IoT Based Solar Mini-Grid for Smart Grid Infrastructure: An Imperative Facet of Smart City

Smart city can be characterised by its advanced facilities in the areas of transportation, water supply, disaster management, electricity, pollution control, drainage and waste management etc. Out of all these, energy is the most critical requirement. Electricity is an essential resource in current era. High penetrations of communication standards and technologies have broadened the scope of integration of existing power infrastructure with ICT infrastructure. The most fundamental prerequisite of empowerment is energy. A grid carries electrical energy from the power generation division to consumer premises. The grid can be termed as ‘’Smart” if it is capable of making decisions with its computational proficiencies. These proficiencies are essential for optimization and reliable operation of the Smart grid. Energy efficiency, power quality, fault diagnosis, self-healing, economy, security, sustainability and reliability are the fundamental requirements of the power system. Smart grid is one of the biggest technological revolutions around the world. It will play a pivotal role in changing people’s lives. Smart grid can be termed as an ‘inclusive technology’. Smart Grid technology has transformed the energy sector. It is characterized by full duplex flow of energy and information with self-healing capability. Smart grid is an integrated energy system with automation and regulation. Integration of renewable energy resources with the power grid is the biggest challenge for the traditional grid system. Instability and variability are the two critical challenges for integrating renewable energy resources. Lack of real time information is also one of the critical factors for monitoring renewable energy resources. This paper describes the IoT based prototype design of a smart solar power system. In this paper, a solar minigrid is considered. The prototype is designed using IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.11 standards. It can be used for IoT based home area network of smart grid technology. This paper is anticipated to provide an inclusive and experimental study of IoT based renewable power system as an essential component of Smart city.

Keywords: IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, IoT, Smart city, Smart grid