ENABLING THE FUTURE: ADAPTIVE, MODULAR

APPROACHES TO SMART GRID DESIGN

FierceMarkets Custom Publishing

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ENABLING THE FUTURE: ADAPTIVE, MODULAR

APPROACHES TO SMART GRID DESIGN

CORRESPONDING PAIN POINT: MANAGING COSTS FOR END-USERS

INTRODUCTION

The electric grid of today is moving briskly toward a more interconnected and responsive whole. Poised
to accommodate promising new opportunities for energy input and the changing demands of society,
grid operators understand the need to use grid assets as a flexible platform for upgrades including
more predictive operational sensing capabilities, integrating distributed energy resources, mitigating the
impacts of future outages, and maintaining reliable and efficient energy delivery.
A modular and adaptive approach to grid upgrades is breathing life into these changes in a less costly
and more efficient way.
Modular design allows for flexibility in placing grid components where theyre needed most, so
operators can act on events directly at the device level instead of reacting once theyve already
happened. Adaptive design emphasizes intelligent sensing and self-healing functionality. Combined,
the two approaches reduce costs for utilities and end users by decoupling grid components so they can
be used where theyre needed most, provide more intelligent sensing and proactive healing, and allow
for more seamless upgrades.
June 2015

ENABLING THE FUTURE: ADAPTIVE, MODULAR

APPROACHES TO SMART GRID DESIGN
This smarter grid is expected to deliver savings of
400 billion kilowatt hours per year by 2030 a 9
percent more efficient grid nationwide according
to the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative
(SGCC).

DECOUPLING AND MODULARIZING GRID

FUNCTIONALITY (MODULAR APPROACH)
A flexible grid is one that is ready to scale up and
expand into the future. To that end, modular design
is a flexible approach that allows for operational
grid changes to be made more easily. Modularity
is when components are easily moved around
throughout the grid network, often to the device
level, in order to sense and act on grid events more
effectively. For example, moving sensing logic
capabilities closer to a particular device at the grid
edge will lead to more immediate feedback on
voltage spikes. As the grid edge moves further
out into a rural solar farm or home-based storage
system, the need for modularity continues to grow.
Modular design upgrades are beneficial in their
ability to provide proactive feedback on grid events,
as well as reducing costs by allowing utilities to
choose a more efficient upgrade path with the
fewest number of components. Achieving this
often requires decoupling formerly bundled
grid components and employing strong network
communications. To unbundle components means
to literally take application code or functionality
and move it to areas in a utilitys extended network
for increased operational efficiency.
Separating out metering and measurement,
application logic, and network transport is one
such area for modularization. These functions have
traditionally operated together centrally on grid
networks without much ability to be deployed to
the nodes and devices where they may be in higher
demand. Disaggregating them reduces cost by
allowing operators to move components closer to
endpoints in the field where operational decisions
can be made more quickly.
I believe we can decouple metering and
measurement and application logic that will
June 2015

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modularize what we can do with the smart grid,

said Harris Glover, Vice President of Product
Management, Elster. Decoupling application code
from core metering and sensing logic will allow
solution providers to move these algorithms around
in the network, closer to devices it needs to act
on instead of backhauling data to the head-end,
perform the analysis and then transport decision
data back to the field. In most cases, something
detrimental has already occurred and the decision
data is not relevant anymore

As the grid edge moves futher out

into a rural solar farm or home-based
storage sytem, the need for modularity
continues to grow.
Elsters Connexo platform is built with modular
architecture in mind, serving the needs of utilities
as they gear up for operational, and even societal,
changes that will reshape energy. By supporting
modularity, Connexo allows grid operators to
scale up operations and add new devices while
reconfiguring or redeploying existing devices to
other areas in the grid. All of this reduces cost
while increasing satisfaction for utilities and their
constituents.
Strong network communication is also key.
Streamlining those networks using modular
components promotes the use of actionable data
and reduces the amount of infrastructure to
manage.

According to Glover, decommissioning pointto point radios and having communications run
across IPV6 based mesh networks also means fewer
single points of failure by utilizing multipurpose
mesh networks for multiple grid assets, not just
metering.
Connexo supports a variety of communication
and backhaul options including compatibility

ENABLING THE FUTURE: ADAPTIVE, MODULAR

APPROACHES TO SMART GRID DESIGN
with existing systems from RF mesh, point-topoint, point-to-point cellular, Ethernet, fiber, and
more making it easier to phase-in new network
communication changes in a way that works with a
utilitys budget and timetable.

INTELLIGENT SENSING AND HEALING

(ADAPTABLE APPROACH)

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converge, presenting more opportunities to

leverage the adaptable grid. Utilities that become
technology first companies in the words of
Brillio CTO Puneet Gupta will reap the benefits
of adaptable design that can make sense of fast
changing network data.

An adaptable approach to grid design makes

intelligent sensing and self-healing functionality a
priority. The need for an adaptive grid has become
more germane to the upgrade conversation as
the grid accommodates more distributed energy
resources and will increasingly have to be more
things to more people.
Adaptability is meaningful when it not only
anticipates events, but can isolate such events
from spreading throughout the network either
reconfiguring problem areas automatically or
providing operators with actionable information to
do so. Increased reliability, including better meter
and load management, are all benefits of a more
adaptable grid.

