Communication system requirements for implementation of a large scale demand side management and distribution automation

Large scale system implementation of demand side management (DSM) and distribution automation (DA) intended for an electric utility network serving a large customer base (one million or larger) spread over a large geographical area requires a two-way communication system. Unlike pilot projects where testing and feasibility studies are highly structured and controlled, many of the results from the pilot tests are not readily transportable into the design of very large systems. In a multitasking environment, system data throughput, response time and communication bandwidth utilization are not only functions of communication baud rate and performance, but are also highly dependent on the system infrastructure, local geography, the customer base and the regulatory environment. In this paper, three generic communication infrastructures are analyzed and expressions for the system response time and message throughput rate are developed. The system message rate and response time requirements are discussed and their relationship to the communication infrastructure and the meter reading application throughput is analyzed. The impact of poor communication performance to the system response time and throughput is presented.