System Architecture

Cyborg Beetles, Cyber-security, Smart Buildings, and the Smart Grid

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Cyber beetles provide an interesting glimpse into agent based interactions. Smart grids and smart buildings are integrated today using deep, integration, and complete control of the underlying processes. As more and more nodes are added to any system, the overhead of maintaining all interactions at a central point becomes more significant. In grid-scale systems, system designers have managed complexity by limiting diversity; a system may be managing ten thousand substations, but at least they are identical systems. A current DARPA project dramatically demonstrates a better approach....

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Cyber Security for the Grid

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SCADA security, often called cyber-security when talking of the smart grid, is one of the areas where not only the answers are difficult, but often selecting the right questions is difficult. Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) refers to the on-line, computer-based monitoring and control of process from a central site. SCADA, which puts little intelligence into the distributed points, is still the primary model used for utility distribution systems, including the telemetry and operation of today’s dumb grid.

The SCADA model of systems architecture was appropriate when...

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Energy Interoperability Standards: Smart Buildings, Smart Grid

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Earlier this month, Bill Cox of Cox Software Architects proposed the formation of standard committee for Energy Interoperability at OASIS. The core of the proposed work is the definition of XML and Web services interactions for so-called Automated Demand Response, growing out of work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Demand Response Research Center. The proposal comes from the context of many discussions in and related to the OpenADR Technical Advisory Group, GridWise Architecture Council, Grid-Interop, the NIST Smart Grid project, and GridEcon (an upcoming conference on the economics of the Smart Grid).

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Lord of the HAN: One Agent to Rule them All

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The National Institute for Standards and Technology has divided the users of the power grid into workgroups for each different area. Industry to grid (I2G), Commercial Building to grid (B2G), Home 2 grid (H2G) and even Vehicle to grid (V2G). Clearly there is a lot of overlap. The large home may have more sophisticated responses than the small office. When we are all done, I hope we have one common set of interfaces for all of them.

Each have their strengths. I2G hosts the most advanced conversations relevant for distributed generation (DG), with its long experience of local steam plants and of cogeneration. B2G, sometime called Business to grid by its members, has the most advanced expectations...

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