URLLC-Aided System Protection in Smart Electric Power Distribution Systems

The increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DER) in the electrical power grid poses several challenges in protection coordination. Several electric utilities have started looking into adopting communication to solve the electric grid protection challenges. This paper explores ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) in 5G as a new promising alternative communication medium for wide area protection applications in a distribution system. The paper assesses if URLLC can meet the expected latency limits for mission-critical applications like wide-area protection in power distribution systems. In particular, the physical layer constraints are studied, such as the effect of physical layer numerology, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and central frequency on communication latency. Realistic simulations are carried out in ns-3 to evaluate the performance of the communication network in a distribution grid with DER. Test results on a sample distribution system illustrate the feasibility of 5G URLLC to meet the stringent latency requirements of smart grid protection.