October 2016

By Steven Collier

The emergence of a modern, intelligent grid involves a proliferation of new technologies, components and methods. Utilities, customers and non-utility providers are changing the way that the grid operates. Industry standards are crucial in establishing objective definitions and assurance of capability and functionality thereby safeguarding safety, reliability, security, compatibility, integration, interoperability, scalability, and upgradeability. The IEEE is uniquely qualified to lead the industry in the development of smart grid standards and continues to make substantial progress in doing so.

 By Babak Enayati

This article highlights the necessity to have standards like IEEE 1547. Due to the high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the electric power system (EPS), the utility companies are facing challenges to interconnect the DERs onto their EPSs. These challenges include power quality, protection, etc. Since most DERs are capable of providing grid support functionalities to resolve some of these challenges, the IEEE 1547 standard is under a full revision to allow DERs and the utilities to utilize these functionalities. This article also describes some of the major draft proposed changes to the current version of the standard.

By Michael Emmanuel, Ramesh Rayudu and Ian Welch

In order to maximize the full value of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as grid capacity expansion, provision of environmentally responsible energy and ancillary services while retaining power network reliability, there is a critical need for adherence to common functional technical requirements and specifications relevant to the effective operation and performance of the next-generation grid. This will not only simplify implementation at reduced costs but will ensure multi-vendor interoperability, improved security and reduced time-to-market.

By Mohamed A. Ali and Ahmed A. Mohamed

The ownership of future grid communications networks and associated standards and interoperability challenges are setting off significant debate among all stakeholders. At the heart of the ongoing debate is whether future grid communications networks should be based on utility-owned/controlled private networks or using the services of public, commercial mobile networks. Recently, a combination of several cellular technology advances along with compelling techno-economic trends have emerged that will most likely bring the debate to a close and position LTE-A-based Fifth-Generation (5G) mobile wireless technology as the global future grid communication networking standard.