Hermann de Meer

Universität Passau · Department of Computer Science and Mathematics

We consider the cascading failure process in interdependent power-communication networks, where the power grid provides the required energy for the communication nodes, and the communication network facilitates the monitoring and controlling the power networks. The proposed system model considers the flow dynamics in both networks and the failure r...

Literature that deals with optimal voltage regulation in the power distribution grid often neglects the impact of communication on their control strategies or makes hard assumptions about the communication network. This paper extends a nearly optimal reactive power allocation mechanisms for distributed renewable energy sources with communication co...

Future power systems are expected to depend more on ICT for essential grid services such as voltage and frequency control, increasing the interdependencies between both systems. Therefore, disturbances from one system could propagate and impact the other, degrading the state of the interconnected system. This paper proposes a formalised hybrid mode...

Flexibility from stationary batteries and electric vehicles allow home energy management systems to optimally consume local photovoltaic generation. The aggregated flexibility potential of a set of energy management systems can further contribute to a common objective, e.g., peak shaving at the transformer station. This paper formalizes the (non-co...

Smart Grids are electrical grids that require a decentralised way of controlling electric power conditioning and thereby control the production and distribution of energy. Yet, the integration of Distributed Renewable Energy Sources (DRESs) in the Smart Grid introduces new challenges with regards to electrical grid balancing and storing of electric...

Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining widespread adoption, which requires expanding the charging infrastructure. This infrastructure is part of a complex ecosystem that consists of multiple entities interacting with each other and exchanging (often personal) user data. Such a heterogeneous system with multiple participants exchanging personal data po...

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative services and technologies spanning over the ICT-enabled power system, realistic models are required. Although nowadays there is a wide range of power system data models, these models do not include a lifelike representation of the ICT system architecture and do not consider the level of interconn...

Due to the increasing battery capacity of electric vehicles, European standard electricity socket-outlets at households are not enough for a full charge cycle overnight. Hence, people tend to install (semi-) fast charging wall-boxes (up to 22 kW) which can cause critical peak loads and voltage issues whenever many electric vehicles charge simultane...

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative services and technologies spanning over the ICT-enabled power system, realistic models are required. Although nowadays there is a wide range of power system data models, these models do not include a lifelike representation of the ICT system architecture and do not consider the level of interconn...

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are considered an important pillar in the energy transition because they are usually located near the consumers. In order to provide accurate PV system models, e.g. for microgrid simulation or hybrid-physical forecast models, it is of high importance to know the underlying PV system parameters, such as location, panel orie...

While long-term wide-range blackouts have been studied extensively from a power systems perspective, the role of ICT in the recovery of smart energy systems has not been investigated to the same extent. This paper presents a flexible blackstart service to restore a smart distribution system alongside an impaired ICT system. We formulate the problem...

Stationary battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles become more and more popular at households with local photovoltaic generation. Besides improving self-consumption and autarchy, these batteries can provide flexibility to an external utility. Thereby, generation and demand uncertainty, as well as cost optimality, need to be considered...

Abstract With the increased penetration of distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) in the grid, new pathways are required to keep the electricity distribution system stable. The provision of ancillary services (AS) by the DRES can contribute in this regard. However, it is necessary to communicate the need for AS from the third party providers s...

The integration of ICT into power systems has increased the interdependencies between the two systems. The operation of power system depends on several ICT-enabled grid services which manifest the interdependencies. ENTSO-E system state classification is a tool that is widely used by operators to determine the current operational state of the power...

Increasing interdependencies between power and ICT systems amplify the possibility of cascading failures. Resilience against such failures is an essential property of modern and sustainable power systems and networks. To assess the resilience and predict the behaviour of a system consisting of interdependent subsystems, the interconnection requires...

The pervasiveness of network softwarization has drawn keen interest from the industrial domain as network convergence becomes increasingly desirable among industrial operators. Coupled with the concept of network slicing, operators will be able to tailor resources to applications regardless of the contrast in application requirements. However, whil...

The autonomic composition of Virtual Networks (VNs) and Service Function Chains (SFCs) based on application requirements is significant for complex environments. In this paper, we use graph transformation in order to compose an Extended Virtual Network (EVN) that is based on different requirements, such as locations, low latency, redundancy, and se...

