181 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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D. D. Chowdhury, NextGen Network Synchronization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71179-5_10
Chapter 10
Synchronization for Smart Grid
Infrastructure
10.1 Introduction
Over a century, power system went through tremendous changes to provide reliable
and steady source of energy. The power system and for that matter power grid is
considered a marvel of reliability yet reliability principle puts a limit to continuous
100% uptime. There are various sources that could cause abnormalities in power
grid operations. These abnormalities may stem from internal and external causal
factors. To keep the power grid reliable and operation 100% of the time, monitoring
of power quantities in real time is essential and this requires both integration of new
technologies and robust implementation of ICT (Information Communication
Technologies) and grid-wide security mechanism to protect it against attacks. Smart
grid initiatives take all these context into account while suggesting a time-
synchronized architecture for interconnectivity, operations, and control of power
grid. Without time synchronization, it would be diffcult to visualize, analyze, and
take preventive actions of any anomalies of power Grid. In a workshop arranged by
NIST (National Institute of Standard and Technologies), grid operator identifes
most challenges yet essential requirements for real-time monitoring of power quan-
tities, these include TWFL, use of synchrophasor technologies, WAMS, event tim-
ing, and reconstruction to operation and control of digital substations. All these
functions require precision time synchronization. This chapter discusses synchroni-
zation needs from historical perspective and explores its importance in the operation
of modern “next generation” smart grid. Additionally, the chapter specifes end-to-
end time synchronization requirements for power system while discussing various
power profles that needed to be implemented for optimal operations of power
systems.