SDN-based teleprotection and control power systems: A study of available controllers and their suitability

摘要

With the popularization of the smart grid paradigm, substation automation technology has gradually been upgraded with additional processing and communication capabilities within control and protection devices. Hence, the research community is pressured to find new, efficient, and reliable communication solutions for such a scenario. That task is complicated by the stringent temporal requirements defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 standard for power system communication comprising teleprotection schemes. Further compounding the issue is the critical nature of the power grid, in which availability is definitely a strong requirement. Software-defined networking (SDN) may provide powerful tools to fulfill those requirements at acceptable costs. As such, this paper surveys and compares several available SDN controllers and their applicability to the teleprotection scenario. It further evaluates controllers in terms of capacity and resilience through experiments in an emulated environment.