Transmission & Distribution Technology
A smart grid versus smart meters
Intelligent distributed control applications are extending the smart grid beyond metering. Michael Anderson reports.
T
he electric grid is facing unprecedented demand and struggling to meet new stresses it was never designed to handle. Increased energy demand, unpredictable generation from renewable sources,
volatile energy costs, distributed generation, electric vehicles and environmental concerns are coming together to change the nature of the grid. Many utilities are looking to smart metering and smart grid solutions to help address these challenges. Te smart grid is significantly broader than smart metering. Smart meters are just a single application within the smart grid. A true smart grid goes beyond the meter to provide a broader set of services that increase reliability, survivability and responsiveness of the grid. With a smart grid, utilities can meet next generation demand response challenges, optimize local grid efficiency, predict power outages before they occur and rapidly restore service, and implement other services. Unlike smart meters, a smart grid infrastructure goes beyond billing and metering applications, and provides essential information about the health and status of the grid necessary to implement many diverse smart grid applications.
Transforming the electric grid Echelon Corporation is leading the worldwide transformation of the electricity grid into a smart, communicating energy network, connecting utilities to their customers, enabling networking of everyday devices, and providing customers with energy aware homes and businesses that react to conditions on the grid. Echelon’s new Echelon Control System (ECoS) is an open and secure application framework, including a software development kit and management tools that enables intelligent distributed control at the edge of the smart grid network. Te edge of the grid is also sometimes referred to as the ‘last mile’ of the distribution grid. It is the critical point where the electricity distribution network connects to customers. ECoS will run throughout the edge of the grid on
Echelon’s new Edge Control Node (ECN) 7000 series of open and extensible hardware solutions. In the ECN 7000, ECoS provides a set of core
services, along with built-in ECoS apps, that provide the software infrastructure necessary to support multiple applications running co-operatively to monitor and control devices to implement smart grid functionality.
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Echelon’s ECoS provides an open and secure application framework for monitoring and controlling devices at the edge of the grid - the critical point where the distribution network connects to customers. Intelligent distributed control distributes sensing
and control through the grid. Tere is no single point of decision making, and therefore there is no single point of failure. Decisions are made closer to the point of control, for more rapid response time and increased reliability with decreased communications cost. Intelligent distributed control delivers the needed response time, enhances system survivability, increases reliability, and lowers cost.
ECoS is more than an operating system. It is a set of tools and services that provide a framework that makes it easy to develop powerful applications for intelligent distributed control. By way of analogy, ECoS is to the smart grid what Android is to smart phones. Android provides an open and secure software framework, built on Linux, which provides a set of services and supporting tools to simplify development of smart phone apps. ECoS provides an open and secure software framework, built on Linux, which provides a set of services with supporting tools to simplify development of smart grid applications. Te ECoS platform consists of four key components; ECoS Control Services, ECos Core Services, System Services, and Built-in ECoS apps.
Fig. 1. A smart grid infrastructure provides essential information about the health and status of the grid necessary to implement many diverse smart grid applications.
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