Advances in Power Systems Digitisation and Automation

Dear Colleagues,

The main drives of the digital transformation of power systems are “de-carbonization and decentralization”. Power system digitization and automation play a key role and provide essential functions and key enabling technologies for integrating and activating decentralized renewable energy sources. By applying cloud computing, digital communication, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and wide area monitoring and control technologies, it is now possible to unlock the flexibility of distributed generation from renewable energy resources, storage, and demand response to complement the increasing variability in the system and enable customers to actively participate on the energy market by investigating their own renewable energy resources. Power system digitalization and automation are essential to keep this increasingly decarbonized and decentralized energy system running in a reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective manner.

Digital substations with new digital technologies, computer-based protection, automation, and control (PAC) equipment, and automation and intelligent controls working together have been proven to serve as big data collectors, sensors, and information providers to the supervisor control and data acquisition (SCADA) and wide area management system (WAMS) at the control center. In addition, cost saving could be achieved thanks to the reduced construction time of the network along with the ability to mix and match the most cost-effective products for multiple vendors, the faster engineering processes, and the capability to use plug-and-play technologies for much easier testing, replacement, and maintenance. All these are essential steps to help the power sectors to move from the current utility management-led power network operation to customer-led, active, flexible, and sustainable electricity power systems or smart grids in the future.

This Special Issue on “Power System Digitization and Automation” aims to curate novel advances in the development and application of digital technologies to address challenges in the digitization transformation of the power system. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Big data, data modeling, and enhanced analysis—prediction maintenance, planning, and operational changes;
• Application of standards, such as the common information model (CIM) substation —electricity or energy market, and IEC61850 data communications;
• Function digitalization through more connectivity and IoT, such as virtual power plant and digital twins of power network operation and control;
• Technology progressing to “decentralization” disruptive forces reshaping energy transition through, for example, new merging of digital technology and new best practices and business models in term of digitalization in power systems;
• Cybersecurity, such as methods and applications of cyber risk analysis, intrusion detection, intrusion response and recovery.

Dr. Haiyu Li
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• digital transformation of power systems
• digitization and automation
• big data
• enhanced data analysis
• functional digitization
• IoT
• cybersecurity