Communication utilization in power system control. A state-of-the-practice description

Communication technology represents a very important parameter in the design of computer based power system control systems. In this paper, a model conveying different maturity levels of the communication capabilities is introduced. The model provides support, complementary to the traditional OSI model, and the model classifies the maturity in a few discrete steps along two dimensions, respectively. The approach has successfully been applied to categorize the state-of-the-practice of existing concepts for control center communications. The work has opened up new possibilities for further research of communication in power system control.