Applied Internet of Things Architecture to Unlock the Value of Smart Microgrids

This paper presents an applied Internet of Things (IoT) architecture for smart microgrids. Smart microgrids use IoT-enabling technologies conjointly with power system equipment to deliver additional services on top of the basic supply of electricity to local networks that operate in parallel with the regional grid or autonomously. Such ancillary services offered by the microgrid—e.g., local balancing, internal congestion management, and aggregation to support market or grid operator activities—can create value for its end-users and other stakeholders. A systems engineering design approach is used to apply two reference architectures from different domains (power systems and IoT) to create a novel, high-level framework for the design of information and communication technologies systems for smart microgrids. The framework covers the device layer, connectivity system, data processing and storage layers, and business applications. The IoT architecture for smart microgrids is applied to a case study of a pilot project in an industrial and commercial area in The Netherlands.