APPLICATION OF IoT (INTERNET OF THINGS) IN THE ENERGEY INDUSTRY

TTE INTERNATIONAL LDA specialises in the development of international business and the internationalisation of companies backed by a network of specialist, motivated and success-driven collaborators. We help potential customers to expand their business and reach the desired markets. TTE INTERNATIONAL LDA has offices in Portugal, Spain and Turkey, and representatives in Africa, Asia, North and Central America. With our combined local experience and global experience we are fully equipped to help our customers expand their business into new geographical areas.

The members of TTE INTERNATIONAL LDA have been involved in the Energy Sector over a period of 40 years. Furthermore, we also provide contacts within the auxiliary industries, who supply directly to the main contractors, engineering companies, electrical equipment manufacturers, installation, and maintenance companies.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)

The INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) is an all-encompassing term to define a list of technologies that incorporate devices of all kinds. This basically points to a future where a myriad of devices will be able to communicate with each other, deciphering the best outcome for various situations, in a short amount of time. This will include sensors capable of detecting movement inside a room and to turn lights off and on, when needed. In the energy sector, utility companies use IoT technology as it becomes available. In most cases these are not cutting-edge but instead are used to cover basic needs. For example, until now technology has been used to control assets and increase security, as well as to control the grid.

CURRENT SCENARIO

Grid resilience and the secure supply of power or electricity are much more difficult now with the increase in distributed energy resources (DER) and ageing of the transmission structures and the distribution grids. Distribution grids are evolving and are no longer long-term structures.

In current grid structures, where stakeholders are more distributed and in constant communication with each other, evolution is fundamental and central. Distribution grid systems, before conventionally designed and operated to meet directional power flow requirements, now have to cater for multi-directional load flows. This brings about additional voltage regulations, reactive power flows and technical losses. These serious problems are likely to render current systems inoperable.

The systems used to solve these problems will also have to be distributed in nature and meet substantial resource requirements. We therefore need to find systems that use existing assets more effectively, and operate them with integrated information technology. Energy distribution companies need to have more control and manage photovoltaic generation plants, battery storage plants, EV charging stations and guide end-users in their choices for these systems so as to avoid increased grid costs.

That’s why we are of the opinion that distribution companies and prosumers, as stakeholders, will in the immediate future be in constant interaction and start taking steps towards enabling that interaction, with the help of digitalisation.

Ultimately, we must remember that, in this equation, the most important actor is the end-user. Energy suppliers and utilities who are looking to use IoT technologies, to generate internal and external benefits, will only succeed if they also get consumers involved. A grid structure needs to be efficient, resilient and reliable. It is no longer efficient to have central control over every generation or transmission facility, but to deploy a series of smart sensors for each facility capable of managing information loops. Obviously, this means massive hardware and software deployments, but the return on investment (RoI) will be substantial. There are many examples regarding the use of IoT in the energy sector; some of these are SCADA and performance management systems, AMI, ADMS, etc.

SCADA

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) allows centralised monitoring of transmission and generation systems, located far from the control centres. Central Master Units are able to control these via a user interface; this in turn allows for manual inputs and automated decision-making. That is, SCADAs allow for remote human interaction. IoT will take SCADA to the next level. With IoT devices, we can now turn every object into a transceiver. Sending and receiving volumes of data, on a minute-to-minute basis, allows for better decisions-making. With IoT SCADAs will be able to access historical data or predictive data and advanced analyses to increase operation efficiency. While SCADA concentrates on day-to-day operations, previous actions and the data collected will be considered in decision-making, which in turn will influence other actions and so on.

In the generation sector SCADA and IoT will play a fundamental role in performance monitoring. With this performance monitoring option it will be possible to forecast expected production values, PR values, equipment performance and other key metrics that will maximise generation and improve O&M. However, there are still some difficulties with SCADA systems and IoT monitors.

AMI –  Advanced Metering Infrastructure Solution

An Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is an integrated system composed of smart meters, communication networks and data management systems that allow two-way communications between utilities and meter-side customers. With AMI it will be possible to automatically and remotely measure electricity usage, connect and disconnect services, detect tampering, identify and isolate outages and monitor voltage. AMI meters can also be remotely monitored and controlled.  It thus enables utilities to better monitor energy consumption and carry out more accurate billing, while also reducing operating costs.  A combination of these two allows for predictive situation analysis and preparation for heavy and light usage times. Overall, smart grids are making great strides with AMI.

