Middleware Architectures for the Smart Grid: Survey and Challenges in the Foreseeable Future

Abstract

Abstract:The traditional power grid is just a one-way supplier that gets no feedback data about the energy delivered, what tariffs could be the most suitable ones for customers, the shifting daily needs of electricity in a facility, etc. Therefore, it is only natural that efforts are being invested in improving power grid behavior and turning it into a Smart Grid. However, to this end, several components have to be either upgraded or created from scratch. Among the new components required, middleware appears as a critical one, for it will abstract all the diversity of the used devices for power transmission (smart meters, embedded systems, etc.) and will provide the application layer with a homogeneous interface involving power production and consumption management data that were not able to be provided before. Additionally, middleware is expected to guarantee that updates to the current metering infrastructure (changes in service or hardware availability) or any added legacy measuring appliance will get acknowledged for any future request. Finally, semantic features are of major importance to tackle scalability and interoperability issues. A survey on the most prominent middleware architectures for Smart Grids is presented in this paper, along with an evaluation of their features and their strong points and weaknesses.

Data Distribution Service-Based Interoperability Framework for Smart Grid Testbed Infrastructure

“…Microgrids and low inertia generator control need low data latency to support fast control actions and maintain stability. The communication middleware should also provide a wide range of quality of service (QoS) profiles to meet the different needs of controllers and data types [3,11]. For example, the measurement data could be discarded in case of a delay when a new sample becomes available while the circuit breaker (CB) states should be persistent to ensure its proper operation.…”

“…One of the main challenges in the smart grid is the dynamic participation of different devices and systems ranging from smart appliances to large systems, such as microgrids [3]. The communication middleware should provide the way to handle dynamic participant nodes and auto discovery features for new nodes.…”

“…The middleware should provide the security features embedded in the implementation to secure the data exchange and prevent altering data or violating customer privacy [17]. Since most smart grid controllers and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) use low power processors with limited memory and hardware resources, the middleware implementation must support a small footprint for limited resource devices [3].…”

“…Most DER will be installed on the distribution network which, already in its current state, lacks the proper communication and control network necessary to control the applicable resources [1]. A communication infrastructure needs to be designed to provide a more efficient and flexible way to manage the energy flow keeping interoperability in mind [2,3]. On one hand, this type of integration can dramatically improve the grid performance and efficiency, but on the other, it can also introduce new types of vulnerabilities to the grid [4] complicating system analysis and the design process [5].…”

A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach for Implementing the Receding Horizon Optimal Power Flow in Smart Grids

“…While data models are important for exchanging information among the different applications, the communication infrastructure should also have capability to aggregate data from heterogeneous lower level devices [17]: a middleware is typically used for this purpose. Many middleware proposals have been studied in literature such as the GridStat [18], SmarC [19], and CoSGrid (Controlling the Smart Grid) [20] to name a few. In these proposals only the software aspects of the middleware are discussed.…”