Abstract Power grids are becoming increasingly intelligent. In this regard, they benefit considerably from the information technology (IT) networks coupled with their underlying operational technology (OT) networks. While IT networks provide sufficient controllability and observability of power grid assets such as voltage and reactive power control...

Aggregation trees have been proposed for privacy preservation to reduce data collectors’ computational cost in smart grids. In aggregation tree models, smart meter usage data should be forwarded by all its ancestors, which delays usage data transmissions. We report the design of an identity-based signcryption protocol without oracles for aggregatio...

The prevalence of the term ”Network Slicing” in today’s communication network research community signifies the concept worthy of focus. However, despite its ubiquitous usage, there are varied interpretations of the concept which often leads to disagreement and confusion. The root of this misunderstanding lies in what the term ”Slicing” means to the...

The future of e-mobility will consist of a large number of connected electric vehicles, smart charging stations and information systems at the intersection of electricity and mobility sector. When engineering and integrating the multitude of systems into even more complex systems-of-systems for e-mobility, interoperability and complexity handling a...

Network virtualization is proposed in several research work as a means to overcome the ossification of the Internet. Its application relies on embedding algorithms to instantiate virtual networks on substrate infrastructures. Notably, those considered in the scope of traffic-engineering are developed to focus on efficient resource utilization with...

In this paper, an application topology-aware virtual network mapping and service provisioning framework dubbed ``APTASP'' is introduced. The framework is presented as a candidate to deal with the expected increase in the complexity of network management originating from the evolution of IoT and Industrial Internet. Envisaged under the programmable...

Advancing network technologies allows the setup of two-way communication links between energy providers and consumers. These developing technologies aim to enhance grid reliability and energy efficiency in smart grids. To achieve this goal, energy usage reports from consumers are required to be both trustworthy and confidential. In this paper, we c...

Security resources, such as security personnel and surveillance devices, are scarce and usually expensive. Suppose that a defender (e.g., a security officer) must choose among several possible resource-allocations, and relies on game-theory for an optimal choice. If the optimum exists only in randomized strategies, then the defender needs to “purif...

The increase in Electric Vehicles (EV) penetration may add a significant amount of load to the power grid causing several challenges like overloading of assets, big voltage drops on feeder lines. Overcoming those challenges will be hard because of the variability and unpredictability of EV loads, namely, the lack of information on when, where, or h...

Power grids are becoming increasingly intelligent. However, the boundaries between their operational technology (OT) environments and the (vulnerable) IT networks tend to dissolve. In such systems, several technical and economic factors can significantly affect the upgrading decisions. These factors include, just to name a few, limited time and bud...

The increasing battery capacity of electric vehicles allows longer driving distances, but also requires longer charging times, so that European standard Schuko electricity socket-outlets at households (max. 3.7 kW) are not suitable for full charge cycles over night. Private (semi-) fast wall-boxes often require enhancement of the power distribution...

The future of e-mobility will be based on a large number of connected electric vehicles, smart charging stations and information systems at the intersection of energy and mobility sector. When engineering and integrating the multitude of systems into a complex system-of-systems for e-mobility, interoperability and complexity handling are vital. Mod...

The growing prominence of renewable energy sources, which were not considered within existing power system restoration methods, is introducing both challenges and flexibilities for the Smart Grid restoration. This paper introduces a concept for an automatic, decentralized restoration approach for distribution level of the Smart Grid. The prime goal...

In the domain of power distribution network, software that can estimate the grid state using several measurement values as input has been rarely used in the low voltage grid. Such software tools are based on adaptive state estimation methods and their accuracy highly depends on the available input data. Especially, in the low voltage grid which is...

Both individuals and organizations appreciate the deployment of elastic virtual computing resources on demand in public and private Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) algorithms provide the automated and efficient resource assignment necessary for this use case. With the increase of participating parties, the...

Renewable energy sources, on one hand, are environmentally friendly, but on the other, they suffer from volatility in power generation, which endangers power-grid stability. A viable solution to circumvent the intermittent behavior of renewables is the usage of energy-storage systems. In this paper, we study the energy management of a proof-of-conc...

The electrification of the mobility sector comes with multiple challenges such as the lack of information on when, where, how long and how fast charging processes of electric vehicles will take place. In order to keep up with increasing power demand of charging processes, besides better predictions also the active control of charging processes will...

