Considerations on Communication Infrastructures for Cooperative Operation of Smart Inverters

The presence of distributed generation systems spread over low-voltage electrical networks is boosting the development of control methodologies aiming at coordinating and cooperatively managing the existing smart inverters. Although low-bandwidth data transmission links are constantly described to be required for a considerable number of centralized and decentralized control methodologies, there is a gap in literature concerning the plain understanding of the features of the related communication protocols available for such application. Thus, this paper brings considerations on some of the most relevant communication protocols that can be applied to the cooperative control of multiple smart inverters, taking into account the recent updates on interoperability requirements recommended by the IEEE 1547-2018 standard. The communication infrastructure, topology and features of a low-bandwidth data transmission link are discussed in this paper focusing on the SunSpec, DNP3 and SEP2 protocols. Yet, some critical comments are made regarding the practical interoperability of commercial inverters, also bordering cyber security matters.