[en] Smart grids use digital information technology to simultaneously increase energy efficiency while integrating renewables into the electric grid, making it a critical component of achieving a low-carbon energy system. Prior research on the social acceptance of smart grids has relied on either single time point assessment (i.e. prior to a smart grid rollout) or experimental and lab settings. These approaches miss key aspects of social acceptance because they fail to capture change over time through the interaction between stakeholders, technology, and utilities. In contrast, we compare two waves of survey data on the social acceptance of smart grid technologies, the first (n = 609) prior to a local rollout of a smart grid program in upstate New York and the second (n = 533) two years after the same rollout. Our results demonstrate that in contrast to the hopes of smart energy advocates, the social acceptance of four dimensions of smart grids either remain steady or decline over time. Further analyses reveal that the factors that shape acceptance also change over time. This study demonstrates that the social acceptance of smart grids may actually decrease over time even with the robust engagement of consumers, not only challenging optimistic views of smart grid technology but also challenging broader theoretical arguments in the literature on the social acceptance of energy technologies. (letter)

[en] Highlights: • Current distribution pricing does not meet key regulatory principles. • Expert views informed models of innovative network pricing for a smart grid. • Multiple trade-offs between innovative pricing approaches and regulatory principals. • Higher base costs, per unit charge and general tax facilitate low carbon networks. • Facilitation of data sharing, management and communication is essential. - Abstract: This paper outlines how current distribution network pricing can be revised to enable transition to a smart grid in a low-carbon economy. Using insights from expert interviews, it highlights multiple trade-offs between innovative pricing approaches and regulatory principles which might be resolved by a political decision on how the costs should be recovered or socialised. It then identifies four essentials for a successful implementation of a new mechanism: (i) Closer collaboration between TSO and DNO/DSO concerning local dispatch to improve system efficiency. (ii) Installation of smart meters to collect data providing information about the actual contribution to the grid utilisation of each customer. (iii) Intensified cooperation between supplier and DNO/DSO to pass-through the price signal on the electricity bill. (iv) A legislative framework to facilitate data sharing and data management and communication among network stakeholders – essentially a relaxation of current privacy legislation as an enabler for new approaches to network management, and potentially to reduce costs to the consumer. This suggests the focus for future network pricing should be on services and functions provided by the grid rather than on the commodity power itself.

[en] Wide area monitoring systems (WAMSs) are used to measure synchrophasor data at different locations and give operators a near-real-time picture of what is happening in the system. Since power grids are critical infrastructures, WAMSs are tempting targets for all kinds of attackers, including well-organized and motivated adversaries such as terrorist groups or adversarial nation states. Attacks on WAMSs can trigger wrong decisions and severely impact grid stability, overall power supply, and physical devices.We aim to improve power system security by detecting false data injection (FDI) attacks against WAMSs. Through adoption of adequate statistical methods, we aim to enhance anomaly detection performance and at the same time mitigate the effects of attacks on state estimation (SE). We first analyze smart grid threats with the use of attack trees and formulate a model to express different FDI attacks. Then we investigate different anomaly detection methods with regard to their ability to detect FDIs. In order to investigate how such attacks can be detected, we first look into SE and bad data (BD) detection methods. We then investigate the suitability of a static SE method based on weighted least squares (WLS) and a recursive SE method based on Kalman filters (KFs), and analyse the suitability of using residuals from WLS and DKF for detecting bad measurements. Three methods, i.e., plain pre-fit residuals, L2-norm and normalized residuals based methods are used for detecting bad measurements. We then investigate the suitability of different lightweight statistical anomaly detection methods median absolute deviation (MAD), Kullback-leibler divergence (KLD) and cumulative sum (CUSUM). The data used in the different experiments come from phasor measurement units (PMUs) installed in a real power grid. Further, we investigate improving anomaly detection performance with a combination of methods based on weighted voting. Finally, an analysis of mitigating the effects of attacks on SE by replacing detected BD is conducted.The impacts of this research are manifold: smart grid monitoring and control can benefit from the threat analysis conducted as part of our research. Additionally, all the different statistical methods investigated and utilised in the experiments can help in the identification of the proper analytical tool for anomaly detection. Last but not least, our research suggests that a combination of different methods are needed for a trustworthy anomaly detection in smart grids. (author)

[en] With the development of the smart grid technology and the advent of the big data, it is highly desired to develop efficient computational methods for mining the values behind of huge volumes of data on the grid. However non-unified naming of the electronic devices from the de-centralized and heterogeneous power systems makes the procedure a hard problem. In the present work, we proposed a Ternary Search Trie based algorithm for recognizing the devices from the huge volumes of transaction data in the power grid. On the base of well-defined professional vocabulary of electronic devices, the algorithm scans and segments records having names of devices using the Ternary Search Trie method. An integrative scoring schema combing semantic and word order similarity is designed to evaluate the segments against the target device names. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method achieves only 3.13% error in parsing stage, and higher recognition rate. Moreover, the algorithm lists top-n matches for professional judgments to make the work more useful and rigorous. (paper)

