A Failure to Communicate: Next-Generation Communication Requirements, Technologies, and Architecture for the Electric Power Grid

摘要

THE ELECTRIC POWER INFRASTRUCTURES IN NORTH AMERICA AND WESTERN Europe are among the most complex systems ever constructed. The North American power grids involve almost 3,500 utility organizations. Supply and demand are kept in balance at all times, while obeying the loading constraints of long-distance transmission lines, which are increasingly operating nearer to their safety limits. Today, this extreme complexity is being coordinated with rudimentary communication technology and an infrastructure that is many decades old. With the current systems that are in place, stability problems in the grid can develop much faster than they can be reported.