Smart5Grid – the 5G smart grid use cases

Smart5Grid is aimed to develop an infrastructure and services for the future smart grid based on 5G networking.

The initiative, which was launched in January 2021, is focused on four use cases that are fundamental functions of modern smart grids and that can benefit from characteristics of 5G such as the millisecond level latency and network slicing.

The use cases, of which more details have now been released, are as follows.

#1: Automatic power distribution grid fault detection

This use case will demonstrate the capability to increase the availability of automatic selection function of distribution network failures.

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As soon as a failure on the grid is detected, it must be isolated in milliseconds. As such, the 5G network needs to ensure reliable and very fast communication among the intelligent energy devices which are involved in the fault detection process. The idea here is that the rest of the grid continues to operate normally, while the number and the duration of the power interruptions for the affected electricity customers is minimised.

This use case is to be demonstrated on Enel’s grid in Olbia, Italy. As part of the deployment, additional devices, such as remote terminal units, are to be installed in the power substations. Several 5G ready communication devices also will be needed at a specific section of the grid.

#2: Remote inspection of automatically delimited working areas at distribution level

This use case aims to enhance the safety procedures for maintenance workers in HV primary power substations making use of real-time information collected from advanced tracking cameras and wearable sensors.

Specifically, this use-case will demonstrate the capabilities for remote inspection through the deployment of a private 5G network, with the creation of 3D models delimiting the working areas of the authorised personnel and real-time communication of big data generated from the sensors and cameras within the working area.

The use case will be performed in a rural 66kV primary substation at the Garraf Naural Park in Barcelona, Spain, with real-time remote tracking of the movements and work of different operators and the provision of instant warning signals and alerts.

#3: Millisecond level precise distribution generation control

Use case 3 is planned to monitor in real-time with millisecond-level precision multiple parameters of distributed energy resources using 5G connectivity for energy production monitoring and predictive maintenance.

The demonstration will be performed at a wind farm in south-eastern Bulgaria. A set of key wind farm performance parameters including turbine rotation and vibration, as well as environmental parameters such as wind speed, humidity and ambient temperature, along with electrical parameters such as power output, grid frequency and voltage will be collected, processed and communicated via 5G connectivity.

While specifically targeting the wind farm, it is envisaged this use case could be easily replicated to other types of renewables from utility-scale PV to customer-owned decentralised generation.

#4: Real-time wide area monitoring

The scope of this use case is the real-time monitoring of power flows over a geographically wide area where cross-border power exchanges take place, in this case at the cross-border area of northern Greece and southern Bulgaria.

The substations on both sides of the interconnection between the two countries will be fitted with phasor measurement units (PMUs) and connected via a 5G communication link to a virtual phasor data concentrator deployed at an edge-cloud server. This link will ensure reliable, low latency communication of the two transmission system operators at the edge of the two power grids.

The incorporation of the time-stamped, synchronised PMU measurements with high data granularity will enable the in-depth analysis of the positive, negative and zero sequence phasors of voltage and currents.

The Smart5Grid project intends to develop network applications consisting of appropriately chained virtual network functions. Their wide adoption through an open repository should then allow the smooth penetration of network operators and others for provisioning novel network services as well as offering automation and real-time inspection and control to existing energy stakeholders.