Incentives for a Softwarization of Wind Park Communication Networks

Wind energy is one of the most attractive and one of the fastest growing sources of green energy in the world. With the expansion of wind parks, there is a growing need for an efficient coordination of the diverse energy production systems, as well as a tighter coupling between the production and the consumer side of the grid. Current grid operators have unnecessarily high costs due to the lack of an integrated management system toward a diverse set of proprietary network protocols, complex and error prone operation of the networks, as well as rigid security mechanisms. Network softwarization concepts, that is, SDN and NFV, offer great potential for reducing capital and operational expenditures by providing simplified network management and automated control. Recent works have demonstrated the feasibility of achieving stringent industrial-grade quality of service and fine grain security control with SDN and NFV. In this article, we provide an insight into wind park communication network requirements, analyze the technological benefits of the network softwarization, and demonstrate the economic profits in a case study of a typical Northwestern Europe wind park.