Real-time Wide Area Monitoring (Use Case #4)
The focus of UC4 is the real-time monitoring of a geographical wide area where cross-border power exchanges take place. This particular use case falls under the domain of energy reliability within the broader energy sector. Specifically, UC4 concentrates on monitoring the interconnection power flow between Greece and Bulgaria, capitalizing on the benefits provided by Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and the 5G telecommunication infrastructure.
By integrating time-stamped, synchronized PMU measurements with high data granularity (50 to 60 times per second), it becomes possible to conduct a comprehensive analysis of voltage and current phasors in their positive, negative, and zero sequences. To facilitate the data collection process of the UC, a virtual Phasor Data Concentrator (vPDC) has been developed.
The 5G Advantage
The adoption of 5G technology in this use case allows for the virtualization of the PDC component, that is deployed in specialized hardware in legacy solutions. It also provides low latency and high reliability communication between PMUs and the vPDC, which consists a vital objective due to the critical nature of the use case. Additionally, the Network Application designed in the context of this this UC covers three key services: the vPDC Service, the Wide Area Monitoring (WAM) Service, and the Advisory Service.
Network Application
The Network Application is the corner stone of the UC. It offers the data concentrator mechanism by aggregating, synchronizing and storing the PMU data, along with enhanced visualization tools. It also processes the stored data to extract patterns and provide useful insights to the TSOs. The UC4 Network Application is fully operational, with final adjustments and fine-tuning being in progress
Key Achievements
- 5G radio deployment at the last mile of the transmission system.
- Implementation of two network scenarios (roaming & private APN)
- Direct communication between the vPDC and the PMUs of two different TSOs.
- Virtualization of a service previously deployed on specialized hardware.
- Break of the PDC hierarchical schema, forwarding the PMU data to a series of intermediate PDCs before making them available to a common data space.
Current Status
The status of the UC is as follows: the PMUs are in place, seamlessly sending measurements through the 5G networks of Greece and Bulgaria to the edge-cloud server, metering probes are deployed in key points of the network in order to monitor its performance and health indexes, while the Network Application is running in parallel.
Results
The field platform and Network App have been incorporated with the OSR, V&V, and NAC components, while the process of collecting measurements and validating the outcomes has been completed. The final results are available in D6.4 – “Report on demonstration activities and validation results”.
