Modern metering, old grid

If the utility industry ever adopts terminology from the military, they might begin calling smart meters the point-of-the-spear when it comes to the smart grid. That's because smart meters are how most consumers experience smart grid features. The problem is smart meters alone do not constitute a smart grid. They are of course only one part of a more complex system of energy distribution. Unfortunately, a truly smart grid will never materialize without the automation of the less glamorous energy transmission and distribution components.

And there are problems galore with getting the grid to a point where it can accommodate a significant amount of capacity in renewable energy sources, which are typically intermittent. Then there is the coming challenge of an electric-vehicle (EV) infrastructure comprising thousands of EV charging stations. To make matters even more complicated, these stations can potentially act as tiny energy providers if need be, sucking power from EVs that are garaged and idle.

All in all, grid resources and demands are likely to grow increasingly uncertain and hard to plan for. Of course, these problems are widely appreciated. Typical of the efforts to deal with such difficulties are those of the Power Systems Energy Research Center (PSERC), a research consortium that is investigating areas which include dynamic grid reserve requirements and hierarchical coordinated control of grid resources. To do so, they are “leveraging existing digital technologies that can enable effective end-to-end adaptation of renewable resources into the electric grid system,” says Vijay Vittal, director of PSERC and Ira A. Fulton Chair in Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University. The school is working with universities nationwide in pursuit of this goal.

On-Ramp says its ULP method is advantageous for smart grid communications in areas characterized by a lot of radio noise. It also provides real-world throughput rates that are appreciably higher than mesh network techniques, the company claims.

Of course, the automated meter reading (AMR) environment made possible by smart meters should let utilities more easily base their rates on “time of use” rather than the flat rates residential users are accustomed to. The DoE says some 3 million homes already have smart meters. About 65 million such meters will be installed in the U.S. by 2020 according to the utility industry's Institute for Electric Efficiency.

But some consumers are going into the age of AMR kicking and screaming. A recent analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimated an intelligent smart-metered grid could reduce electricity use by more than 4% a year by 2030. Nevertheless, many consumers think these benefits accrue to the utilities, not to them. In pilot projects, some smart-meter households report the net result of smart metering was a higher electric bill. Such incidents lead many to question meter accuracy, security, and potential for compromised privacy.

To be fair, utilities have some blame in this situation because they haven't clearly explained how smart metering benefits the public. “Beyond the fact that the smart meter itself is a relatively simple tool, the customer relationship is a delicate thing,” says Richard W. Caperton, a policy analyst and climate expert with the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy group. “It needs to be handled with that in mind,” he adds.

Consumers have security concerns about data gleaned from their usage habits, and with good reason. After all, smart grid data is protected by the same kinds of facilities - firewalls, intrusion detection, network access authentication - used to guard IT resources. And there are successful hacks of these defenses all the time.

One suggestion coming from Dept. of Defense officials is that infrastructure resources such as the smart grid be put on their own isolated networks. Others advocate using security measures that meet high international standards. The standard covering IT security is called ISO/IEC 15408. The highest operating system protection profile under this scheme is dubbed the Separation Kernel Protection Profile (SKKP).

SKKP incorporates a variety of techniques to head off trouble. For example, operating systems certified under SKKP must have ways of isolating malicious applications so they don't corrupt others. SKKP also spells out software development practices and even demands that operating systems withstand attacks from NSA experts who have access to the source code.

Smart grids of the future will need to handle bidirectional power flows and multiple voltage levels. One device engineered with these qualities in mind is this transformer that can handle both ac and dc power. It is being designed at North Carolina State University. From left to right are (all with green covers) the high-voltage semiconductor-based ac rectifier, the high-voltage semiconductor-based dc converter, high-frequency transformers, and control circuitry (red cover).

There are already commercial packages incorporating such extreme measures. One is from embedded software provider Green Hills Software which has an operating system meeting the NSA high-robustness Common Criteria EAL 6+, the highest level available within SKKP. Green Hills says it is working with other companies on more bullet-proof smart grid security architectures.