Time Synchronized Power Meters for Advanced Smart Distribution of Energy in Smart Grids

With the spread of alternative energy sources, many aspects are changing in the electric grid. New electric energy generation plants are distributed in the network. As a consequence, the flow of electric energy becomes bidirectional in the grid. Energy flow changes direction based on needs, consequently, there is a need for new sensing systems and management tools of the grid such as smart meters. These sensing devices must be synchronized with each other based on the same clock to guarantee the correct management of the energy flows in the smart grid. This article presents a comparison between satellite and informatics-based protocols and then proposes the use of the precision time protocol (PTP) for synchronization. The developed smart meters have been synchronized by the PTP protocol and have been distributed in the nodes of a local microgrid. The development of an automatic control station for smart grid management is here described. The control station is able to localize the smart sensing devices distributed and connected to the grid. Experimental results have been carried out on two time-synchronized smart meters. The synchronization protocol has been validated and verified by performing different communication tests.Index Terms— Distributed sensing system, energy management, IEEE 1588, precision time protocol (PTP), smart grid, smart power meter, synchronization protocol.