Demand for intelligent sensing explodes, and ADI's full range of solutions helps deploy the power Internet of Things

On August 9, 2019, the UK suffered the largest power outage since the "London Blackout" in 2003, affecting the largest population. Some important cities in the UK, including London, saw subways and intercity trains stop running, road traffic signals were interrupted, and some hospitals were unable to provide medical services due to insufficient backup power. About 1 million people were affected. As one of the world's most prosperous metropolises, the power outage in London showed the world the overwhelmed power system behind the international metropolis, such as the inability to coordinate after the grid is connected to the grid, the serious aging of some power equipment, and the weak maintenance of the grid. The power system needs to usher in a new wave of technological revolution.

As an emerging power grid automation system, the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is gradually helping to realize the upgrade of traditional power grids to energy Internet. "In this process, the industry needs to constantly find and apply new methods and technologies to support the safe, reliable, high-quality and efficient operation of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things distribution system. How to combine the Internet of Things technology with the entire distribution system through ADI chips is a problem we have been working on." Zhang Songgang, product manager of Analog Devices, a high-performance analog technology provider, said at the 10th Power Distribution Technology Application Forum held recently.

ADI Product Manager Songgang Zhang's keynote speech: "ADI's Intelligent Sensing Technology Promotes Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things"

Explore comprehensive intelligent perception and promote the deployment of ubiquitous power Internet of Things

As a comprehensive information management system integrating big data and cloud computing, edge computing technology, data transmission, artificial intelligence, mobile Internet control technology, modern equipment and management technology, the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is also commonly referred to as the power grid automation system. It is a new generation of information and communication system that comprehensively carries all businesses such as power grid operation, enterprise operation, customer service, and new business formats by connecting equipment, customers, and data in all aspects of energy production, transmission, and consumption in real time. It has the characteristics of ubiquitous terminal access, open platform sharing, cloud-fog collaboration, data-driven business, and on-demand application customization. It is deeply integrated with the smart grid to form the energy Internet. The distribution Internet of Things is the implementation of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things in the field of power distribution, and intelligent perception is the basic support for the distribution Internet of Things.

According to statistics from my country's State Grid Corporation, there are currently more than 500 million terminal devices connected to the State Grid system (including 470 million electric meters and tens of millions of various protection, collection and control devices). It is expected that after the initial establishment of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things, the number of connected devices will reach 2 billion. "From the perspective of the Internet of Things, the entire ubiquitous power Internet of Things system involves real-world data collection, and the demand for various sensors is huge, which can be said to be cosmic," Zhang Songgang mentioned.

The construction of the power distribution Internet of Things will improve the current problems of perception terminals, such as insufficient coverage of perception components, low rapid response capabilities, and energy extraction technology that has yet to be broken through. High reliability, miniaturization, low power consumption, integration, passivity, and high safety are the future development directions of intelligent perception technology. How to monitor the electrical status and distribution environment? ADI, which is committed to providing customers with products and solutions in various aspects such as perception, measurement, communication, network security, and edge computing, is exploring ways to deploy ubiquitous power Internet of Things faster with the company's customers. "

ADI understands the need for intelligent sensing in the ubiquitous power Internet of Things

Strengthen status monitoring and environmental monitoring to ensure the safety of power distribution equipment

"In the transmission link that everyone is familiar with, such as monitoring of floating ice on conductors and geological disasters, it is very important. Based on MEMS accelerometers, inertial navigation units and temperature sensors, these systems can be combined to fully realize the safety monitoring of transmission lines." Zhang Songgang pointed out. The development of MEMS technology began as early as the 1970s, and ADI was one of the earliest companies involved in this field. At present, ADI focuses on the application of MEMS inertial navigation technology in various industries, realizing various more robust application scenarios with ultra-low noise, ultra-low power consumption and high temperature performance.

ADI's high-performance MEMS sensors address more robust application scenarios

Take the two MEMS accelerometers ADXL1001 and ADXL1002, which are designed specifically for industrial condition monitoring applications, for example. They can provide ultra-low noise density in an extended frequency range with two full-scale range options, and withstand external shocks up to 10,000g. Therefore, the main faults that occur in rotating machinery on the market (such as sleeve bearing damage, alignment errors, imbalance, friction, looseness, transmission failures, bearing wear and cavitation) are all within the measurement range of the ADXL100x series of condition monitoring accelerometers. In addition, ADXL1001 and ADXL1002 also have integrated full electrostatic self-test functions and over-range indicators, which can provide advanced system-level functions and can be used in embedded applications. In terms of power consumption, with a single power supply of 3.3V to 5.25V, ADXL1001/ADXL1002 also allows the design of wireless sensing products. "In addition, ADI's inertial navigation unit, which combines MEMS, gyroscopes and accelerometers, can directly implement inertial navigation applications in many power fields. For example, when combined with a low-noise multi-axis accelerometer, it can monitor the swaying and sagging of wires. The inertial navigation unit can also be used to locate faults in patrol robots, etc." Zhang Songgang emphasized.

