The term “smart grid” is a bit misleading. Electric grids already are very smart, utilizing distributed control (DCS) and supervisory and control (SCADA) systems to remotely monitor and control electric networks; however, as the national grid in the United States, which is made up of multiple regional grids, changes to meet new demands, even more monitoring and control capabilities are being added. The efforts raise numerous questions for suppliers and users. What types of changes are foreseen in the generation and transmission of electricity in the future? How will those changes affect existing power grids? Why is there even a push to enhance monitoring and control, and will satellite technology play a role in the development of intelligent electrical grids around the globe?

The deregulation of electric utilities, which have been to date highly regulated and immune from competitive pressures, has created a new set of business dynamics. Senior management must seek out efficiencies and enhanced monitoring technologies are providing the feedback. Deregulation fragmented traditional electric utilities, breaking them up into separate entities that deal specifically with generation, transmission or local distribution of electrical power. Transmission lines carry large amounts of electricity, usually at very high voltages, over long distances from the generation source. Local distribution networks step down the high voltages as needed, and then “broadcast” power out to their clients.

“To fully understand smart grid initiatives, you need to look at what has changed, what is changing and what will change in the future,” says Ray Wright, vice president, marketing, NovaTech, which manufactures lines of products which measure, monitor and control the flow of electricity and data in and out of electric substations. “There is a flow of both electricity and data in and out of a substation. Both need to be managed.” Challenges also are rising for utilities due to pushes to develop alternate forms of electric generation. “Solar fields and wind farms are good examples of new types of generation, but they are a challenge,” he said. “You don’t just plunk down a 500 megawatt wind farm just anywhere. Wind farms and solar fields are placed in specific locations for a reason. You then have to transport the electricity that is generated to markets which need it, but it isn’t as easy as running a wire to the wind farm. Transmission lines and substations need to be built and managed,” he says.

The development of electric vehicles also will have profound implications on power grids, Wright says, with a single vehicle potentially consuming more power than the average home, or “perhaps 15 horsepower of electricity for several hours every day. Will this overtax the existing electrical infrastructure? … But once a fleet of electric cars are fully charged, they become an energy resource the utility could conceptually call on during peak demands. The challenge is designing an electrical system which accepts the flow of electricity in the other direction. Imagine the complexity of relay systems to support two-way power distribution for 60,000 electric vehicles in a large city. It would require a very sophisticated and complex software system to control everything. Plus, everything from electric meters to substations to generation plants will need to have reliable communications to tie everything together. Its challenges like these that create great opportunities, making the industry a great place to be now,” he says.

With the addition of intelligent electrical devices that communicate, smart grids are expected to yield a number of benefits. Efficiency and reliability are at the top of the list. To meet peak demands, backup generation facilities are kept running so additional megawatts can be brought on-line quickly. While this backup generation capacity minimizes the chance of a service interruption due to load, it is extremely expensive. As intelligent electrical devices become pervasive, power grids will be better optimized and have more capabilities to heal themselves. This will yield longer asset life, lower operational costs and happier customers. Once networks are implemented, which will allow the two-way distribution of electricity, more generating sources can be added, which will open up the segment to greater diversification.

Satellite in the Electric Industry

Historically, satellite technology has not gained a large markets share in electric utility networks, but that is beginning to change. First impressions often are lasting ones, and several aspects relating to early Ku-band satellite technology were not well received by electric utilities: rain fades and variable latencies caused by contention in TDMA networks. When transformers fail in a power grid, DCS and SCADA networks quickly bring automatic switches, called reclosures, into play, redirecting the flow of electricity and maintaining power to all customers. Peak demand during temperature extremes can cause transformers to fail at a higher rate. Lightning storms can also wreak havoc on an electric grid. Early Ku-band VSAT systems, which lacked the ability to dynamically adjust link margins, would go down at the worst moment — during a severe rain storm, when they were needed the most. Today’s Ku-band networks are much more robust, but memories of early VSAT failures communicating via 20-watt satellites remain.

A second major problem with early VSAT systems involved the variability of latency across a satellite link. Kevin Franciotti, principal, Energy Asset Services, which provides communications engineering consulting, explains the problem: “DNP protocol, which is used extensively in the electrical utility market, has some unique requirements regarding timing. Reading a register is relatively easy, but when you need to take an action, such as making a state change, there is an eight-step transmission and handshake process with very stringent timing constraints. A shared hub solution that involves multiple clients contending for bandwidth won’t be successful, which is exactly what the utilities tested years ago. Today’s satellite solutions are often judged against past failures, which simply isn’t accurate. To successfully support the utility industries SCADA systems, a satellite network must be able to provide predictable latency. Those types of satellite systems exist today and can successfully support DNP protocol.”

