Theory and practice of H3C communication solutions in smart grid

Since the construction of smart grids was included in the "Government Work Report" and the 12th Five-Year Plan, building a "strong smart grid" has become a national strategy. The reality of my country's power infrastructure, energy distribution, information status and market demand has determined that the "strong smart grid" must focus on more realistic digital infrastructure work, that is, focusing on the digital acquisition and integration of power production and management information, and promoting the sustainable improvement of system safety and reliability, enterprise benefits and service levels.

A strong smart grid is safe, reliable, economical, efficient, clean, environmentally friendly, transparent, open, and friendly. Sun Conghai, director of the H3C Power Energy System Department, gave the author a brief introduction. From the figure below, we can see that compared with the traditional power system, the smart grid places more emphasis on the two-way transmission of power flow and information flow. In the process of solidly promoting the digital foundation of the smart grid, all links from power generation, transmission, transformation, distribution to power consumption, dispatching, and communication will face arduous challenges.

Building the “nervous system” of the smart grid

Sun Conghai said that in addition to having a high degree of "self-healing" capabilities, smart grids also need to ensure safe and smooth transmission of information flows in all links of generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, use and dispatch. Therefore, a high-speed, two-way, real-time, integrated power communication system is like a "nervous system" and is crucial to the success of smart grids.

Smart communication systems should be as deeply rooted in every household as the power grid, thus forming two closely connected networks - the power grid and the communication network. Driven by the goal of a strong smart grid, the traditional "emphasis on transmission, neglect of supply, and no use" is undergoing a fundamental change. The reliability of power supply and consumption, automatic electricity bill collection, load control, and the collection of user power consumption information urgently require a safe, reliable, and high-speed business communication platform. In short, a large part of the work of smart grid construction is to build and improve the communication network of the distribution network. In the field of information and communication, H3C has been shortlisted for the procurement list of information network equipment framework of the State Grid Corporation for three consecutive years with the largest share. The products are widely used in data communication backbone networks, information internal and external networks, data and disaster recovery centers at all levels of networks and provinces. It is worth mentioning that the second plane backbone communication network of the dispatching system that meets the new architecture of the future smart grid is also carried by H3C high-end business routers. The EPON overall solution proposed by H3C based on the characteristics of the power distribution network and its own product advantages has successfully operated in the power industry for more than two years. It has created a new idea for broadband communication in the future power consumption information control and collection link, and is the preferred technical route in industry specifications. Sun Conghai said that H3C can fully meet the needs of different regional levels and ensure the smooth connection of smart grid in the "capillaries". At present, H3C's EPON technology solution has been successfully deployed in Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai World Expo Park State Grid Experience Hall and other power distribution, power consumption information collection and cable tunnel monitoring fields.

Be smart, be safe

The power system and the power industry are related to all aspects of the national economy and people's livelihood. Therefore, from the state, various units of the power system to end users, higher requirements are put forward for the security and reliability of smart grids. Under the pattern of smart grids, the original pattern of "each doing its own job" of centralized information control systems and "offline adjustment and real-time action" of distributed control systems must be changed. As far as the integration of power data networks is concerned, there will be many constraints such as technology, standards, and funds, and factors such as information security need to be considered. The integration of the originally relatively scattered production data (power plants), transmission analysis and decision-making systems, ERP systems of power companies at all levels, and consumer terminal information collection systems has put forward higher requirements for the bearer network, requiring the existing network to be continuously improved and upgraded, and the power information network security system needs to be continuously strengthened.

In response to the security needs of smart grids, H3C has developed a security solution for the intelligent security network system architecture, which can achieve the transition from technical protection to policy protection for power business security. The solution has now been successfully deployed in several provinces.

In accordance with the requirements of building a strong and intelligent power grid, network monitoring of power substations has been raised to an unprecedented level and has become an auxiliary support system and basic data source for multiple business systems. Different from the analog and analog-digital combination technology used in traditional substation remote viewing systems, H3C provides an IP monitoring solution that integrates IP network, IP video, IP signaling, and IP storage. It can meet the needs of multi-level network calling, platform opening, SCADA linkage and various value-added services of future power substations. It has been deployed on a large scale in the State Grid headquarters, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Gansu, the three northeastern provinces and other power grid companies and power generation groups such as Guodian Power and Guohua Power.