I believe we can decouple metering

and measurement and application logic
that will modularize what we can do
with the smart grid,
Harris Glover, Vice President of Product
Management, Elster.

If lofty goals like obtaining 33 percent of retail

electricity in California from renewable power
sources by 2020 or saving $600 per household
are to be met, adaptable grid design will have to be
used to maintain reliability in the face of tightening
efficiency.
IT and OT (information technology and
operational technology) will continue to
June 2015

Exception-based processing also builds on

adaptability, simplifying data within a user role and
notifying utilities about problems in the system.
Some systems dont have exception-based
processing and you have to dig through a lot of
data to see what went wrong, Elsters Glover said
in reference to the core systems utilities use in
their day-to-day operations. Connexo has builtin design principals to make it easier. That leads
to a reduction in cost and not needing an army
of people to figure out what went wrong one
person or a small team can run these complex
networks.
While adaptability affords flexibility, it is still
important to manage data through a single view
that supports custom workflows. Robust offerings
can grow to support RF and broadband mesh,
cellular AMI, and the like.
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ENABLING THE FUTURE: ADAPTIVE, MODULAR

APPROACHES TO SMART GRID DESIGN
Connexo is the head end, manages all devices,
and acts as the single point of view for various
transports, all the different ways you connect
devices, Glover said. It doesnt matter how its
connected you focus on solving the problems,
doing the analytics, and it helps you make your
operational decisions.

The more easily system operators can track data

and make use of the grids guided decision making,
the better. Whether or not utilities become more
akin to platform providers for a distributed
energy system (in the spirit of New York States
Reforming the Energy Vision), personnel and
systems that anticipate grid events more actively
will increase reliability while reducing their
operating costs.

MORE SEAMLESS UPGRADES

(MODULARITY AND ADAPTABILITY)

Modular and adaptive design combined with open

standards make it easier to choose from a wide
variety of vendors at more competitive prices. Even
if a utility is upgrading to the next-generation
component from the same vendor, modularity
and standards like MultiSpeak help make those
enhancements more seamless and cost efficient.
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Standards-based methods and modularity for

interacting with external-based systems (billing,
customer information, etc.) will change the
time and money spent on custom application
development, said Glover. It will make dependent
systems more resilient to changes that Elster
and others will make. By going to standardsbased specifications like MultiSpeak, we insulate
downstream systems from the complexities of us
making changes, cutting down on the need for
hot-fixes to system compatibility issues arising from
the introduction of new components from different
vendors.

Connexo is the head end, manages all

devices, and acts as the single point
of view for various transports, all the
different ways you connect devices,
Glover said. It doesnt matter how its
connected you focus on solving the
problems, doing the analytics, and
it helps you make your operational
decisions.
Harris Glover, Vice President of Product
Management, Elster.

A customer buys an MDM or CIS and we write

custom code to integrate them to our head end
system. If something changes under the covers,
release to release, or we or the customer wants to
go to another vendor, the whole integration would
cease to work properly, Glover explained. But with
our dedication to MultiSpeak and other standards,
we insulate customers from those dependencies.
On the consumer side of the equation, standards
are being set for demand response-ready appliances
that make use of modular communication interfaces
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ENABLING THE FUTURE: ADAPTIVE, MODULAR

APPROACHES TO SMART GRID DESIGN
when the time comes for utilities to upgrade and
interface with these systems. A standard that
has been informed and driven by the Electric
Power Research Institute (EPRI), the CEA2045 Modular Communication Interface, offers
compatibility with communication modules of
any technology type. If the standard takes flight,
it will slash costs for consumer appliance vendors
and increase competition as vendors work toward
building on the same modular platform.
Utilities like Duke Energy are evaluating CEA2045 to understand how it will fit into their
demand response strategy and interface with their
own modular components.

CONCLUSION

As modular and adaptive design approaches

become more pervasive, so will their ability to solve
hot-button technical issues. Building out systems in

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a modular way sets utilities up for more intelligent

sensing capabilities and adaptive response, meaning
lower costs that will lighten the load for the
network of power generators and distributors while
passing on savings to residential and commercial
customers.
Where a modular approach is not yet possible,
component vendors would benefit from getting a
proof of concept out and keeping the momentum
of the innovation process going. Utilities and their
vendors can address cost and technology challenges
when they partner more closely and with the
support of regulators.
As Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York
Department of Public Service recently said in
regard to utilities and energy reform, Were making
the utility the enabler of change instead of a deer in
the headlights that says, I dont know where were
going to go, but its not going to be here. n

Elster Solutions is the North American electricity business unit of Elster, a multi-national, 7500-person
company providing electricity, gas and water meters and related communications, network and software
solutions to customers in more than 130 countries. Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, Elster Solutions is focused
on delivering the vital connections utilities need to achieve the greatest possible value from their meter data.

June 2015