Transportation and Power Grid in Smart Cities

3 5G and Cellular Networks in the Smart Grid

Jimmy Jessen Nielsen¹, Ljupco Jorguseski², Haibin Zhang², Hervé Ganem³, Ziming Zhu⁴ and Petar Popovski¹

¹ Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

² TNO, The Hague, The Netherlands

³ Gemalto, Paris, France

⁴ Toshiba Research Europe ltd., Bristol, United Kingdom

3.1 Introduction

The increasing penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as electric vehicles, photovoltaics, and wind turbines in the distribution grid introduces bidirectional power flows and makes the consumption patterns of customers less predictable than it has been previously. As a result, it becomes necessary for the Distribution System Operator (DSO) to achieve observability below substation level, to make stable operation of the grid possible. This observability can be achieved through real‐time monitoring of the distribution grid facilitated by communication technologies, thereby making the power grid into a smart grid. A real‐time monitoring platform using the cellular network is introduced in Nielsen (2017). The platform relies on the deployment of more advanced phasor measurement devices in the mid/low voltage grid, as well as a secure data exchange through public communication network. The type of traffic that does not originate from a human request, such as in the smart grid, is commonly referred to as machine‐type communication (MTC) or machine‐to‐machine (M2M) communications. A reliable M2M communication is important in order to ensure ...