Performance Evaluation of Communication Requirements of Smart Inverter and Distributed Energy Resource Management System

The increasing integration of renewable energy resources into the distribution system is facilitated by smart inverters (SI). These inverters not only contribute to the grid but also fulfill the grid support functions mandated by the recent amendment in the IEEE 1547 standard. One of these grid support functions is Frequency-Watt (FW) control, which requires SIs to respond promptly during under or over frequency grid events. To ensure effective FW control, SIs must aid the grid frequency within a specified time limit. Coordinated FW control necessitates communication between the SIs and Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS). Therefore, evaluating the performance of the communication architecture for FW control is crucial to guarantee desired outcomes. By implementing the IEC 61850 communication protocol, which employs an object-oriented approach and promotes interoperability, the benefits of such a design can be realized. This paper develops a network emulation setup based on the IEC 61850 communication model and assesses its performance in terms of latency for different communication technologies.