Service level agreement: Coordination and monitoring of actors in Smart Grid

Abstract

Smooth and reliable operation of the future Smart Grid requires addressing coordination and interoperability issues. In Smart Grid, the coordination of new actors and monitoring of new business processes, such as Active Demand and Electric Vehicles is non-trivial. These new actors and related business processes change the landscape of power grid from traditional passive Demand Side Management of loads to active customers connected in Active Distribution Grid. Smart Grid operations require monitoring and coordination between high-level business requirements and low-level infrastructure affordances. To support such perspectives of the power grid an additional ICT infrastructure supplementing traditional SCADA systems is required. We argue that to enable and validate end-to-end interoperable solutions a new tool is required. In this paper we introduce Service Level Agreement as one such a tool, supporting design and implementation of well-coordinated interoperable information flows and ensuring shared agreed-upon situation awareness among stakeholders. Finally we illustrate our approach in Smart Grid Electric Vehicle systems.