With the ongoing adoption of remotely communicating and interacting control systems harbored by critical infrastructures, the potential attack surface of such systems also increases drastically. Therefore, not only the need for standardized and manufacturer-agnostic control system communication protocols has grown, but also the requirement to prote...

Abstract Critical infrastructures – such as electricity networks, power stations and Smart Grids – are increasingly monitored and controlled by computing and communication technologies. The need to address security and protection of electricity infrastructures with a high priority has broadly been recognized. This is driven by many factors, includi...

Critical infrastructures – such as electricity networks, power stations and Smart Grids – are increasingly monitored and controlled by computing and communication technologies. The need to address security and protection of electricity infrastructures with a high priority has broadly been recognized. This is driven by many factors, including the ra...

Background We use Agent Based Models (ABMs) to study and contrast the projected adoption of integrated photovoltaic and battery systems in both Ontario, Canada and Bavaria, Germany. Methods We carry out surveys in both jurisdictions to elicit Agent Based Model (ABM) model parameters and to learn the decision function that determines whether an age...

Surveillance technologies represent a standard practice for the protection of critical infrastructures such as utility networks. Although surveillance systems may be in place and operating within a utility provider’s premises, they are prone to technical as well as organizational failures resulting in a fluctuating performance. Furthermore, several...

Critical infrastructure protection becomes increasingly a major concern in governments and industries. Besides the increasing rates of cyber-crime, recent terrorist attacks bring critical infrastructure into a severer environment. Many critical infrastructures, in particular those operating large industry complexes, incorporate some kind of physica...

Electric mobility leads to an increasing challenge for power grid operators , particularly due to its irregular and unknown load profiles. In order to keep up with increasing power demand of charging processes , besides better predictions also the active control of charging processes will be necessary to minimize infrastructure costs. This work dea...

Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is a mechanism adopted by major hardware vendors to reduce power demand during times of low processor utilization. However, reducing processor frequency to decrease power demand usually results in degraded services' performance leading to service level agreement violations. Governors, which are a piece o...

Due to the increasing number of Electric Vehicles (EV) entering the transportation sector, we need to take a closer look to the distribution power grid, which needs to support the increasing number of charging processes. Grid enhancement to peak load of EV charging processes is very expensive, hence an intelligent solution is preferred. This paper...

In this paper, a novel approach for improving battery lifetime is proposed. To reach this goal, electric vehicle internal data is analysed, the battery health influence of driving and charging parameters is estimated and recommendations for battery health optimal charging are generated. The presented system collects data from the electric vehicle u...

Verfügbarkeit ist eines der drei klassischen IT-Sicherheitsziele und ein Qualitätsmerkmal von Diensten in Rechenzentren. Wird gegen die vertragliche Verfügbarkeitszusage verstoßen, so können dem Cloud-Service-Provider Vertragsstrafen und gegebenenfalls ein Reputationsverlust drohen. Daher ist es umso wichtiger, herauszufinden, ob das versprochene M...

Dieses Kapitel bietet den unterschiedlichen, am dynamischen Zertifizierungsverfahren Beteiligten Umsetzungshinweise und Handlungsempfehlungen, um den Aufwand zu verdeutlichen, den die Ein- und Durchführung der dynamischen Zertifizierung organisatorisch bedeuten kann. Da nicht auf die unterschiedlichen Systemausgestaltungen eingegangen werden kann,...

Im Rahmen des NGCert-Projektes wurden beispielhaft drei Use-Cases zu Access Management, Geolokation und Verfügbarkeit entwickelt. In diesem Kapitel wird vorgestellt, wie der Use-Case „Access Management“ bei einem Cloud Service Provider umgesetzt werden kann. Um mehrere Teile des Bereichs „Access Management“ abzudecken, werden in diesem Kapitel drei...

In the last few years, research has been motivated to provide a categorization and classification of security concerns accompanying the growing adaptation of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. Studies have been motivated by the risks, threats and vulnerabilities imposed by the components within the environment and have provided general clas...

Lately power grids have been subject to one of their major evolutions since their design and conception. The traditional structure of electricity being generated by a small number of huge and centralized power plants is being defied by the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources. The major drawback of such sources is their intermittent b...

