Assessing Microgrid Communications Technologies in Real-World Environment

Communications are one of the fundamental elements to ensure the correct operation and coordination of smart microgrids (MGs). Communication must always be designed to guarantee that the message is delivered to its destination at the moment when it is needed. Reliability and latency parameters are therefore essential. Nowadays, for all high requirement applications in smart MGs, wired communications, i.e. Ethernet or fibre optics, are used. Wired technologies have the advantages and disadvantages of physically routing the communications link between the devices exchanging information. On the one hand, there is greater immunity to interference and a higher transmission speed. But on the other hand, the cost of deployment is higher, the design more difficult and maintenance more laborious. For this reason, this paper evaluates different wireless communication technologies in terms of latency and reliability in order to assess their suitability for use in the most demanding applications of smart MGs.