Structuring the design space of the ICT architecture for the Smart Grid

Current electricity grids are developing towards so called “Smart Grids”. Within these Smart Grids information and communication technology (ICT) will play a role in new categories of communication, measurement and control equipment in the electricity grid. Furthermore, it will play a role in the communication between the main actors of a Smart Grid (Market players, Grid Operators and Consumers) and inside the home of the consumer. For ICT architects it is difficult to make the appropriate architectural design choices as different architecture variants are possible and their design space has not been structured. In order to help ICT architects we have structured the design space of the ICT architecture for the Smart Grid and we briefly show how the structured design space can be used in concrete Smart Grid projects. In this paper, first an overview will be given of current views on Smart Grids. Then, the applied research strategy will be explained and the resulting ICT architecture variants for the Smart Grid are presented. The design space is structured based on market orientedness, grid orientedness and the level of distributedness of these architecture variants. Finally, the ICT architecture variants are positioned in the 3-dimensional design space and an overview is given of how the design space could be used in concrete Smart Grid projects.