Siemens plugs into smart grids

With the smart grid architecture model (SGAM), the company’s Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector has developed a method whereby power supply companies and industry can display aspects of smart grid systems. The model can be used for the visualisation, validation, and configuration of smart grid projects, and also for standardisation within smart grids.
 
“Siemens stands for open standards. We’re represented on all important committees and are playing a key role in pushing forward the standardisation of the smart grid,” said Christian Wurhofer, head of Technology & Innovation at the Smart Grid Division, in the Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector.

Initial experience and results have now been obtained from the practical application of the model in standardisation, in pilot projects and in industry.  For Siemens, this marks a significant increase in its expertise in smart grid solutions, according to the release.
 
The idea of the smart grid is backed by legislators worldwide, and is supported by global research and pilot projects. Important standardisation measures have been taken at the European level in order to push forward the development of smart grids.

One of the challenges involved was to develop a technical architecture that describes the functional connections and the information and communications technology relationships between smart grid domains and participating systems and subsystems.

Aspects of interoperability have been taken into account as well as issues of availability, information security, and energy efficiency. The developers also designed migration scenarios for an existing installed base. They likewise allowed for the fact that development of a power system into a comprehensive smart grid is an evolutionary process marked by gradual development in stages.

The foundation of the SGAM architecture model is the smart grid level that spans the domains of the power generation and conversion chain as well as the hierarchical zones of power system management. Interoperability is depicted by the five superimposed model layers “Component,” “Communication,” “Information,” “Function,” and “Business.” Using this model, it is possible to
display and compare different approaches to smart grid solutions so that differences and commonalities between various paradigms, roadmaps, and points of view can be detected.
 
There has already been initial experience with the practical application of the architecture model in the areas of standardisation, pilot projects and industry. As far as standardisation functions are concerned, the model’s methodology has been used to analyze applications. For example, the cross-domain smart grid function “demand response” was mapped to the layers of the model and tested to see if it is supported by existing information and communications standards.
 
Recommendations for extending the scope of the standards were derived from the results. In the European smart grid pilot project “EcoGrid EU,” the project architecture is being developed and validated using the SGAM model. At the industry level, microgrid scenarios have been designed using the model by comparing alternative communications architectures and evaluating their
suitability.