implemented worldwide. The survey is based on initiatives taken by EU and IEA (e.g. ETP, EEGI, EERA and IEA DSM) and description of projects conducted in Europe and US (e.g. FENIX, ADDRESS, EU-DEEP, ADINE, GridWise and SEESGEN-ICT). The report presents drivers, visions and roadmaps to develop smart grids worldwide including China and India. The survey encompasses various smart grid concepts, i.e. development of virtual power plant, active demand in consumer networks, DER aggregation business, active distribution network, and ICT applications to develop intelligent future grids. The comparison is carried out on the basis of commercial, technological, and regulatory aspects. In addition, the existing features of smart grid technology and challenges faced to implement it in Finnish environment are addressed. As a matter of fact, the implementation of smart grid is consisting of more than any one technology, therefore, this transition will not be so easy. In the end, a fully realized smart grid will be beneficial to all the stakeholders. Smart grid will be an outcome of an evolutionary development of the existing electricity networks towards an optimized and sustainable energy system.

Simulation-Based Approach for Studying the Balancing of Local Smart Grids with Electric Vehicle Batteries

Modern society is facing great challenges due to pollution and increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. As part of solving these challenges, the use of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles (EVs) is rapidly increasing. However, increased dynamics have triggered problems in balancing energy supply and consumption demand in the power systems. The resulting uncertainty and unpredictability of energy production, consumption, and management of peak loads has caused an increase in costs for energy market actors. Therefore, the means for studying the balancing of local smart grids with EVs is a starting point for this paper. The main contribution is a simulation-based approach which was developed to enable the study of the balancing of local distribution grids with EV batteries in a cost-efficient manner. The simulation-based approach is applied to enable the execution of a distributed system with the simulation of a local distribution grid, including a number of charging stations and EVs. A simulation system has been constructed to support the simulation-based approach. The evaluation has been carried out by executing the scenario related to balancing local distribution grids with EV batteries in a step-by-step manner. The evaluation results indicate that the simulation-based approach is able to facilitate the evaluation of smart grid– and EV-related communication protocols, control algorithms for charging, and functionalities of local distribution grids as part of a complex, critical cyber-physical system. In addition, the simulation system is able to incorporate advanced methods for monitoring, controlling, tracking, and modeling behavior. The simulation model of the local distribution grid can be executed with the smart control of charging and discharging powers of the EVs according to the load situation in the local distribution grid. The resulting simulation system can be applied to the study of balancing local smart grids with EV batteries. Based on the evaluation results, it is estimated that the simulation-based approach can provide an essential, safe, and cost-efficient method for the evaluation of complex, critical cyber-physical systems, such as smart grids.

Improving reliability and quality of supply(QoS) in smart distribution network

Smart distribution grids will be a combination of existing electrical networks controlled by distributed software applications communicating via communication networks. This means that not only the reliability of individual technologies are crucial, but the interoperability is also pivotal for the robustness of the smart distribution network. These individual research areas (electrical network, distributed software controller and communication network) have their corresponding fault handling strategies and several proven solutions exist to ensure reliability. The objective of our work is to integrate the solutions from these individual technologies. We focus on the interoperability and integration of individual fault handling strategies that are essential for improving the reliability and robustness of the overall smart distribution network. In this paper, we describe our approach in creating a single solution from the existing individual strategies to create a robust smart distribution network. We also present the details of the demonstrator design that is being built to evaluate our approach.

Enhancing the Resilience of Electricity Networks by Multi-stakeholder Risk Assessment: The Case Study of Adverse Winter Weather in Finland

Electricity networks in Finland are subject to adverse winter weather, particularly a combination of heavy snowfall with strong winds, causing electricity outages especially in the rural areas. The severe consequences of such events require that electricity distributors and the entire network of stakeholders establish a proactive risk management for achieving enhanced situational awareness during adverse weather events, efficient and effective recovering after electricity outage as well as improved preparedness against future events. This paper shows how a risk assessment performed with an Action Error Analysis (AEA) were conducted in order to enhance the resilience of electricity networks against adverse winter weather. This also encompassed an assessment of co-operation and communication structures about such risks. Adverse winter weather that took place in Pirkanmaa, in South-West Finland in November 2015, serves as a case study and laboratory for the assessments. The results of the AEA underscore the importance of co-operation and communication-related challenges that electricity distributors, rescue authorities and municipalities face in maintaining and obtaining a high level of resilience of electricity networks during and after heavy snowfalls. Against this background, novel ways and measures related to co-operation and communication of stakeholders to improve the resilience of electricity networks against future events are discussed.

Interoperability of electricity distribution and communication networks in large-scale outage situations

Today, electricity distribution and communication networks are getting more tightly integrated as smart grids evolve. From time to time, extreme weather conditions such as severe wind and snow storms cause large outages in electricity distribution networks in Northern countries. Loss of electricity can hinder remote control of grid entities and causes a chain-effect that jeopardizes energy generation, transmission, and distribution. Energy companies are seeking for resilient, reliable and cost-effective wireless communication solutions for rural areas to enable remote control and monitoring of medium voltage (MV) grid entities. Our motivation was to study how advanced mobile network functionalities can improve the mutual resiliency of communications and electricity distribution networks, and how they can be used to speed up the recovery. This paper presents the developed Overlay Recovery Control Function (ORCF) algorithm that uses different recovery techniques available in LTE-A and beyond to minimize mobile coverage gaps created during large outages.