Power grids are already enormously complex, but with renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs) increasingly entering the mix, the cellular Internet-of-Things (IoT) is becoming an essential tool for ensuring network reliability

In the 19th century, electric grids were unidirectional systems, with electricity from large centralized generating stations transmitted via high-voltage networks and used to power large cities.

By the ’60s, the networks of developed countries had become more extensive and more interconnected, with power from generators transported to where it was needed most — including across borders. With this increased grid complexity came the need for more sophisticated monitoring and control systems. Early systems used leased telephone lines operating at a modest 300 bits/second.

The modern US electricity grid comprises over 7,300 power plants, 250,000 kilometers of high-voltage transmission lines, and millions of kilometers of low-voltage distribution wires. Monitoring and controlling such a complex network takes a little more than some rented copper cables. Modern smart grids leverage cellular IoT to keep everything running smoothly and efficiently.

IoT and a net zero tomorrow
As the world transitions to a zero-carbon economy, electricity utilities will need to invest significantly in deploying renewables, other zero-carbon generation technologies, energy storage, and networks.

According to a 2021 study by the Energy Transitions Commission, delivering a zero-carbon global economy by 2050 will require an investment of $1.1 trillion a year, and that’s on top of the cost of new generating capacity. The IoT will be essential in supporting the networks, from smart grid management and energy monitoring to energy consumption analytics and predictive maintenance.

In the case of grid condition monitoring, fault detection, and maintenance, low-power cellular IoT should prove a key enabler because it solves one difficult and unique problem faced by geographically expansive (and expanding) power networks — how to keep pace with monitoring and control requirements. Due to the widespread installation of cellular networks, Cellular IoT will be close by wherever most power infrastructure is installed.

Conventional fault location techniques have relied on customers telling power companies there’s a problem in their neighborhood. The location of the fault can then be narrowed down by geographically grouping customer fault reports. At this point, crew patrols can be dispatched to the approximate area to physically locate the fault, isolate the line, and restore power. In major urban areas, that can take hours, and in remote areas, it could take days.

An alternative solution is cellular IoT-connected sensors installed on network infrastructure, which identify the presence of a fault or the likelihood of a fault before it occurs. For example, voltage, temperature, accelerometer, and energy-spike sensors could indicate fire, excessive vibration, power surges, or even the collapse of a transmission tower. Integrating narrowband (NB-IoT) or LTE-M Cellular IoT wireless connectivity with the sensors enables data to be relayed back to the grid operator in near real-time, and with the addition of GNSS trilateration, the location of any fault can be readily pinpointed.

Over millions of kilometers of grid, there’s potentially a massive amount of data that must be relayed to the Cloud quickly if faults are to be resolved with minimum inconvenience to consumers. That is where edge machine learning (ML) tools emerge.

Using an ML model to reliably distinguish between a significant and insignificant event on the grid eliminates the cost of transmitting unimportant data over the network to the Cloud. Instead, the device only sends a notification when it determines human intervention is required. This reduces the cost and the power consumption of potentially millions of devices operating in remote environments where battery replacement is impractical.

The electric vehicle age
Smart grids are not just about how industry, commerce, and the public consume power. As the number of EVs grows, so will their impact on the grid. Further impact will come from how they’re charged and how the vehicles can transfer any spare energy back to the grid. Charging sessions can be coordinated to smooth the curve, something utilities have attempted to do through flexible tariffs that offer consumers lower prices when demand is lower.

The EV sector has also responded, integrating LTE-M cellular connectivity into chargers to enable them to connect to the Cloud to respond to dynamic electricity price changes.

EVs can also help integrate renewables into the grid in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems. V2G systems enable the charged power to be pushed back to the grid from a vehicle batteries, allowing utilities to balance energy production and consumption variations. Vehicles can also charge at times of high renewable output and then supply energy back to their homes or the grid during peak demand hours or times of low renewable output.

Smart meter rollout and cellular IoT are key, enabling constant, bidirectional communication between the utility and the vehicles so the EVs know when to send electricity back to the network.

Integrating renewables
If all power companies had to worry about were network faults, that would be one thing. However, the advent of renewable energy means maintaining a balance between supply and demand becomes more intricate as power companies now also need to contend with substantial variations in power generation.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the world is on course to add more renewable capacity in the next five years than has been installed since the first commercial renewable energy power plant was built more than 100 years ago. The impact on the grid and how power companies manage renewable variability to ensure a reliable power supply around the clock will be key.

A critical strategy for managing renewable variability is demand response. This involves providing incentives to shift or shed electricity demand to help balance grids based on a sizeable proportion of variable power generation sources. One Brattle Group study found the US had 200 GW of cost-effective load flexibility potential that could be realized by 2030 if effective demand response is actively pursued.

Cellular IoT-powered smart meters can not only measure and record electricity consumption and generation and communicate this information to consumers and utilities, but they can also receive signals from utilities or other service providers, such as tariff changes, incentives, or requests to modify consumption. Cellular IoT provides a ready-made connectivity solution because it’s a robust, wireless technology tailor-made for large-scale IoT deployments.

According to the International Energy Agency, demand response can then be addressed automatically to reduce peak consumption and enable the aggregation and remote control of smaller dispersed renewable resources.

More than cellular IoT
While cellular IoT connectivity will be fundamental to tomorrow’s smart grid, other technologies will also be used. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, and Thread will be employed for smart meter and EV installations, while Matter is bringing intelligence to the home, allowing us to envision a future where smart buildings and grids talk to each other.

At the same time, DECT NR+, the world’s first non-cellular 5G technology standard, will also play an essential role in meeting the communication requirements of future grids by allowing massive device deployments with many of the benefits of cellular IoT, but at a much lower cost.

With all these fast, quality wireless networks, our homes, vehicles, and distributed energy resources can be seamlessly connected to the smart grid of the future, and the Internet of Energy age will have arrived.

References

• Making Clean Electrification Possible: 30 Years to Electrify the Global Economy. Energy Transitions Commission; April 2021
• Renewables 2023. International Renewables Energy Agency; January 2024
• The National Potential for Load Flexibility: Value and Market Potential Through 2030. The Brattle Group; June 2019
• Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2023. International Energy Agency; July 2023

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