ADMS (Advanced Distribution Management System) in SMART GRID

We need a smart grid and and to that end the modernisation of current grids need to be carried out in two phases:

Phase 1: Implementation

This phase starts with data collection to be followed by deeper analysis as the process progresses, allowing new insights to emerge about power generation, eliminating inefficiencies, opening transmission bottlenecks etc. New information from grid operations and customers’ interactions also allows the arrival of self-correcting systems that over time learn to correct faults or handle failures on their own. For example, transformer monitoring is no longer an issue with IoT solutions. Decisions will be made in milliseconds and unsafe configurations of electrical circuits and distribution equipment will be avoided. This can be achieved with IoT-based solutions

Phase 2: Optimization

New optimisation methods will allow for the construction of completely new installations, devoid of all the inefficiencies and weaknesses of old installations. Interoperability between meters, from the utility company to the customer, will allow for better resource-use. With the creation of cheaper options for consumers more competition will arise between industry leaders for IoT-based solutions.

ADMS – Advanced Distribution Management System  

ADMS is an advanced distribution management system capable of creating an unified system to carry out monitoring and control, using IoT devices. ADMS is key in achieving smart grid optimisation by combining data from SCADA, GIS, meter data management, outage management and customer information systems.
ADMS offers many benefits for utilities. For example, response to outages can be done automatically with human resource management (WFM), thus reducing response times and therefore increasing customer satisfaction conseguinte aumentando a satisfação do cliente.

IoT & SCADA Systems

In the utility sector, monitoring the entire network using industrial IoT monitoring or controlling and SCADA systems has already started to be a critical issue that needs to be solved due to the changing nature of the grid. How utilities are using the industrial protocols in different systems.
IoT (Internet of Things) or more specifically Industrial IoT monitors or controls critical equipment and devices that require a robust system and security.
This requirement highlights some technical issues in the IoT domain that must be solved before expanding these solutions to the entire network.
Therefore, any solution for utilities service providers in the IoT domain must be able to keep the service reliable, but without blocking our any innovation that is likely to makes the system more efficient.
The first point we need to explore is the use of new communication protocols and the creation of new standards for the IoT Utility domain that makes the solution provider independent.
In existing SCADA systems, utilities use the industrial protocols like IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850 or DNP3 that make the whole system provider independent and consistent. But it is not easy and effective to use these protocols for low-cost RTUs, gateways and sensors. The number of monitoring points, the computing power needed and the complexity of the communication system force us to use simple IoT protocols even LV grids. Protocols like MQTT, REST or COAP are the main candidates for these types of systems, but some standards should be defined to make them vendor independent and reliable. In existing IoT platforms, the message structures shared between the device and the central system are fully customised and most of them are designed only for simple sensor data.

The first point we need to explore is the use of new communication protocols and the creation of new standards for the IoT Utility domain that makes the solution provider independent. In existing SCADA systems, utilities use the industrial protocols like IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850 or DNP3 that make the whole system provider independent and consistent. But it is not easy and effective to use these protocols for low-cost RTUs, gateways and sensors. The number of monitoring points, the computing power needed and the complexity of the communication system force us to use simple IoT protocols even LV grids. Protocols like MQTT, REST or COAP are the main candidates for these types of systems, but some standards should be defined to make them vendor independent and reliable. In existing IoT platforms, the message structures shared between the device and the central system are fully customised and most of them are designed only for simple sensor data.

SCADA AND IOT SYSTEMS RELATED PROBLEMS

Os desafios dos sistemas IoT e scada

Challenges presented by IoT and Scada systems
The security of industrial IoT monitoring or controls is also different from those used in conventional SCADA systems, and the requirement for communication between these conventional systems and new technologies requires a system that is fully and sufficiently secure and flexible to connect thousands of devices without restrictions in the remote access to the terminals. Moreover, due to the ever-increasing number of devices, connected to the system, the entire project must be horizontally scalable, which is completely different from conventional SCADA solutions.
Another challenge presented by this type of system are the high availability and failover requirements of the evolving structure.
Due to the horizontal scalability requirement these systems need to be executed as a cluster and at the same time manage all devices from various zones in normal operation mode.
Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence and edge computing in LV nodes requires additional data beyond simple configurations of core systems. This can be in the form of some configurations, real time signals like price or short-term forecasts like weather. Therefore, leading edge devices must be able to obtain this data from the IoT platform or be connected to other public networks, which could produce security issues.

Debates around this Technological Advance

We may start this debate with the technical requirements for an LV system, requiring industrial IoT monitoring or control, Artificial Intelligence and communications with conventional systems.

In this debate we need to address the following:

• The new standards requirements that must met by this vendor-independent system, when using new generation IoT protocols.
• Design of reliable and horizontally scalable systems, compatible with utilities’ current IT infrastructures.
• Security requirements when connecting thousands of devices, with cutting-edge computing capabilities, to this system.
• Additional information flows required in cutting-edge computing.