A Service-Oriented Digital Twins Framework for Smart Grid Management

Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are infrastructures with capabilities of perception, networking, and computation. They consist of physical and virtual components that interact with their environment. Their main goal is to monitor the physical system in real-time to have its behavior under control. Some of these infrastructures require well-defined security measures due to their critical processing capabilities. Digital Twins are defined as virtual structures emulating the physical components in various systems. They enable the deployment of isolated simulation environments to test changes and specify the security issues of a CPS. One of the main applications of CPS is smart grids. Microservices allow us to create fine-grained operations on automation systems. Using small, well-defined, modular processes, we can observe the states of smart grid infrastructure in many stages. In this work, we aim to design a framework that can create a reliable environment for smart grids compliant with existing industrial standards. We propose a service-oriented digital twins framework consisting of entities such as power meters, data aggregators, and system parameters for providing a scalable and highly available platform for complex energy systems.