Connected devices are disrupting numerous industries, and the power utility sector is no exception. Power utility companies currently face four primary challenges driven by the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT):
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Machines, controllers, HMIs, and SCADA systems are increasingly being connected to the cloud by vendors who promise enhanced analytics and insights for predictive and preventive maintenance. However, the strict quarantine policies governing critical assets prevent power companies from fully utilizing these new IoT features provided by machine and controller vendors.
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With the continuously decreasing costs of solar and wind power microgrids, utility companies will soon experience declining revenue from traditional power generation. To compensate for this lost revenue, companies must aggressively pursue new revenue streams, such as Energy Management as a Service, Energy Storage as a Service, offering grid services for EV charging, and facilitating peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading between homes, homes and microgrids, microgrids and batteries, and homes and batteries. All these initiatives require facilitation through smart metering, smart grids, and secure transactions enabled by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) like IOTA. Additionally, utilities are exploring ways to offer certain 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 provide advanced warning of potential collapses of dams, rock formations, or tunnels, allowing sufficient time to evacuate potentially affected populations.
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Another emerging revenue area is EV charging in parking facilities. This module explores how IoT can facilitate 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 of dollars to develop IoT platforms that are easier to manage and secure. Furthermore, IoT edge computing has gained significant momentum in both research and deployment as the only viable means for practical IoT implementation. 5G promises to transform the IoT business landscape, leading to unprecedented levels of research funding in this area. Consequently, for any practicing engineer, it is absolutely essential to understand the IoT platforms developed for major players like AWS, Google, and especially Microsoft.
However, none of the aforementioned platforms offer an exhaustive or entirely comprehensive solution for scalable IoT. For instance, deploying smart meters to millions of homes requires additional technologies to secure the smart meters, radio networks, IoT management technology, and many other secured services. The strategy, price, and security of any IoT deployment must be optimal and acceptable. Given the vast amount of interdisciplinary knowledge required, it is nearly impossible for any company to assemble a single team capable of meeting all these requirements.
This course is a modest attempt to educate key decision-makers, developers, and security experts about the challenges, risks, and practical approaches to deploying IoT for their next-generation power utility business.
In addition, with scalable deployments, managing IoT services for thousands of sensors and connections is emerging as a separate engineering discipline. This area, formerly known as managed IoT services, is experiencing rapid growth because the challenges of scalable IoT are much greater than building them. This includes security for over-the-air firmware/software updates, managing sensor and system calibration, auto-diagnosing connection issues, narrowing down the root cause of API failures, and tracking the hardware and service health of distributed systems, among others.
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 provides a basic introduction to all elements of IoT: Mechanical, 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 one
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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 – Review of available M2M data acquisition platforms for IoT such as AWS IoT, Azure IoT, and Google IoT
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Security issues and solutions for IoT: Review of 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 applications for critical infrastructure like DAMs, Transformers, Sub-stations, and High Tension Wires
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