Energy systems are transforming due to the incorporation of multiple distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy and battery storage systems. This transformation has triggered a need to shift power distribution from a low efficiency centralized model with high coordination costs to a decentralized distribution system comprising smart grids. Researchers have discovered a number of uses for blockchain technology in the energy sector because of its decentralized structure and possibility for safe transactions. In order to pinpoint current trends and important research directions in this area, this article thoroughly examines the effects of blockchain technology on smart grids and distributed energy resources. The aim of this paper is also to identify research gaps and future research initiatives in the area of blockchain-based energy distribution. To do this, 92 research publications were subjected to a comprehensive literature review based on predetermined criteria. Transactiv... [more]

This article reviews the issue of the use of cryptocurrencies (crypto-assets, in general) for an electricity settlement system. The development of digital techniques, including blockchain-based mechanisms, has meant that an increased interest in blockchain-based solutions is to be expected. Blockchain and similar approaches are characterised by decentralisation, so they are concurrent with the trends of the transforming power sector. Decentralised energy generation based on a high proportion of prosumer installations requires the implementation of a new settlement system for grid activities related to electricity use. The first projects of such systems based on a dedicated cryptocurrency have emerged. Based on these, the general concept of such a system with its own cryptocurrency called CCE is presented, including variants implementing net-metering and net-billing. Furthermore, issues requiring interdisciplinary research work and discussion before implementing such systems were identi... [more]

As renewable electricity integration generates grid-balancing challenges for network operators, new ways of grid resilience receive significant attention from the energy research community. Power-to-gas (P2G) applications could produce and use green hydrogen. Thus, they enable the integration of more renewable energy into the energy system. Meanwhile, Internet-of-things (IoT) solutions could optimize renewable energy applications in decentralized systems. Despite the strategic importance of both technologies in renewable-rich grid developments, opportunities for P2G advancements based on IoT and related solutions have not come to the forefront of renewable energy research. To fill in this research gap, this study presents a hybrid (thematic and critical) systematic literature review to explore how strategic co-specialization opportunities appear in recent publications. Findings suggest that P2G and IoT could be fundamentally linked within the proposed frameworks of multi-energy systems... [more]

Swift population growth and rising demand for energy in the 21st century have resulted in considerable efforts to make the electrical grid more intelligent and responsive to accommodate consumers’ needs better while enhancing the reliability and efficiency of modern power systems. Internet of Things (IoT) has appeared as one of the enabling technologies for smart energy grids by delivering abundant cutting-edge solutions in various domains, including critical infrastructures. As IoT-enabled devices continue to flourish, one of the major challenges is security issues, since IoT devices are connected through the Internet, thus making the smart grids vulnerable to a diverse range of cyberattacks. Given the possible cascading consequences of shutting down a power system, a cyberattack on a smart grid would have disastrous implications for the stability of all grid-connected infrastructures. Most of the gadgets in our homes, workplaces, hospitals, and on trains require electricity to run. T... [more]

Synchrophasor estimation was mostly used in transmission systems in the past, and it is difficult to directly apply an existing synchrophasor algorithm to a distribution system with a more complex structure and environment. A synchrophasor estimation algorithm with a high accuracy and fast response speed is required to complete the calculation of the phasor in the face of the complex and changeable power signal of a distribution network. Therefore, an enhanced all-phase discrete Fourier transform (e-apDFT) algorithm is proposed for a distribution system in this paper, and the algorithm is deployed in a phasor measurement unit (PMU) prototype based on digital signal processing (DSP). Aiming to solve the problem of the accuracy of the traditional apDFT being reduced when the response speed is fast due to the influence of a dense spectrum, the existing algorithm is improved through iteratively compensating the spectral interferences to the main bin produced by adjacent bins. The experimen... [more]

Many systems in use today require strong cryptographic primitives to ensure confidentiality and integrity of data. This is especially true for energy systems, such as smart grids, as their proper operation is crucial for the existence of a functioning society. Because of this, we observe new developments in the field of cryptography every year. Among the developed primitives, one of the most important and widely used are iterated block ciphers. From AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) to LEA (Lightweight Encryption Algorithm), these ciphers are omnipresent in our world. While security of the encryption process of these ciphers is often meticulously tested and verified, an important part of them is neglected—the key expansion. Many modern ciphers use key expansion algorithms which produce reversible sub-key sequences. This means that, if the attacker finds out a large-enough part of this sequence, he/she will be able to either calculate the rest of the sequence, or even the original key.... [more]

