Integration of distributed energy resources in the grid by applying international standards to the inverter as a multifunctional grid interface

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are rapidly penetrating in power systems including their accompanying software and hardware (SW/HW) systems that are also distributed and related to different manufacturers and owners. Information integration and interoperability are two problems in distributed systems. This paper presents a comparison between the available integration middleware and standards for inter-application interoperability of distributed SW/HW systems accompanying DERs such as Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Web Services, multiagent systems (MASs), and recently IEC 61850. In addition, the paper shows the possibility of mapping the information objects of IEC 61850 to the data objects of legacy SCADA protocols for physical control and integration of DERs interfaces, namely inverters, into the future Smart Grid over IP-based networks, to achieve inter-device and device-to-application interoperability. Moreover, billing functionality can be added to the inverter to count for injected power into the Smart Grid, and hence the inverter has business-related functions.