Connected devices are disrupting numerous industries, with the power utility sector being no exception. Power utility companies currently face four primary challenges arising from the growth of IoT:
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Vendors are increasingly connecting machines, controllers, HMIs, and SCADA systems to the cloud, promising enhanced analytics and insights for predictive and preventative maintenance. However, strict quarantine policies governing critical assets prevent power companies from utilizing these new IoT features offered by machine and controller vendors.
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As the costs of solar and wind power microgrids continue to decrease, utility companies will soon experience declining revenue from power generation. To compensate for lost power production revenue, companies must aggressively pursue new revenue streams, such as home energy management as a service, energy storage as a service, grid services for EV charging, and grid services for peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading between homes, microgrids, and batteries. These initiatives require facilitation through smart metering, smart grids, and secure transactions enabled by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) like IOTA. Additionally, utilities are exploring the provision of smart city services to municipal authorities.
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For critical infrastructure such as dams, ICOLD (International Committee of Large Dams) mandates real-time Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) to identify impending collapse risks in dams, rocks, or tunnels, allowing for the timely evacuation of affected populations.
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A new emerging revenue area is EV charging in parking facilities. IoT can play a pivotal role in facilitating smart charging and smart parking solutions.
Over the past three years, IoT engineering has undergone massive changes, primarily driven by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. These tech giants have invested billions to develop IoT platforms that are easier to manage and secure. Furthermore, IoT edge computing has gained significant momentum as the primary means for practical IoT implementation. With 5G promising to transform the IoT business landscape, there has been an unprecedented surge in research funding for new IoT areas. Consequently, it is essential for practicing engineers to understand the IoT platforms developed by major players like AWS, Google, and especially Microsoft.
However, none of these platforms offer an exhaustive or comprehensive solution for scalable IoT. For instance, deploying smart meters to millions of homes requires additional technologies for securing the meters, radio networks, IoT management systems, and numerous other secured services. The strategy, pricing, and security of any IoT deployment must be optimal and acceptable. Given the interdisciplinary nature of this knowledge, it is challenging for any company to assemble a team capable of meeting all requirements.
This course is a modest attempt to educate key decision-makers, developers, and security experts on the challenges, risks, and practical approaches to deploying IoT for next-generation power utility businesses.
Additionally, as deployment scales, managing IoT services for thousands of sensors and connections is emerging as a separate engineering research subject. This area, formally known as managed IoT services, is experiencing rapid growth because the challenges of scalable IoT are significantly greater than the initial build. This includes securing over-the-top firmware/software updates, managing sensor and system calibration, auto-diagnosing connection issues, identifying the root cause of API failures, and tracking hardware and service health in distributed systems.
Course objectives
The main objective of the course is to introduce emerging technological options, platforms, and case studies of IoT implementation in power utility companies, including Smart Metering, Smart Cars, SHM (Structural Health Monitoring), Power Quality Diagnosis, and Smart Contracts. It also provides a basic introduction to all IoT elements: mechanical components, electronics/sensor platforms, wireless and wireline protocols, mobile-to-electronics integration, mobile-to-enterprise integration, data-analytics, and control plane applications.
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IoT technology stacks: Devices, gateways, edge, edge cloud, public cloud, IoT databases, web & mobile applications for IoT, centralized vs. decentralized IoT.
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IoT ecosystem for business, third-party device management, and risk management of the entire IoT ecosystem.
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M2M wireless protocols for IoT: WiFi, SigFox, LORA, LPWAN, Zigbee/Zwave, Bluetooth, ANT+ - when and where to use each.
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Fundamentals of IoT gateways: Risks, management, and ecosystem.
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Mobile/Desktop/Web apps for registration, data acquisition, and control - available M2M data acquisition platforms for IoT: AWS IoT, Azure IoT, Google IoT.
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Security issues and solutions for IoT - reviewing the security of all technology stacks.
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Enterprise IoT platforms such as Microsoft Azure IoT suites, AWS IoT, Google IoT, and Siemens MindSphere.
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Smart metering: Open Smart Grid Protocols (OSGP), ANSI C 2.18 protocols, NIST Standard for HAN (Home Area Network), Home Plug Powerline Alliance, and Security Standard for Smart Meter - IEC 62056.
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Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) such as Blockchain, HyperLedger, and DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) for smart contracts, P2P transactions, and smart car charging.
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IoT for critical infrastructure like dams, transformers, substations, and high-tension wires.
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