Communication Architecture of the IEC 61850-based Micro Grid System

As the power grids are integrated into one big umbrella called a "smart grid," communication protocol plays a key role in successful operations. The successful deployment of smart grid interoperability is a major hurdle that must be overcome. The micro grid, a small power system that distributes energy resource, is operated in diverse regions. Different vendors use different communication protocols in the operation of the micro grid. Recently, the IEC 61850 has been legislated to solve the interoperability problems in power utility automation. The present paper presents a micro grid system based on the IEC 61850 protocol. It consists of a micro grid monitoring system, a protocol converter that transforms serial data to IEC 61850 data, and distributed energy resource controllers for diverse DER nodes. A developed communication gateway can be deployed for DER controllers with serial links to exchange data with IEC 61850-based devices. The gateway can be extended to IEC 61850-based distribution automation systems, substation automation systems, or SCADA.