[en] In recent years, with the rapid development of social economy, China’s investment in power grid dispatching automation system has also been increasing year by year to meet the increasing demand for dispatching of modern power grids. Under this background, the smart grid system characterized by information, automation, intelligence, and interaction has become the trend of future electric power development. Voice human-machine interaction technology as an advanced interactive technology has also started in the electric power intelligent dispatch system. Used in the application. This article mainly expounds the development status of intelligent dispatching system and the application of human-computer interaction technology in intelligent dispatching system. It also analyzes speech recognition technology, speech synthesis technology and typical Chinese speech recognition system in speech human-computer interaction technology, and focuses on intelligence. The design and implementation of voice human-computer interaction technology in the dispatching system, with a view to provide theoretical guidance for the development of China’s power dispatch system. (paper)

[en] With the rapid development of smart grid technology, energy IoT technology has become a new direction for the development of power grid enterprises. The energy Internet of Things covers the state of perception, information transmission and intelligent processing of the smart grid, and comprehensively improves the depth, breadth and density of information perception of the grid. The construction of smart grid energy IoT is an important development direction under the smart grid. The article analyzes the technology and network security of the smart grid energy Internet of Things. Based on the characteristics of the smart grid energy Internet of Things and the security risks it faces, the full-scenario network security protection technology adapted to the smart grid energy Internet of Things is analyzed. The suitable intelligence is studied from four aspects: perception layer, network layer, platform layer and application layer. The architecture and content of the full-site network security protection system of the grid energy Internet of Things provides ideas and methods for effectively ensuring the network security of grid enterprises. (paper)

[en] The proposal is concerned with an improvement for the supporting elements of the crossbars of a spacer grid for the rod-shaped elements of a nuclear reactor, described in patent no. 2031041. According to the invention the supporting element has got the shape of a cross with one part bended over to form clamps, while the other part may be spot-welded to the flat spring. A zirconium alloy with 2.5% niobium is mentioned as being suited for the crossbar. Flat spring and supporting element consist of a nickel alloy with 13% chromium and 6.5% iron. (UWI) 891 HPI

[en] Complete text of publication follows. Despite the seemingly ever growing power of computers, inversions of full 3D DC resistivity data are still challenging and time-consuming. Since the inversion processes are based on forward modeling, the speed up of the 3D DC resistivity modeling processes is always an interesting topic. As an iterative solver for discretized large linear equation systems, Multigrid (MG) methods are known for their high convergence rate which is independent to the number of grid nodes. However, when applied to 3D DC resistivity modeling, this attractive property may be affected by high conductivity contrasts. Algebraic Multigrid (AMG) method, based on matrix-dependent operators, can be used to retrieve this problem. The equation of continuity with mixed boundary conditions for 3D DC resistivity modelling is discretized using a standard 7-point finite difference scheme on the finest level with non-equidistant grids. Secondary potential approach is used to remove the singularities on the right-hand-side. Some forward modelling calculations are carried out with an AMG code named AMG1R5, which was made publically available in the mid-1980s. Three underground models, a three-layer model, a vertical contact model and a cubic model, are investigated. The affections of grid sizes and conductivity contrasts to the convergence rate and computational costs are under investigation. Comparing with the ICCG method, a widely used iterative method in 3D DC resistivity modeling, AMG method shows its superior performance just as expected.

[en] In the present paper, a multi-step reconstruction procedure is proposed for high order finite volume schemes on unstructured grids using compact stencil. The procedure is a recursive algorithm that can eventually provide sufficient relations for high order reconstruction in a multi-step procedure. Two key elements of this procedure are the partial inversion technique and the continuation technique. The partial inversion can be used not only to obtain lower order reconstruction based on existing reconstruction relations, but also to regularize the existing reconstruction relations to provide new relations for higher order reconstructions. The continuation technique is to extend the regularized relations on the face-neighboring cells to current cell as additional reconstruction relations. This multi-step procedure is operationally compact since in each step only the relations defined on a compact stencil are used. In the present paper, the third and fourth order finite volume schemes based on two-step quadratic and three-step cubic reconstructions are studied.

[en] This memorandum addresses portions of Section 3.5.2 of SRNL (2016) by recommending horizontal and vertical grid resolution for aquifer transport, in preparation for the next E-Area Performance Assessment (WSRC 2008) revision.