Communication Routes for DER Interconnection with Power Grid

Dissemination of distributed energy resources (DERs) manifests the precious idea of green power generation. Aggregation of several DER units into the existing power network has become a principal challenge. To solve this, proper communication system for DER data exchange with the power utility need to be determined. DER interconnection with the power grid should be studied in two main levels of physical electricity connection and information transfer layer. The main objective of this paper is to study possible data exchange architectures for communication between a DER controller and a power utility operator. We extracted 9 different scenarios that fully cover DER interactions with other units. This paper provides a better understanding of a DER connection to power system components, defines the few related standards and design factors, extracts 9 communication scenarios based on reliable and qualified connections and discusses the optimized communication techniques for DER routes.