A Multidisciplinary Approach for the Development of Smart Distribution Networks

Emilio Ghiani, Alessandro Serpi, Virginia Pilloni, Giuliana Sias, Marco Simone, Gianluca Marcialis, Giuliano Armano and Paolo Attilio Pegoraro
Additional contact information
Emilio Ghiani: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Alessandro Serpi: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Virginia Pilloni: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Giuliana Sias: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Marco Simone: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Gianluca Marcialis: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Giuliano Armano: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Paolo Attilio Pegoraro: Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-29

Abstract: Electric power systems are experiencing relevant changes involving the growing penetration of distributed generation and energy storage systems, the introduction of electric vehicles, the management of responsive loads, the proposals for new energy markets and so on. Such an evolution is pushing a paradigm shift that is one of the most important challenges in power network design: the management must move from traditional planning and manual intervention to full “smartization” of medium and low voltage networks. Peculiarities and criticalities of future power distribution networks originate from the complexity of the system which includes both the physical aspects of electric networks and the cyber aspects, like data elaboration, feature extraction, communication, supervision and control; only fully integrated advanced monitoring systems can foster this transition towards network automation. The design and development of such future networks require distinct kinds of expertise in the industrial and information engineering fields. In this context, this paper provides a comprehensive review of current challenges and multidisciplinary interactions in the development of smart distribution networks. The aim of this paper is to discuss, in an integrated and organized manner, the state of the art while focusing on the need for interaction between different disciplines and highlighting how innovative and future-proof outcomes of both research and practice can only emerge from a coordinated design of all the layers in the smart distribution network architecture.

Keywords: smart grid; monitoring system; distribution system state estimation; information and communication technology; distribution management systems; distributed energy sources; cyber-physical systems; energy management system; energy storage systems; cyber security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/10/2530/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/10/2530/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:10:p:2530-:d:171473

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().