This work proposes and develops an implementation of a fault location method to provide a fast and resilient protection scheme for power distribution systems. The method analyzes the transient dynamics of traveling waves (TWs) to generate features using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT), which are then used to train several graph convolutional network (GCN) models. Faults are simulated in the IEEE 34-node system, which is divided into three protection zones (PZs). The goal is to identify the PZ in which the fault occurs. The GCN models create a distributed protection scheme, as all nodes are able to retrieve a prediction. Given that message-passing between nodes occurs both during training and in the execution of the model, the resiliency of such schemes to communication losses was analyzed and demonstrated. One of the models, which only uses voltage measurements, was implemented on a Texas Instruments F28379D development board. The execution times were monitored to assess the speed... [more]

Insulators are considered one of the most significant parts of power systems which can affect the overall performance of high-voltage (HV) transmission lines and substations. High-voltage (HV) insulators are critical for the successful operation of HV overhead transmission lines, and a failure in any insulator due to contamination can lead to flashover voltage, which will cause a power outage. However, the electrical performance of HV insulators is highly environment sensitive. The main cause of these flashovers in the industrial, agricultural, desert, and coastal areas, is the insulator contamination caused by unfavorable climatic conditions such as dew, fog, or rain. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to review the different methods adopted to identify the contamination level on high-voltage insulators. Several methods have been developed to observe and measure the contamination level on HV insulators, such as leakage current, partial disgorgement, and images with the help of dif... [more]

The development of local energy communities observed in the last years requires the reorganization of energy consumption and production. In these newly considered energy systems, the commercial and technical decision processes should be decentralized in order to reduce their maintenance costs. This will be allowed by the progressive spreading of IoT systems capable of interacting with distributed energy resources, giving local sources the ability to be optimally coordinated in terms of network and energy management. In this context, this paper presents a decentralized controlling architecture that performs a wide spectrum of power system optimization procedures oriented to the local market management. The controller framework is based on a decentralized genetic algorithm. The manuscript describes the structure of the tool and its validation, considering an automated distributed resource scheduling for local energy markets. The simulation platform permits implementing the blockchain-bas... [more]

A crucial assurance for coal mine safety production, prevention and control, and rescue, which is the fundamental tenet of implementing intelligent coal mining, is the safety, stability, and quick transmission of coal mine roadways. However, because of the complex structure of the roadway environment, such as limited and variable space and numerous pieces of equipment, the wireless communication network is affected by the environment, the data transmission channel characteristics are complex and variable, and the existing data transmission methods are weak in adapting to the changing channel. These factors result in poor stability of the transmission of coal mine roadway environment detection data in the wireless communicative network. As a result, this article investigates the wireless communication systems’ real-time transmission in the intricate environmental setting of a coal mine. Based on the application of multiscale wavelet theory in data compression and reconstruction, an adap... [more]

Several advanced features exist in fifth-generation (5G) correspondence than in fourth-generation (4G) correspondence. Centric cloud-computing architecture achieves resource sharing and effectively handles big data explosion. For data security problems, researchers had developed many methods to protect data against cyber-attacks. Only a few solutions are based on blockchain (BC), but are affected by expensive storage costs, network latency, confidence, and capacity. Things are represented in digital form in the virtual cyberspace which is the major responsibility of the communication model based on cybertwin. A novel cybertwin-based UAV 6G network architecture is proposed with new concepts such as cloud operators and cybertwin in UAV. Here, IoE applications have to be energy aware and provide scalability with less latency. A novel Compute first networking (CFN) framework named secure blockchain-based UAV communication (BC-UAV) is designed which offers network services such as computing... [more]

Conventional outage management practices in distribution systems are tedious and complex due to the long time taken to locate the fault. Emerging smart technologies and various cloud services offered could be utilized and integrated into the power industry to enhance the overall process, especially in the fault monitoring and normalizing fields in distribution systems. This paper introduces smart fault monitoring and normalizing technologies in distribution systems by using one of the most popular cloud service platforms, the Microsoft Azure Internet of Things (IoT) Hub, together with some of the related services. A hardware prototype was constructed based on part of a real underground distribution system network, and the fault monitoring and normalizing techniques were integrated to form a system. Such a system with IoT integration effectively reduces the power outage experienced by customers in the healthy section of the faulted feeder from approximately 1 h to less than 5 min and is... [more]

