Hi everybody, my name is Steve Bush and I am a part of the Advanced Communications Systems Laboratory at Global Research. I wrote my first blog entry more than a year ago when I was a part of the computing group. I currently belong to the Electrical Technologies & Systems organization, which contributing to Smart Grid research. My new book, “Smart Grid: Communication-Enabled Intelligence for the Electric Power Grid,” coming in 2012, explains the smart grid, communications, and what the grid will enable in the future.
You may already be familiar with the work we are doing on Smart Grid at Global Research – perhaps you even sat in on my colleague Rajesh Tiyagi’s recent GE Software webinar on demand-response optimization for the Smart Grid. However, for those of you who aren’t familiar, I will quickly say, the basic premise behind the Smart Grid is to improve the stability, efficiency, and robustness of the nation’s power grid through an integrated information network. Conceptually, the Smart Grid’s communication network would overlay the electricity distribution and delivery network, with a tightly controlled core and a more relaxed periphery. The Smart Grid is slated to provide new functionality, such as demand-response, two-way power delivery, and more precise phase synchronization, all of which will develop once the network is in place.
It is truly an exciting area to work in and be a part of. Currently, I am working on distribution automation in general and fault detection isolation and recovery (FDIR) in particular. This involves the integration of wireless communication within the power distribution system enabling the system to shut off power to protect life and property in case of a power fault while minimizing the impact on customers as much as possible. This also involves restoring the power grid as quickly as possible. Communication enables smart grid devices to operate in new, collaborative ways. I would like to acknowledge Mike Mahony who has shown outstanding leadership in managing this complex project along with my colleagues Andrew Reid, S.M. Hasan, Amol Kolwalkar, and Mallik Vallem.
The book I have coming out explores the fundamental building blocks for the communication infrastructure that will accompany the Smart Grid and how they will be integrated with power systems. The goal of the book is to emphasize a tight coupling between communications and power systems, not simply “slapping” communications on top of the smart grid in an ad hoc manner. Subsequently, issues such as networked control, information theory, machine learning, and other foundational elements are explained in simple terms. In addition, the book deals with important peripheral issues that come with developing communication infrastructure for the grid, such as standards, regulations, security, and disruptive technologies. These elements I think are highly interesting to even those without an interest in the technical aspects of network architecture. The Smart Grid is something that in the future will mean something to each and every one of us and these are valuable issues to be informed upon.
Earlier this year, I attended a two-day meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. At that meeting, a few colleagues and I began talking and brainstorming and discussing the future of smart grid. We developed an outline on the future of smart grid. That outline has turned into a paper, sponsored by the IEEE that not online anticipates the future of smart grid in relation to communications, but also lays out the technology roadmap that will lead us to that vision. It is expected to be out in 2012 as well and is titled, “Smart Grid Communications Vision: 2015, 2020, and 2030”
For years I have been involved with IEEE and been an active participant of formal discussions and talks around the future of energy, power and the Smart Grid. This, combined with the insight I was gained by being involved with GE on the Smart Grid, led me to become involved with a lecture series that I am very proud of. I had been nominated by the IEEE Communications Society to give two Distinguished Lecture Tours this year on the smart grid. These tours have been wonderful events involving travel to universities and institutions throughout New England and eastern Canada. As co-editor of the IEEE Smart Grid Vision project, I contributed a chapter on “Information Theory, Spectral Graph Theory, and Network Analysis” wherein I examine what could be gained from essentially merging Shannon Information Theory (the foundations of communications) more closely with Maxwell’s Equations, which fundamentally describes the operation of power systems.
Between the paper and the book, it has been an exciting year and I am looking forward to seeing some of these efforts come together in 2012. I plan to keep the time between my now and my next blog fairly short so as to keep you updated on what is going on at Global Research!
