Smart grid development focuses on technical standards

With the rapid development of smart grids, the traditional principles familiar to power companies and suppliers in the smart grid industry have been challenged. In order to realize the long-term, orderly and coordinated development of the smart grid, excellent technical standards are indispensable. Recently, the reporter conducted an interactive exchange with Mr. Samuel Sciacca of the IEEE 2030 Working Group on the standards related to smart grids. The following is the detailed content:

Samuel Sciacca: IEEE2030 Working Group Joint**, Power System Network Security Expert, IEEEP1686, PC37.240 Working Group**

Reporter: Many countries, including China, are promoting the construction of smart grids. Is there any standard for the definition of the smart grid itself? For example, what kind of smart grid standards can be achieved?

Samuel Sciacca: The definition of whether the smart grid itself has standards is not so important, and standards are more important for the development of smart grids. Just as different countries have different characteristics, the priorities and expectations for smart grid development vary from country to country. Therefore, it is not appropriate to propose a "standard definition" for the smart grid. However, the vision of the global smart grid still has something in common, such as new energy, electricity demand management, and user interaction. In general, standards that can provide solutions for products and applications that span national and geographical boundaries will benefit many parties.

Reporter: At present, China's renewable energy development has become one of the development bottlenecks. What are the biggest challenges and obstacles in the field of energy storage and utilization?

Samuel Sciacca: In my opinion, the biggest challenge is how to match energy storage technology with different types of new energy and the climate and season of different countries. So there is no globally unified answer to these questions. For example, the demand for energy storage in Europe is very small, because it does not need to use this to solve the peak load of electricity consumption caused by air conditioning. However, for the large cities in China, Japan and South Korea, the demand is very urgent. In the United States, for the balance of grid load and power generation, energy storage is more like a 24-hour coordination tool. In Germany, where solar energy is developing rapidly, the demand for energy storage may require that it be able to supply 2-3 days after a storm. Even longer.

Reporter: What technical standards can be provided by the IEEE standard for energy storage, distributed generation, and microgrid technology? What problems have been solved?

Samuel Sciacca: The IEEE 1547 standard series was developed specifically for new energy grids and distributed generation. It covers communications, protection, security, control, grid visibility, and more. These standards have been widely accepted and used as templates by other standards development organizations. Among them, IEEE 1547.8 of the IEEE Standards Association is a very good example. It will solve the two most common problems of reactive energy voltage control and power generation, two new energy grids.

Reporter: The development of distributed energy and microgrid is getting more and more attention. Can you talk about the current status and development trend of microgrid and distributed energy technology standards around the world?

Samuel Sciacca: The integrated optimization of energy storage, microgrid, and distributed generation is the result of a combination of factors. The density of electric vehicles, the average consumer demand, the type of distribution line construction, climate and the like (and many factors) need to be taken into account. Standards are also very important here. In order to achieve a perfect collaboration, the development and standardization of these factors will become more and more important, even more important than a certain professional technology.

Reporter: What are the differences in the global development of smart grid technologies such as energy reserves and distributed generation? What are the differences between their previous technical standards?

Samuel Sciacca: I don't quite agree with the word "difference". The focus of different regions may be a more appropriate way of describing this state. For example, in Brazil, generally speaking, each household uses a much smaller load than North America or China. They do not place much emphasis on household energy storage or demand control. Australia or North Africa has more interest in large-scale solar energy than Finland and Norway. There may even be different priorities in the same country. For example, the southwestern United States has more solar power than the northeastern region. In Santiago, air conditioning is rarely used, but in Los Angeles, a few hours away, no air conditioner can basically survive.

Reporter: What role does the IEEE play in the development of China's smart grid and what role does it play? Based on your understanding of China's current development of smart grids, can you give any opinions or suggestions to relevant Chinese departments, enterprises, and research institutions?

Samuel Sciacca: The IEEE has made active contributions to the development of the smart grid field in China. It not only actively participates in related activities, but also brings the world's leading smart grid technology to China and exchanges and sharing with various experts. So far, China and the IEEE have conducted very fruitful cooperation in various fields. For example, China National Grid participated in the development of IEEE standards. Hou Yiming (professor), a senior engineer of the State Grid China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI), is a member of the IEEE P2030.3 Working Group. Under Dr. Hou's leadership, other members of the global smart grid community can learn from China's expertise and experience. It is like Chinese experts learning best practices from smart grid innovators around the world. In this way, the formulation and development of standards can reach consensus in the world, so as to achieve global information sharing, accelerate development in this area and increase the impact of standards on a global scale. It is worth mentioning that Chinese companies are increasingly participating in the development of IEEE standards, such as the IEEE1888 series of standards for building automation. The participation of Chinese companies in this series of standards development process will promote this standard. Great help.

In view of the increasing cooperation and interaction between the IEEE and China, the IEEE set up an office in Beijing in 2010 to strengthen the communication, contribution, and collaboration of the smart grid and other IEEE standards. In the past few years, the IEEE has held a large number of conferences in China. I was privileged to participate in the IEEE team and met with many outstanding Chinese companies and organizations such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China National Grid, China Electric Power Research Institute, and China Datang Corporation.

Through these international exchanges, we can see that under the large platform provided by the IEEE, all stakeholders in China have shared a lot of similar interests and goals. These same interests are closely linked to government, power companies, research institutions, and private companies. Combine together. I am convinced that China's participation will be of great significance to the development of IEEE Smart Grid standards. Of course, I hope that relevant institutions in China will participate more in the activities of the IEEE in the future. This will benefit China, benefit the IEEE, and benefit other countries in the world that want to develop a smart grid.