In a provincial power system monitoring project, H3C iVS IP intelligent monitoring solution played a key role and laid an important foundation for realizing unmanned substations at all levels in the province. H3C's solution is built on IP, and each component in the system can be distributed and centrally managed according to needs. Through this solution, the QoS function is realized in the entire network, which can effectively guarantee the quality of service. Through a unified video monitoring system, unified configuration management, data storage management, identity authentication and centralized monitoring of all front-end digital image devices can be achieved, which can fully meet the needs of emergency command in the province.

Intelligent scheduling to achieve seamless connection of new energy

Smart grids provide the possibility for promoting the intensive development and large-scale application of renewable energy such as solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy. The dispatching system of smart grids will serve the strong transmission network through intelligent means. The relevant practical work organized by State Grid Corporation of China, such as the research on the wide-area panoramic distributed integrated dispatching technology support system, the research on key technologies for large power grid security, the research on key technologies for digital power grids and digital substations, and the research on key technologies for safe and stable operation of ultra-high voltage power grids, has laid a solid foundation for the construction of smart dispatching with Chinese characteristics. After the construction of smart grids, the seamless connection between renewable energy and the existing power system can be achieved, which will be directly related to the operational benefits of power system assets and the energy efficiency of the whole society.

H3C has launched customized development and services based on the characteristics of the power dispatching market, which has won the trust of customers and has maintained its leading position in the power dispatching market. Since planning and designing the first national power dispatching data backbone network in 2002, H3C has been working closely with dispatching agencies at all levels. In 2003, H3C participated in the design and construction of the National Power Dispatching Data Network. In the same year, it undertook the construction of Liaoning, Jilin and Guangxi power dispatching data networks, opening the prelude to the construction of provincial power dispatching data networks. For example, H3C undertook the construction of the second plane of the State Grid Corporation's dispatching data network, built a strong dispatching data network, met the information needs of dispatching agencies at all levels of the State Grid under normal operation and emergency conditions, and provided reliable support for the construction of a new generation of intelligent dispatching technology support systems for standby dispatching. H3C has accumulated rich experience in IP transformation and access of power production services, business security control, system management optimization, etc., which provides favorable guarantees for the upgrading of power grid from static control to dynamic/transient control and the development of wide-area panoramic distributed integrated dispatching technology support. Currently, H3C has built the power dispatching data backbone network, regional network and dispatching second plane backbone network in many provinces across the country and provides VIP original factory operation and maintenance guarantee services.

Innovation makes life better

In 2010, at the Shanghai World Expo, the State Grid Corporation of China demonstrated to the world the real-life experience of "smart grid makes life better" through the comprehensive smart grid demonstration project at the Expo. Among them, the smart electricity demonstration project (including electricity information collection and smart electricity buildings/homes) uses the H3C full set of EPON smart communication solutions.

Looking into the future, after the smart grid is built, it will be able to fundamentally resolve many of the current problems: insufficient rapid power regulation to meet the requirements of large-scale access to the grid; inadequate technical means and models for line inspection, evaluation, diagnosis and decision-making support; relatively weak grid structure; lack of reliable, economical and practical communication methods for distribution and use grids, and insufficient support for public users, etc. The construction of a strong smart grid is profoundly related to the improvement of people's lives and the realization of the national strategic goal of energy conservation and emission reduction.

H3C has been working in the power industry for many years. Through unremitting learning and perfect management, it has cultivated a professional service team covering the power industry across the country. H3C integrates a variety of advanced information and communication technologies such as network security, IP intelligent monitoring, IP storage, and integrated communications. It adopts international standardized protocols and network architectures, and can provide professional, safe, and leading overall solutions for the construction of my country's strong smart grid from all aspects such as generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, use, and dispatch. The next five years will be an important period for the construction of my country's smart grid. "As an internationally leading IP technology manufacturer, H3C is willing and able to apply internationally leading technologies to the construction of strong smart grids in accordance with local conditions, thereby helping my country's power companies to rapidly improve their scientific and technological strength and calmly cope with the increasingly fierce new pattern of global competition." Sun Conghai said.