93 Performance Evaluation of Wireless LAN for Control, Protection, and Monitoring of a Microgrid

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), such as wind, solar, fuel cell, etc., as a part of a microgrid not only provide clean and green energy, but also facilitate reliable power supply by coordinating with conventional generation or storage systems. In order to achieve proper operation, control and protection of a microgrid, interoperable communication infrastructure (integration of international protocols and advanced technologies) is vital. This work presents integration of IEC 61850 standard part 7-420 (an international protocol for DER information models), and IEEE 802.11 based wireless LAN communication technologies for a microgrid. With low cost installation at enough data speeds, wireless LAN can be a promising technology for various microgrid control, protection, and monitoring applications. Therefore, the work is carried to analyze the performance (in terms of communication delays and throughput) of wireless LAN technologies for a typical microgrid using well-know communication network analysis tool, OPNET. Different data rates of wireless LAN and radio noise levels are considered for this investigation.