Towards Smart Integration of Distributed Energy Resources Using Distributed Network Protocol Over Ethernet

The Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) is the communication protocol standardized by IEEE for electric power systems (EPS) and it is a promising communication standard in the context of Smart Grids. This paper presents the Distributed Network Protocol over Ethernet (E-DNP3) using field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology as the first step to the EPS automation. The communication architecture improves the delivery time comparing with previous works and provides an adaptable solution for real-time information exchange in electrical applications such as management, control, and protection of power systems. The developed work allows the analysis of the feasibility of the proposed communication architecture in a real microgrid scenario. This implementation accomplishes a new technique for the communication architecture in order to integrate the distributed energy resources (DERs) to the local power system. The experimental results prove that the proposed architecture satisfies the communication requirements for real-time monitoring and control of EPS towards Smart Grid applications.