Novel Industry Architectures for Connectivity Solutions in the Smart Distribution Grids

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2023

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

20
68093-68112

Series

IEEE Access, Volume 11

Abstract

The electric energy system is undergoing a major change due to the increasing requirements of dynamic performance. In distribution grids, this evolution will necessitate expanded automation, which in turn will require enhanced connectivity solutions. Strongly evolving communications technologies and architectures, particularly mobile communications as well as cloud and edge computing, will provide new opportunities and alternatives for connectivity solutions. This paper contributes by identifying potential technical and industry architectures for the connectivity solutions required to manage distribution grids in the early 2030s. The study utilizes a senior expert panel and a Delphi survey. Industry architectures are modelled as value networks. The paper uses the Finnish distribution grids as a case example. Regarding technical architectures, the results reveal skepticism concerning those emerging 5G mobile network features that target industrial applications and about the need for extensive distributed computing in the proximity of consumers and prosumers. The most probable industry architectures are found to be those that enable the Distribution System Operators (DSOs) to maintain direct control of critical technical components, or that enable Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to handle the operations of both communications solutions and distributed computing. CSPs are seen as well positioned for this task due to their existing networking and computing infrastructure. However, this may also involve business risks for both DSOs and CSPs.

Description

Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the Finnish Public Funding Agency for Research, Business Finland through the Project ''IFORGE,'' under Grant 7127/31/2021. Publisher Copyright: © 2013 IEEE.

Keywords

Cloud computing, communications, distributed computing, edge computing, industry architectures, mobile communications, overlay networks, power grids, smart grids, value networks

Other note

Citation

Borenius, S, Kekolahti, P, Hämmäinen, H, Lehtonen, M & Mähönen, P 2023, ' Novel Industry Architectures for Connectivity Solutions in the Smart Distribution Grids ', IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 68093-68112 . https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3291745