LoRa Enabled Smart Inverters for Microgrid Scenarios with Widespread Elements

Abstract

The introduction of low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) has changed the image of smart systems, due to their wide coverage and low-power characteristics. This category of communication technologies is the perfect candidate to be integrated into smart inverter control architectures for remote microgrid (MG) applications. LoRaWAN is one of the leading LPWAN technologies, with some appealing features such as ease of implementation and the possibility of creating private networks. This study is devoted to analyze and evaluate the aforementioned integration. Initially, the characteristics of different LPWAN technologies are introduced, followed by an in-depth analysis of LoRa and LoRaWAN. Next, the role of communication in MGs with widespread elements is explained. A point-by-point LoRa architecture is proposed to be implemented in the grid-feeding control structure of smart inverters. This architecture is experimentally evaluated in terms of latency analysis and externally generated power setpoint, following smart inverters in different LoRa settings. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed LoRa architecture, while the settings are optimally configured. Finally, a hybrid communication system is proposed that can be effectively implemented for remote residential MG management.

Improving Reliability of Protection Communication in a 5G Slice

“…[44] studies fault location over ZigBee, while [45] adaptive and line differential protection and [46] adaptive current differential protection and fault location over LTE. In [47] a hardware prototype is studied for control of microgrids via Long Range (LoRa). In [3,48] ABB RED670 IEDs are used as hardware to study GOOSE and SV communication over presumably wired connection.…”

“…In [3, 26-39, 47, 48, 52, 53], commercial communication networks are not used, while in this paper commercial 5G network with a business subscription is employed. In [3,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], 5G technology is not considered, but other wireless and wired technologies, including NB-IoT [27,41,42], LTE [26,28,36,45,46], ZigBee [29,44], CR [30], WLAN [31,43], customer 916.5 MHz channel [32], WiMAX [26,33,36], wired [3,34,35,48], LoRa [47], and WiFi [49,50]. In [26-29, 41-43, 47, 52, 53], protection applications are not used; instead, the application...…”

“…In [3,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], 5G technology is not considered, but other wireless and wired technologies, including NB-IoT [27,41,42], LTE [26,28,36,45,46], ZigBee [29,44], CR [30], WLAN [31,43], customer 916.5 MHz channel [32], WiMAX [26,33,36], wired [3,34,35,48], LoRa [47], and WiFi [49,50]. In [26-29, 41-43, 47, 52, 53], protection applications are not used; instead, the applications include capacitor bank, OLTC, distributed generation control [26], demand response control …”

Reducing Detrimental Communication Failure Impacts in Microgrids by Using Deep Learning Techniques

“…By zooming on to an individual farmhouse, which represents a residential MG, it can be understood that distributed-generators (DGs) and loads are required to be managed by central controllers that can be located relatively far away. That long-range requirement can justify the utilization of LoRa, which is a low-power and long-range wireless protocol [13].…”

Communication Architecture Designs of Smart Inverters for Microgrids

“…It is worth noting, as opposed to ZigBee, LoRa just refers to the PHY layer and LoRaWAN defines both the MAC protocol and the system architecture. This architecture consists of three class of components [44][45][46]: i End devices such as sensors, actuators, or smart devices.…”