As smart grid initiatives gain momentum, satellite technology is proving to be advantageous in a handful of applications: substation automation, distribution automation, automated meter initiatives (AMI) and communication support for mobile workforces. “There is a big push within utilities to move to Internet Protocol (IP),” says Christian Bergan, director, vertical marketing, iDirect. “Government funding is available to help utilities make this transition. There are quite a few legacy SCADA systems which must be upgraded, but the first logical step is to establish an IP network for transport. Utilities need to transfer electricity in a smarter fashion, and networks in the future will need to respond in a smart way as loads shift. Every switch, reclosure and capacitor bank will require communications so they can be integrated into the overall power system. This, in turn, requires an improved communications infrastructure. Having intelligent devices in the field which can communicate helps the coordination between different power grids,” he says.

Utilities are finding that satellite is becoming an important part of their networks as complements to other telecommunication technologies, Bergan says. “In many areas utilities have installed private fiber or radio networks. VSATs provide a flexible and cost-effective backup solution to fiber and radio, thereby maximizing network availability. Substation automation and distribution automation projects are also a great fit for VSATs. These automation sites are often located far enough from the utility’s radio or fiber backbone that it is cost-prohibitive to extend connectivity. VSATs are a cost-effective way of expanding a utility’s IP transport network.”

AMI envelops automated meter reading, and uses intelligent electric meters which can communicate. In the United States, mesh radios are used to provide connectivity to residential and business meters. “Smart meters are a necessity between utilities at transfer points and customer substations,” says Todd Jolley, director of vertical solutions at Hughes. “The amount of electricity being transacted can be very large. Human error reading a meter, even a small error, can have a significant financial impact. VSAT provides connectivity virtually anywhere and is a viable alternative to other transports, especially in remote areas. To provide the availability utilities need, satellite must be part of their overall solution.”

Ian Canning, vice president, global marketing, Stratos, points out that most smart meter applications tend to be near urban areas. In urban areas, cellular infrastructures are widely available and provide bandwidth at a lower cost than most satellite solutions. Stratos and a channel partner recently deployed the Stratos BGAN SCADA solution to backhaul smart meter information for more than 80,000 households in the United States. “Despite those advantages, cellular technology can have some drawbacks. Smart meter data is transferred wirelessly from home and business meters to a central point. In some areas, those central points happen to be near schools or colleges. In those areas, the cellular network traffic patterns become unpredictable during certain times and events due to text messaging and other mobile applications. These unpredictable traffic patterns can result in unstable smart meter data collection,” he says.

Omni Global, a provider of energy management services, integrates smart meters into a customized interactive service which allows building owners to monitor and control their building’s electrical consumption. Omni Global uses VSATs to communicate with their client’s properties. Derya Yavalar, Omni Global’s CEO, says, “A smart meter allows the business owner to see what their consumption is every 15 minutes. Utilities don’t provide this granularity. Data on demand is important so you can tell if consumption is going up or down. Imagine a chain of convenience stores with 1,000 locations. Energy bills for each store typically are several thousand dollars each month. That equates to millions of dollars of fixed overhead. Our solution allows the business to monitor usage and during peak demand, take predefined actions to minimize their consumption, such as raising the thermostat several degrees or turning off lights that aren’t critical. This helps them save on their utility bills. VSAT technology allows us to provide the ubiquitous coverage we need to support our clients,” he says.

Responding to User Demand

Current electric grids were built by monopolies in a world void of competition. Deregulation brought competitive pressure to bear, and traditional methods of managing power grids no longer are sufficient. Electric power networks eventually will transition from one-way broadcasters of power to being more two-way in nature. To fully implement this new paradigm requires new technologies, complex software to model bi-directional loads and a significant investment in telecommunications hardware and services to tie everything together. As utilities expand their communication networks to accommodate the plethora of intelligent electrical devices, they are finding satellite technology indeed has a place in the smart grid. “Our grid has always been smart, but we are being forced to re-engineer it to be even smarter. In a more electrified society, we have less tolerance for outages and the consequences of losing power are worse,” Wright says.

During the years, satellite technology has not enjoyed a positive perception within the electric utility industry. Rain fades, variable latencies and the failure of consumer grade satellite solutions to meet industrial needs created lasting impressions. While those problems have been solved, it will take time to spread the message. Patience and commitment will be required from satellite vendors, but the long-term results will be worthwhile. Look for utilities to continue to invest in smart grid initiatives, and as they do, the uptake of satellite technology will continue to rise in this sector.