In addition to status monitoring, ADI also has a series of sensing technologies for environmental perception, including temperature, gas, optics and acoustics, which can be used in on-site environmental monitoring and distribution cabinet monitoring. The representative product is the ADT7320 digital temperature sensor that can achieve high precision of ±0.25°C, supports SPI interface or I2C interface, has a resolution of up to 16 bits, and is very accurate. At the same time, there are over-temperature and under-temperature interrupts inside the chip, and a power saving mode is available for use. The integrated optical module ADPD188B can measure smoke, analyze the particle size in the gas to avoid false alarms, and provide protection for fire safety monitoring of various electrical equipment. In addition, ADI also has mature products in environmental sensing technologies such as magnetoresistance technology, ToF and red heat, which have developed rapidly in recent years, and can better meet the sensing technology needs in key applications of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things in the future.

Zhang Songgang also specifically mentioned the mSure self-detection technology launched by ADI, which can directly monitor the accuracy and fault conditions of electricity meters in real time and non-invasively. The electricity meters that support mSure are combined with cloud analysis services to provide power companies with real-time data and feasibility analysis of the accuracy of the electricity meters during their life cycle, as well as meter faults and advanced electricity theft detection.

A new discussion on energy harvesting technology and wireless networking architecture for ubiquitous power Internet of Things

With the further deployment of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things, the power industry has accumulated massive amounts of data, which have the characteristics of big data in terms of data volume, diversity, speed and value. To enhance the ability to mine the value of massive data resources, the first thing to solve is the power supply problem. It is expensive to use power lines for power supply, and with the increase in the number of nodes of wireless sensor network devices, it becomes impractical to lay too many lines. Low-power energy harvesting technology can collect weak environmental energy and efficiently convert it into electrical energy to power electronic devices. "ADI provides a variety of ultra-low power ICs for energy harvesting applications, such as ADP5091 for converting photovoltaic energy (solar energy), LTC3588 for converting vibration energy (piezoelectric), LTC3107 for converting thermal energy (TEC, TEG, thermopile, thermocouple) and other power management products, which can provide high-efficiency conversion to stable voltage, making micro-power energy harvesting possible." Zhang Songgang said.

ADI's broad range of micropower energy harvesting technologies

In addition, wireless networking technology is a major trend in device communication. It is predicted that by 2020, there will be more than 30 billion devices with wireless communication capabilities with other devices, and the largest proportion of these devices are low-power wireless LAN devices, especially various wireless transceivers in IoT applications. According to Zhang Songgang, wireless networking technology is currently also used in the ubiquitous power IoT field, such as cable temperature measurement and vibration monitoring of high-voltage power lines, sensor networks in substation environments, or short-distance self-organizing network signal transmission.

In response to this, ADI launched the SmartMesh IP network, which consists of a highly scalable self-forming multi-hop wireless node mesh and a network manager. The biggest feature is that it has achieved a high reliability Mesh network of 99.999% on the 2.4GHz ISM band, and has extremely low power consumption (a button battery can be used for 10 years). Each wireless node can send and receive messages (supports two-way data) and can also have different data reporting rates. The network manager automatically coordinates each pair of communications to efficiently route traffic, and load balances the traffic accordingly to extend the time until the first battery replacement of the network. Therefore, this wireless networking technology is very suitable for industrial applications that require high network transmission reliability and want maintenance-free use, especially for ubiquitous power Internet of Things deployment. At the same time, ADI also has corresponding solutions for applications such as supercapacitors and backup power management.

Typical scenarios of ADI wireless networking solutions for industrial applications

In addition, the distribution automation system is constantly being updated, and more intelligent electronic devices are being used to monitor power quality and quickly isolate any faults that may affect the overall operation of the power grid. Intelligent terminals, such as DTU/FTU/TTU, are developing rapidly and changing the power grid architecture. According to Zhang Songgang, the State Grid proposed a new standard for intelligent distribution terminals in the fall of 2018, emphasizing the use of platform-based hardware design and distributed edge computing architecture to support business function implementation and flexible expansion in a software-defined manner. "As a highly accurate and fully integrated energy metering device, the ADE9078 supports users to develop a three-phase metering platform through interfaces with current transformers (CTs) and Rogowski coil sensors, and can achieve high performance of Class 1 to Class 0.2 meters. It has been used in the State Grid's new distribution transformer monitoring terminal products, and is being considered for use in intelligent branch monitoring terminals and intelligent fault sensors. It can also be considered for use in future intelligent circuit breakers and intelligent sockets." Zhang Songgang revealed.

New requirements for power distribution IoT perception and ADI's complete signal chain solution
 

Conclusion

The world is experiencing an unprecedented energy revolution and digital revolution. The construction of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is by no means a trend, but a profound innovation that will realize the intelligent upgrade of traditional power grids to energy Internet, which requires more powerful scientific and technological innovation support. "In the installation and upgrade of monitoring equipment and power transmission and distribution systems, ADI has built a bridge connecting the real world and the digital world by providing complete products and signal chain solutions. It will fully tap the intelligent monitoring capabilities, technical support capabilities and value-reflecting capabilities of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things, comprehensively promote the innovation model and ecological industry construction of my country's ubiquitous power Internet of Things, and help the entire Chinese power industry to make better and more advanced products." Zhang Songgang emphasized.