A Smart Micro-Grid Architecture for Resource Constrained Environments

Anne V.D.M. Kayem, Christoph Meinel, Stephen Wolthusen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Micro-grids offer a cost-effective approach to providing reliable power supply in isolated and disadvantaged communities. These communities present a special case where access to national power networks is either non-existent or intermittent due to load-shedding to provision urban areas and/or due to high interconnection costs. By necessity, such micro-grids rely on renewable energy sources that are variable and so only partly predictable. Ensuring reliable power provisioning and billing must therefore be supported by demand management and fair-billing policies. Furthermore, since trusted centralized grid management is not always possible, using a distributed model offers a viable solution approach. However, such a distributed system may be subject to subversion attacks aimed at power theft. In this paper, we present a novel and innovative distributed architecture for power distribution and billing on micro-grids. The architecture is designed to operate efficiently over a lossy communication network, which is an advantage for disadvantaged communities. Since lossy networks are undependable, differentiating system failures from adversarial manipulations is important because grid stability is to a large extent dependent on user participation. To this end, we provide a characterization of potential adversarial models to underline how these can be differentiated from failures.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), 2017 IEEE 31st International Conference on
PublisherIEEE Press
Pages1-8
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-5090-6029-0
ISBN (Print)978-1-5090-6030-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Smart meters, Communication networks, Power system stability, Stability analysis, Power generation, Home appliances

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