Towards a Reference Architecture for Large-Scale Smart Grids System of Systems

Large-Scale Smart Grids are advanced power networks that introduce intelligent management, control, and operation systems to service electricity to millions of customers and to combine traditional and renewal energies. Large-Scale Smart Grids are presented as an exemplar of System of System (SoS), since they are composed of large heterogeneous and independent systems that leverage emergent behavior from their interaction. The architectural framework of a Large-Scale Smart Grid SoS is composed of two main dimensions: the systems dimension, which is composed by the systems of the Large-Scale Smart Grid SoS, and the functional dimension, which is composed by the common functionality that these systems have to provide. In this paper, we present an architecture for Large-Scale Smart Grid SoS based on our previous experience in several industrial projects. This architecture decomposes these two dimensions into software components that support the behavior management of each system and the emergent behavior that leverage their interactions.