Data Standardization for Smart Infrastructure in First-Access Electricity Systems

Recent developments in renewable energy and information technology (IT) fields made it easier to set up power systems at a smaller scale. This proved to be a turning point for developing first-access electricity systems for the underserved locations around the world. However, there are planning and operation challenges due to lack of past data on such places. Deployment of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and proliferation of smart infrastructures with additional sensors will lead to tremendous opportunities for gathering very useful data. For different stakeholders to access and manage these data, trusted and standardized mechanisms need to be in place. Storing proper data in a well-structured common format allows for collaborative research across disciplines, large-scale analytics, and sharing of algorithms and methodologies, in addition to improved customer service. Data standardization plays a more vital role in the context of electricity access in the underdeveloped countries, where there is no past data on generation or consumption as in utility grids. Data collected in a standard structure, being it for a short period of time, facilitate learning from the past experiences, monitoring the current projects, and delivering better results in the future endeavors. It will result in ways to better assist consumers and help the industry operate more efficiently by sharing data with different stakeholders. It can also enhance competition, thus making electricity accessible faster and to more people. The focus of this article is data standardization for first-access electricity systems, in general, and renewable energy-based microgrids, in particular. Different data sources and ways that the corresponding data can be exploited, technological and capacity constraints for storage of data, political and governance implications, as well as data security and privacy issues, are examined. This article is relevant to different stakeholders, such as investors, public utilities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and communities. Using the data standardization approach developed here, it is possible to create a much-needed first-access electricity system database. This will provide an important resource for project developers and energy companies to assess the potential of a certain unelectrified site, estimating its demand growth in time and establishing universal control systems that can seamlessly communicate with different components.