HYPERRIDE ICT platform specification

ICT plays a crucial role in a smart grid: Digital technology allows to monitor and manage the transport of electricity from all generation sources to meet the different electricity demands of end users. A central logic allows to coordinate the needs and capacities of all generators, network operators, end users and stakeholders in the electricity market in order to:

• optimise the use and operation of resources;
• minimise costs and environmental impacts;
• maximise the reliability, stability, and resilience of the network.

Another potential approach for the sensing and control of power distribution systems could be a decentralised logic. From the ICT perspective,  decentralised logic’s are interesting in view of their better scalability and better control on privacy.

Measurement sensors, actuators, automation devices, information technology and communication equipment permit to exchange information and to send command, control, and automation signals from the digital management system, which represent the intelligence of the network, to the physical equipment of the infrastructure electric. The control and actuation signals sent
to the physical devices of the network are no longer responding to the centralised and unidirectional logic of traditional systems only, but they are the result of advanced management logic’s that are managing the flows of energy and power in real time, determining the values of “optimal” setups for distributed generation and load resources (Valenti & Graditi, 2020).

The HYPERRIDE project aims to design and implement an Open ICT Platform enabling:

• the seamless integration and management of devices, regardless of how smart they are;
• scalable and interoperable collection and management of data that support near real time observability and optimisation of the operation of modular and resilient hybrid Alternating Current (AC)/ Direct Current (DC) grids;
• the transmission of commands/setpoints for the safe and  reliable operation of the grid;
• detection, prediction, prevention of technical and cyber-contingencies.

This document reports the results of the activities conducted in HYPERRIDE aiming at the elicitation and analysis of functional and non-functional requirements of the Open ICT Platform and high-level design of the platform architecture in terms of static and dynamic behaviour of the system.This document is based on the outcomes of Deliverable D2.2 “Use case  description, specification and implementation roadmap report”. Moreover, a questionnaire including general and customised questions has been submitted to Work Package (WP) leaders and to pilot leaders to collect expectations from the Open ICT platform in terms of functionalities, standards, data model, constraints, special technologies/tools needed, data necessary for the business processes.

A high-level description is given for each logical module that make up the architecture. Main information exchanges between architectural modules are described. Review and retrospective activities will be conducted to reflect on the iterations of requirements engineering reported in this document in the attempt to improve the process going forward and taking into account the
needs that will emerge in the other WPs. New and refined requirements that will emerge in the next phases of the project will be reported in the accompanying report of Deliverable D5.6. Low level details on architectural components and their interdependencies, on processes, and instructions for the deployment and use will be provided in the accompanying report of Deliverables D5.6 and D5.8. Furthermore, the document gives a short description of the energy services that will be evolved in HYPERRIDE according to the needs of hybrid AC/DC grids.

This document will be used as a starting point for the integration activities foreseen in later on in the project that are summarised in Deliverable D5.6 Open HYPERRIDE ICT platform (preliminary version) and following D5.8 Open HYPERRIDE ICT platform (final version).