A Path Selection Method for Wide-area Protection Communication System in Smart Grids

With the rapid development of smart grids, wide-area protection communication system has high requirements for real-time and reliability. However, the shortest path-based method is generally adopted in the wide-area protection communication system of smart grids, so as to meet the communication requirements of power services. When a failure of nodes or links happens in smart grids, it will cause serious economic losses to power system. In order to solve this problem, according to the requirements of real-time and reliability of wide-area protection communication, an optimal path selection model with reliability and constraints is proposed to minimize the weighted link delay and utilization. An improved genetic algorithm is adopted to solve the mathematical model. The simulation results shows that the proposed method not only considers the use of network resources, but also realizes network load balancing with satisfying real-time and reliability of wide-are protection system. The optimal working and alternative paths are selected, and the safe and stable operation of power system is ensured.