Communication Technologies for DER-Centric Power Distribution Systems: A Comparative Analysis and Cyber-Resilience Guidelines

Abstract

The power grid is evolving with the increased integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and the growing need for bidirectional communication to manage DERs. As this evolution unfolds, the communication system supporting the power grid operation demands thorough analysis. Traditionally sparse wired mediums cannot support increasing number of DERs connection. The continuous advancement of alternative wireless technologies provides possibility of efficient and economical communication methods. This paper explores the multifaceted area of alternative communication mediums tailored for DER-centric power distribution networks (PDN). A meticulous examination of the performance of diverse alternative mediums supported by experimental analysis and measured against a set of performance metrics, are presented. A comprehensive comparative analysis and guidelines considering existing protocols, to ensure a resilient power distribution system with DERs are also provided, highlighting the role of communication systems for a distributed energy landscape.

Keywords

• Distributed energy resources (DERs)
• power distribution networks
• communication mediums
• performance metrics
• cyber-physical system
• cyber resiliency