Integration of information communication technology via the Internet of Things devices and sensors can enable an efficient power service for utility providers to consumers in advanced metering infrastructure. Authentication and cryptographic mechanisms protect identity, data security and privacy from unauthorised interception for smart meters to servers. In the last couple of years, many key agreement protocols have been prescribed and deployed to fix those issues. Unfortunately, the deployed protocols did not work inside the same protocols, specifically parameter detection and recognition for session key generation, as they entail high computation time and communication bits overheads. Furthermore, the absence of forward secrecy and user anonymity affects the authentication. Therefore, we have proposed a lightweight identity-based key agreement (LIKA) utilising the Diffie−Hellman cryptography with a trusted authority. It seeks to cover both the security and performance criteria with e... [more]

This article studies the broad methodology and major application of smart distributed energy resources (DER) in terms of energy generation, consumption, transaction, and power scheduling. This article simplifies a general DER system into a generic type of integrated DER model. This model is used to investigate a smart DER system that transforms three input parameters, (3I parameters) into three critical output functions(3O functions); hence, the model is also called the 3I3O model. The power at a common connection joint can be enabled by a computer that makes computerized decisions to utilize smart DER. Therefore, the computer algorithm collects various data fed into a computer for deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) decision making. The authors demonstrate important results and the best solutions to meet power demand, offer an economic advantage and have a low carbon footprint for consumers. Moreover, several network blockchain options are discussed. EBC and DER represent a... [more]

Poland remains the most coal-dependent economy in the EU. To minimize that problem, which is particularly clear and dangerous in the period of a shortage of fossil fuels, the Polish authorities have decided to establish various institutions, organizational and regulatory solutions. Their role is to support the development of renewable energy sources and local energy communities. The latter are to focus on optimizing the production and consumption of energy in pursuit of energy self-sufficiency on a local scale. One such institution, set up in Poland over the last several years, is the energy cooperative, which is intended to increase the efficient use of the potential of renewable energy sources in rural and urban−rural areas. The authors of this article verify the assumptions, for instance, the number, composition or production and members’ consumption profiles, under which such a relatively new institution has the chance to develop. A novelty in this research paper is that the intere... [more]

Transactive energy is a highly effective technique for peers to exchange and trade energy resources. Several interconnected blocks, such as generation businesses, prosumers, the energy market, energy service providers, transmission and distribution networks, and so on, make up a transactive energy framework. By incorporating the prosumers concept and digitalization into energy systems at the transmission and distribution levels, transactive energy systems have the exciting potential to reduce transmission losses, lower electric infrastructure costs, increase reliability, increase local energy use, and lower customers’ electricity bills at the transmission and distribution levels. This article provides a state-of-the-art review of transactive energy concepts, primary drivers, architecture, the energy market, control and management, network management, new technologies, and the flexibility of the power system, which will help researchers comprehend the various concepts involved.

Distribution transformers are an integral part of the power distribution system network and emerging smart grids. With the increasing dynamic service requirements of consumers, there is a higher likelihood of transformer failures due to overloading, feeder line faults, and ineffective cooling. As a consequence, their general longevity has been diminished, and the maintenance efforts of utility providers prove inadequate in efficiently monitoring and detecting transformer conditions. Existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) metering points are sparsely allocated in the network, making fault detection in feeder lines limited. To address these issues, this work proposes an IoT system for real-time distribution transformer load monitoring and anomaly detection. The monitoring system consists of a low-cost IoT gateway and sensor module which collects a three-phase load current profile, and oil levels/temperature from a distributed transformer network, specifically at the fe... [more]

The existing techniques for detecting defects in photovoltaic (PV) components have some drawbacks, such as few samples, low detection accuracy, and poor real-time performance. This paper presents a cloud-edge collaborative technique for detecting the defects in PV components, based on transfer learning. The proposed cloud model is based on the YOLO v3-tiny algorithm. To increase the detection effect of small targets, we produced a third prediction layer by fusing the shallow feature information with the stitching layer in the second detection scale and introducing a residual module to achieve improvement of the YOLO v3-tiny algorithm. In order to further increase the ability of the network model to extract target features, the residual module was introduced in the YOLO v3-tiny backbone network to increase network depth and learning ability. Finally, through the model’s transfer learning and edge collaboration, the adaptability of the defect-detection algorithm to personalized applicati... [more]

With the rapid development of smart grids, the number of various types of power IoT terminal devices has grown by leaps and bounds. An attack on either of the difficult-to-protect end devices or any node in a large and complex network can put the grid at risk. The traffic generated by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is characterised by short bursts of time, making it difficult to apply existing centralised detection methods that rely on manual setting of attack characteristics to changing attack scenarios. In this paper, a DDoS attack detection model based on Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) is proposed by constructing an edge detection framework, which achieves bi-directional contextual information extraction of the network environment using the BiLSTM network and automatically learns the temporal characteristics of the attack traffic in the original data traffic. This paper takes the DDoS attack in the power Internet of Things as the research object. Simulat... [more]

