Ubiquitous power Internet of Things will drive the power system to form a huge industrial chain

Xu Bingyin, dean of the Smart Grid Research Institute of Shandong University of Technology and doctoral supervisor, has long been committed to the research of distribution network relay protection and automation, and smart distribution network. Recently, Xu Bingyin said in an interview with our reporter that the "pain points" of the current distribution automation system can be solved by building a distribution Internet of Things, and the construction of a ubiquitous power Internet of Things will drive the power system to form a huge industrial chain.

Reporter: At the beginning of this year, State Grid Corporation of China proposed the strategic goal of "three types and two networks, world-class". You have been studying distribution automation for a long time. Please talk about the relationship between the ubiquitous power Internet of Things and the distribution automation system.

Xu Bingyin: The construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things, of which the part covering the distribution network should be the focus, is called the distribution Internet of Things. On the one hand, my country's current distribution network is still relatively weak, which restricts the further improvement of power supply safety and reliability. It is necessary to make up for the shortcomings by building a first-class distribution network and a corresponding distribution Internet of Things. On the other hand, the access of distributed power sources, energy storage devices and electric vehicles are all on the distribution network side, and the interaction between users and the power grid is mainly carried out in the distribution network. It is necessary to support the plug-and-play of distributed power sources through the construction of the distribution Internet of Things, and realize real-time friendly interaction between sources, storage and loads.

Conventional distribution automation systems mainly focus on monitoring and troubleshooting medium-voltage distribution networks, rarely cover low-voltage distribution networks, and almost never involve the load side. It is difficult to implement advanced application functions such as distributed power management, virtual power plants, and demand response, and it cannot provide other systems with panoramic data of the distribution network. Moreover, the current distribution automation system is a master-slave centralized control system that does not solve the problems of peer-to-peer communication and data security exchange between terminals, and cannot well support distributed autonomous control functions. Due to the lack of a unified data model, the hardware and software design are poorly open, and plug-and-play of distribution terminals and application software cannot be achieved.

The distribution Internet of Things is an expansion, upgrade and improvement of the distribution automation system. It has good security and openness, can better support various applications for smart distribution networks and active distribution networks, and is a new stage in the development of distribution automation systems. The "pain points" of the current distribution automation system can be solved by building the distribution Internet of Things.

Reporter: What core technologies do you think are needed for the construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things?

Xu Bingyin: The ubiquitous power Internet of Things realizes the interconnection of all power equipment, operation management personnel and users. The terminals and information processing systems must be plug-and-play. Software design should break the closed practice of one manufacturer taking charge of everything in the past, and allow application software to access the underlying data through an open application programming interface, so that it can support third-party APP access like a smartphone.

The current communication protocols (such as IEC101/104) only solve the problem of standardization of data transmission, and do not make a unified definition of "what is data (i.e. data model)". When accessing data, the APP can only understand the source and meaning of the data by viewing the information point table file provided by the designer of the data source device (system). The information point table is defined by each manufacturer. Therefore, the installation and debugging of the system is very heavy, and it restricts the development and application of third-party APPs and limits the development of new technologies. The way to solve the problem is to adopt a globally unified data model. It can be said that without a unified data model, there can be no truly ubiquitous power Internet of Things.

The international electrotechnical standard data models released now mainly cover the applications of substation automation, distribution automation and distributed power supply, and there are still quite a few applications that do not have standard models. In the process of building the ubiquitous power Internet of Things, on the one hand, we must follow the international electrotechnical standard models to avoid starting from scratch and doing repetitive work; on the other hand, we must actively participate in the formulation of international electrotechnical standards to meet the needs of the construction of the power Internet of Things and promote our research results to become international standards.

Core technologies are also needed in network security. The existing power automation information system is a relatively closed system, generally confined to a dedicated network, while the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is an open system that meets the access needs of terminals and users in the public network, and puts forward higher requirements for network security. In addition, the terminals in the ubiquitous power Internet of Things have edge computing functions and can realize distributed autonomous control. For example, the feeder terminal does not rely on the master station to realize fault isolation and power supply recovery control. The distributed power supply terminal can receive information about the upstream switch action and cut off the distributed power supply when the distribution line is in an island operation state. This requires real-time peer-to-peer communication between terminals. At present, the encryption measures for communication between terminals and master stations consume a lot of software and hardware resources, which are not suitable for the security protection of communication between terminals. It is necessary to study the security encryption technology for distributed control.

The other two core technologies are the application of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The ubiquitous power Internet of Things fully perceives the operation and business status of the power system, uses big data and AI technology to analyze the massive perception data obtained, and realizes advanced applications such as power system optimization operation, power equipment fault warning and user behavior analysis, and market risk control. It is of great significance to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the power system and improve the quality of user service.

Reporter: Which industries do you think the ubiquitous power Internet of Things will drive development?

Xu Bingyin: The ubiquitous power Internet of Things will directly drive the development of sensors, power secondary equipment and information and communication (ICT) industries. More importantly, the ubiquitous power Internet of Things provides a secure and open data exchange, operation control and management platform, connecting power equipment, power operators and users anytime and anywhere, and will promote the development of new equipment, new businesses and new business models such as distributed power generation, energy storage, electric vehicles, smart home appliances, data analysis services, system operation and maintenance services, power system peak load auxiliary services, power trading services, and efficient comprehensive energy utilization, and will form a huge industrial chain around the power system.

The construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things provides huge opportunities for the upgrading and development of distribution automation business.

In terms of power distribution automation and information construction, State Grid Shandong Electric Power has always been in a leading position, laying a solid foundation for the construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things. We will further promote cooperation with various units of State Grid Corporation of China, carry out research on new distribution terminals based on the Internet of Things technology architecture, realize more comprehensive monitoring and analysis of distribution network operation status, more accurate positioning and diagnosis of distribution network faults and abnormalities, and provide better service interaction for power customers.