Smart Distribution Transformer Terminal Used as an IoT Solution for Power Distribution Network Management

Power distribution network management and operation are facing challenges due to the increasing distributed generation penetration and electric vehicle adoption. Traditional distribution transformer terminals are designed to provide specific control and monitoring functions for distribution transformers, thus have limitations in aspects such as inadequate scalability of software and hardware, non-standardized design and proprietary communication which usually requires high cost for upgrading and operation. To address these issues, the smart distribution transformer terminal is proposed and defined with a combination of communication gateway function and distribution network monitoring and control capability. As the core part of power distirbution network management, the functions and design philosophy of smart distribution transformer terminal are presented. The demonstration projects and applications are introduced in the following part.