This paper analyzes the digital signal processing techniques and estimates induction motor (IM) rotational speed operating in stationary or non-stationary conditions. Rotor slot harmonics present in the stator current waveform are used to estimate the induction motor speed with a given or identified rotor slot numbers. This paper’s contribution is the following: First, zoom improved short-time Chirp-Z transform is used to find supply frequency and the rotor slot harmonic frequency to improve the estimation accuracy without increasing computing complexity. Second, a technique is described that can be used to determine whether or not a motor can generate principal slot harmonics (PSH). Finally, an algorithm is designed to figure out the perfect window length and estimate the motors’ speed. This proposed technique was investigated when the motor was fed by an inverter-fed supply driving a variable load and operating in non-stationary conditions. Experimental test results on 5.5 kW and 22... [more]

There is an increasing interest in improving energy efficiency and reducing operational costs of induction motors in the industry. These costs can be significantly reduced, and the efficiency of the motor can be improved if the condition of the machine is monitored regularly and if monitoring techniques are able to detect failures at an incipient stage. An early fault detection makes the elimination of costly standstills, unscheduled downtime, unplanned breakdowns, and industrial injuries possible. Furthermore, maintaining a proper motor operation by reducing incipient failures can reduce motor losses and extend its operating life. There are many review papers in which analyses of fault detection techniques in induction motors can be found. However, all these reviewed techniques can detect failures only at developed or advanced stages. To our knowledge, no review exists that assesses works able to detect failures at incipient stages. This paper presents a review of techniques and metho... [more]

In traditional energy production at large-scale, conventional methods are being used, including fossil fuels. This in turn leads to greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., carbon dioxide or CO2) that cause environmental concerns, but also those traditional methods rely on traditional distribution systems, which are burdened with high transmission losses. This paper focuses on a new concept in the energy sector that undergoes transformation from a traditional centralized system to a decentralized one. In reaching sustainability goals, such as net-zero emissions, the energy sector is incorporating renewable energy sources into the energy system. This requires transformation that combines big conventional energy producers with multiple small- and large-scale energy producers (rooftop photovoltaic panels, wind farms and solar plants) in one system. This enormous transformation is a difficult task, but with recent advancements in information and communication technologies, digitalization, the Indus... [more]

Due to the growing concern and search for energy sustainability, there has been an increase in recent years in solutions in the area of energy management and efficiency related to the Internet of Things (IoT), the home energy management system (HEMS), and the building energy management system (BEMS). The availability of the energy consumption pattern in real time is part of the necessity presented by this research. It is essential for perceiving and understanding the savings opportunities. In this context, this manuscript presents the development of a self-calibrated embedded system to measure, monitor, control, and forecast the consumption of electrical loads, enabling the improvement of energy efficiency through the management of loads performed by the demand side. The validation of the produced device was performed by comparing the readings of the device with the readings obtained through the evaluation system of the integrated circuit manufacturer ADE9153A®, Analog Devices® purchas... [more]

The convergence of Information Technologies and Operational Technology systems in industrial networks presents many challenges related to availability, integrity, and confidentiality. In this paper, we evaluate the various cybersecurity risks in industrial control systems and how they may affect these areas of concern, with a particular focus on energy-sector Operational Technology systems. There are multiple threats and countermeasures that Operational Technology and Information Technology systems share. Since Information Technology cybersecurity is a relatively mature field, this paper emphasizes on threats with particular applicability to Operational Technology and their respective countermeasures. We identify regulations, standards, frameworks and typical system architectures associated with this domain. We review relevant challenges, threats, and countermeasures, as well as critical differences in priorities between Information and Operational Technology cybersecurity efforts and... [more]

The localization and quantification of turbomachinery rotating sound sources is an important challenge in the field of aeroacoustics. In order to compensate the motion of a rotating sound source, a rotating beamforming technique is developed and applied in a flow duct, which uses a wall-mounted microphone array placed circularly parallel to the fan, to detect the broadband noise source of the aeroengine fan. A simulation of three discrete rotating sound sources with a non-constant rotational speed is pursued to verify the effectiveness in reconstruction of the correct source positions and quantitative prediction of the source amplitudes. The technique is ulteriorly experimentally implemented at an axial low-speed fan test rig facility. The fan test rig has 19 rotor blades and 18 stator vanes, with a design speed up to 3000 rpm. The method can accurately identify the radial and circumferential positions of the three rotating sound sources in the simulation case, large side-lobes appear... [more]