to affect grid reliability or to interfere with normal grid operation. Thus, substations cannot be frequently stopped, and customers cannot be visited without a good reason.
There is an inherent risk of making wrong choices when deciding on the telecommunication solutions for Smart Grids:
The technology assessment period (including analysis, proof of concept, service adjustment, and tender process) may take so long that a relevant percentage of the product or service lifecycle is gone.
The network or service deployment rhythm, as it is encompassed with the grid infrastructure delivery, may take so long that a relevant percentage of the product or service lifecycle is gone.
If the selection of the technology involves a service provided by a TSP, the availability of the service or its service conditions may vary over time, and it may invalidate products developed to adapt to this service.
Utilities usually take some measures to adapt to these risks:
Private telecommunication network solutions are chosen, even if there are commercially available alternatives, to avoid that their investments or costs are decided outside their industry.
Access to niche telecommunication solutions and product vendors. Apart from the grid knowledge of many of these vendors, they offer their solutions with long‐term availability commitments.
Integration of telecommunication solutions and even technology inside grid elements. The use of assets that are intrinsically part of the grid (optical fiber cables, PLC, etc.) guarantee that they evolve as the grid infrastructure does.
Integration of replaceable telecommunication modules within the devices to be connected, or as separate boxes connected through simple standard interfaces, to minimize disruptions due to external changes.
All these precautions come with a price. Private telecommunications network solutions require an expertise that needs to be found within the utility, contracted as a service, or existing within niche TSPs. Niche solutions have the handicap that they are not usually best of breed, as they are not based on the ultimate knowledge and resources from market leaders; moreover, as the niche market may be comparatively small, the attraction of competitors is limited, so that it may end up with prices (costs) that are not competitive. Integration of telecommunication solutions within the grid requires that utilities open their grids to telecommunication experts so that the field they need to explore is available to develop and test new ideas; this might not be easy being the grid a place where safety and reliability of service is a key aspect.
Thus, there are some considerations to observe when designing the Smart Grid evolution with Telecommunications:
Smart grids telecommunication solutions must be always understood as a moving target; i.e., any solution, while in the process of being delivered, must be managed observing its next evolutionary step, as due to the longer technology cycles in Smart Grids, telecommunication solutions will change faster that Smart Grid ones.
Telecommunications solutions must come to the Smart Grid infrastructure in the form of technological waves that will be applied to the existing grids, in such a way that along the life cycle of a grid asset, several evolutionary telecommunication solutions will be applied.
Requirements imposed by the Smart Grid must be realistic but challenging, to find a solution within the existing solutions, while simultaneously providing requirements to the next wave of telecommunication solutions for Smart Grids.
Telecommunication solutions must be scalable, meaning that networks and network end‐points will be able to increase in extension and number (respectively) without general network degradation.
No single solution will ever exist for the “smarter grid.” All Smart Grid evolutions will be a consequence of complex decisions, based on regulatory and business aspects, electric and telecommunications technical, and strategy considerations that will configure unique solutions.
1.6.2 Standards for Telecommunications for Smart Grids
The initiatives to standardize ICT‐related Smart Grid solutions started to crystallize in the 2010s. The overarching idea was to define some reference architectures, identify existing standard solutions, identify gaps in them for Smart Grid purposes, and both adopt and adapt existing standards to eventually create new ones where appropriate.
Different efforts have taken place. The reference models and compilations of solutions are useful but lack specific examples on how to use them to provide real solutions. Their value comes from the identification of applicable standards and the process to produce new ones.
Standards ([45]) are instrumental to achieve interoperability, and within their different scopes, they must allow for the interconnection of standard‐compliant equipment from different manufacturers. Standards have many origins; solutions that end‐up being a standard not always start in standardization bodies. The most extreme case is de‐facto standards that, starting purely in industry, may end as a formal standard solution.
IEC, ITU, IEEE, ETSI, CEN, CENELEC and ANSI are probably the main standardization bodies that have engaged with Smart Grids.
IEC's (International Electrotechnical Commission) influence domain is within electrotechnologies (i.e., electrical, electronics, and related technologies) and is probably one of the best options for Smart Grid standards to grow. IEC members are the National Committees (one country, one vote) that appoint delegates and experts to produce consensus‐based standards. The IEC identified hundreds of Smart Grids standards [46].
ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is the United Nations’ agency specializing in ICT and is organized in three sectors, namely, Radiocommunications (ITU‐R), Standardization (ITU‐T), and Development (ITU‐D). A major role of ITU is on radiocommunications (the World Radiocommunication Conference – WRC – being the major reference point), coordinating spectrum allocation at a worldwide level. ITU‐T created a focus group for Smart Grid activities, now within Study Group 15 [47]. Many relevant Smart Grid‐applicable ITU recommendations will be mentioned throughout the different chapters.
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a well‐known technical professional organization serving professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic, and computing fields and related areas of science and technology. IEEE is organized in “societies,” and the ones related to Smart Grid activities are the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE Power & Energy Society. The IEEE references over 100 standards related to the Smart Grid, and many of them will be mentioned along this book.
ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) [48] is the European Union (EU) ICT‐related recognized body, that jointly with CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation, or European Committee for Standardization) [49] and CENELEC (Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique, or European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) [50] are the European Standard Organizations. The ETSI works closely with the National Standards Organizations (NSOs) in the European countries, to an extent that all European Standards (ENs) become national standards of the different European member states. ETSI works very close to the EU institutions, and in the Smart Grid domain, the European Commission issued M/490, M/441 and M/468 mandates to CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI to develop standards for Smart Grids, Smart Metering, and EV charging.
ANSI (American National Standards Institute) [51] works also very closely with USA institutions, to facilitate the standardization and conformity assessment in the United
