Smart meters serving as synchro-sensors for Smart Distribution Grid applications

The Smart Distribution Grid concept is conceived as a means to optimize and to improve the reliability and operation of the electric distribution network. The numerous and different types of information generated and time synchronized at a distribution network by smart meters, coupled with a communication infrastructure and data base management system provide the means to generate useful control algorithms. Attaching the location of each smart meter at the distribution grid to the monitored data opens the door to numerous advanced applications. Control applications lend themselves for logical stratifications unique to the intended targets of control. Demand response has a rippling effect all the way to generation and also to distribution assets performance. Distribution automation could be local to the distribution network served by a distribution substation. Fast transient phenomena, harmonics problems can be highly local, limited to a particular feeder or at customer premises. The data requirements for each of the control applications mentioned before can be quite different from each other and also depend greatly on the location at the network. This paper tries to illustrate how the physical behavior of the electric energy delivery system dictates the requirements for data generated by the sensing devices to design algorithms for Smart Distribution Grid control applications.