Building next-generation electric power communication networks

The electric power industry is closely related to national interest, people’s livelihoods, and national security. As the key infrastructure of electric power systems, electric power communication networks must be secure and reliable, in order to guarantee secure and stable system running.

In this context, an advanced and future-oriented electric power communication network should be built to provide strong support for power supply assurance and new electric power systems with increasing new energy.

Increased requirements on electric power communication networks

These advancements are long-term, difficult, and complex systematic projects. Building a new electric power system is the key to conducting these transformations, while achieving economical energy, and being enabler for energy security and continuity.

Digital transformation is essential to promote clean, efficient, and sustainable power while supporting effective integration of increased renewables, storage and electric vehicles onto the grid.?Through digitalisation, businesses can optimise processes and adjust their workforce strategy and structures through upskilling.

Additionally, production control and management should be centralised to support secure and reliable electric power systems and efficient generation-grid-load-storage collaboration. This will pave a way for enterprise operation quality and efficiency improvement, as well as agile management innovation. On the group side, platformisation and specialisation should be promoted: Platformisation spurs continuous innovation, and specialisation helps accumulate capabilities.

The new electric power system

In the new electric power system where the proportion of new energy is increasing, new energy access and massive power and electronic devices make the system more complex.

The operation of the power grid faces many challenges, such as increasing uncertainty in electric power balance and decreasing system inertia. Against this backdrop, electric power enterprises need to consider both new energy development and the secure and stable running of the electric power system and accelerate the digital upgrade of the system to effectively support the integrated generation-grid-load-storage development.

Therefore, a more robust and flexible electric power communication network supporting multi-service transport is required to comprehensively sense new energy and flexible loads.

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Digitalisation: paving a digital road for new electric power systems

Digital transformation of electric power systems is a top-executive-led project, and great importance should be attached at the strategic level.

In the strategic planning for the mid-and long-term development, the electric power communication network should be incorporated in the overall system planning and construction.

In addition, organisational leadership should be strengthened and the organisation system should be improved to ensure effective investment and orderly implementation from strategic coordination and long-term development perspectives.

Cross-regional AC/DC hybrid connection and the widespread use of power and electronic devices have significantly changed the features of the electric power system.

In the future, the system scale and complexity will reach a new height. Digital means such as situational awareness, extensive?IoT , digital twin, and intelligent computing are urgently needed to address intermittent and random, massive and discrete, complex and multi-dimensional, and uncontrollable fluctuation challenges in the new system.

With these means, real-time dynamic balance can be achieved, thereby better supporting secure power supply and efficient generation-grid-load-storage interaction. To achieve this goal, a robust electric power communication network must be built.

Developing strong foundations

A robust electric power communication network is an important foundation for the?digitalisation ?of new electric power systems.

In order to ensure the safe and stable operation of the power grid, many countries have promulgated laws and regulations. Taking China as an example, according to the mandatory national standard GB 38755-2019 Guidelines for Power System Security and Stability, which was released in 2019, three defense lines and corresponding control measures are defined for the power grid to guarantee safe and stable running.

Power grid construction strictly complies with this standard, and continuously strengthens the three defense lines. Moreover, various relay protection and stability control devices are configured and improved to prevent ripple effects of incidents, thereby avoiding power outages.

The electric power communication network also demands three defense lines for ensuring communication security.

The?first defense?line is the application of highly reliable communication technologies, such as the?native hard pipe (NHP) network , and the adoption of a redundancy protection design for key components of communication devices. When detecting a faulty component such as the power supply, fan, or switching board, the system immediately switches to the standby component to ensure normal device running.

The?second defense?line is communication link redundancy protection. When a communication link is faulty, for example, when a fiber is damaged, the communication devices at both ends of the link negotiate and switch services to a protection link. In this way, services can be quickly restored.

The?third defense?line is network-level redundancy protection. To prevent large-scale network breakdown due to network attacks or other reasons, two independent communication networks need to be constructed. When the active network is faulty, the system quickly switches services to other available links. This will greatly improve the survivability of core electric power services in extreme scenarios.

Compliance:?the hierarchical redundancy design principle

As the key infrastructure of the digital power grid, the electric power communication network should comply with the hierarchical redundancy design principle.

In actual applications, the redundancy protection mode of an electric power communication network should be configured based on the voltage level of power transmission lines to balance security and costs and optimise ROI.

For 35–110 kV high-voltage power transmission lines, network-level redundancy protection should be flexibly configured upon redundancy protection for communications devices and communications links based on the importance of the lines.

For high-voltage, extra-high voltage, and ultra-high-voltage power transmission lines above 110 kV, three defense lines should be configured to construct a highly reliable dual-plane communication network.

For power distribution communication networks, redundancy protection for communications links should be implemented upon redundancy protection for communications devices if possible.

To adapt to the long-term electric power digitalisation, the electric power communication network must be scalable:

1. The network bandwidth should be high enough to support quick service rollout.
2. Electric power sub-systems must be physically isolated so that the rollout of new services does not affect existing services.
3. The network performance, such as latency and jitter, must meet the requirements of diversified electric power services.

The NHP-based multi-redundancy electric power communication network can meet both the security and future-oriented evolution demands of electric power digitalisation. This network ensures that at least one communication connection is available in extreme cases and functions as an uninterrupted optical communication network for power grids, laying an important foundation for the digitalisation of new electric power systems.

Huawei Electric Power Digitalisation BU

Huawei Electric Power Digitalisation BU is committed to becoming the preferred partner for digital transformation of the electric power industry. Relying on Huawei’s advantages in ICT infrastructure technologies featuring device-edge-pipe-cloud synergy,?Huawei? adheres to the platform+ecosystem strategy and works with partners to deeply integrate digital technologies with electric power services. In this way. Huawei will help electric power enterprises achieve secure, efficient, green, and innovative transformation and upgrade, paving a digital road for the global electric power industry.

By David Sun, CEO of Electric Power Digitalisation Business Unit, Huawei

David Sun has over 21 years of experience in ICT and digital transformation.