The increasing adoption of new information and communication technology assets in smart grids is making smart grids vulnerable to cyber threats, as well as raising numerous concerns about the adequacy of current security approaches. As a single act of penetration is often not sufficient for an attacker to achieve his/her goal, multistage cyber atta...

Public transportation systems represent an essential sector of any nation's critical infrastructure. Hence, continuity of their services is deemed important and with a high priority to the nations. Concerns over risks like terrorism, criminal offenses, and business revenue loss impose the need for enhancing situation awareness in these systems. How...

Electric vehicles (EVs) are expensive. An intriguing idea that was recently proposed is to use a fleet of electrically-assisted bicycles (eBikes) to model the usage and charging patterns of a fleet of EVs at a much lower pricepoint. In this paper, we make a first attempt to explore this idea using usage data from an EV field trial and an eBike fiel...

The existing electromobility (EM) is still in its fledgling stage and multiple challenges have to be overcome to make Electric Vehicles (EVs) as convenient as combustion engine vehicles. Users and Electric Vehicle Fleet Operators (EFOs) want their EVs to be charged and ready for use at all times. This straightforward goal, however, is counteracted...

The protection of cyber-physical networks is a topic of increasing importance. The evolution of IT (cyber) systems that control and supervise the underlying physical system has grown over decades, whereas security has not become a concern until quite recently. Advanced persistent threats (APTs) have proven to be a difficult but significant challeng...

In order to tackle energy challenges faced in Germany, a Feed-in Tariff program was created in 2004 to aid the adoption of solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) systems where owners of such systems are paid a certain amount for each unit of electricity generated. Solar PV electricity generation is limited due to its intermittency but this can be managed using ba...

Electromobility is one approach to foster a CO2-optimized transportation and mobility sector. At the same time, increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EV) bares challenges for the whole electricity system, and mainly for the power grids. Coordinated charging of electric vehicles can help alleviating the pressure that an increasing e-mobility sec...

Smart grids offer benefits compared to the current power grid by using technologies such as AMI and demandresponse schemes. However, the introduction of these technologies also leads to challenges in the areas of privacy and identification of disobedient users. Current solutions to these challenges heavily rely on a trusted third party, which may l...

The power grid has become a critical infrastructure, which modern society cannot do without. It has always been a challenge to keep power supply and demand in balance; the more so with the recent rise of intermittent renewable energy sources. Demand response schemes are one of the counter measures, traditionally employed with large industrial plant...

Demand response is a promising approach to deal with the emerging power generation fluctuations introduced by the increasing amount of renewable energy sources fed into the grid. Consumers need to be able to adapt their energy consumption with respect to the given demand pattern and at the same time ensure that their adaptation (i.e., response) doe...

The efficiency of network virtualization depends on the appropriate assignment of resources. The underlying problem, called virtual network embedding, has been much discussed in the literature, and many algorithms have been proposed, attempting to optimize the resource assignment in various respects. Evaluation of those algorithms requires a large...

Smart meters enable a fine-granular monitoring of power consumption and distributed power production in costumers’ premises, which are used to predict the power requirements for the near future. The goals are to offer more security of supply as well as to minimize the power requirement estimation errors. However, to benefit from this information, t...

Data centers are among the largest and fastest growing consumers of electricity in the world. Furthermore, the rapid growth of digital content, big data, e-commerce, and internet traffic will create the need for an even higher number of DCs. On other side, in spite of the variability of renewable resources, due to characteristic weather fluctuation...

Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) has become a key technique to reduce power consumption at times of low processor (CPU) utilisation. Reducing CPU frequency usually results in degraded services' performance leading to Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations. Usually, CPU governors change frequency and voltage at discrete time instances...

Thanks to their affordability and practicality, electric bicycles (e-bikes) are becoming popular, especially in urban areas. They are a zero-emission and zero-carbon alternative to cars and therefore have a high potential to mitigate climate change. However, range anxiety can be a significant barrier to the adoption of electric vehicles. To address...

Increasing the use of renewable energy is considered a viable way of reducing carbon intensive power generation. However, a power grid running on high amounts of renewable energy has to deal with the limited controllability and higher volatility of power sources like wind or solar. In this work, we propose to use demand side management to deal with...

In this paper, we indicate the increasing interests in providing network security and privacy in Smart Grids, and propose a novel usage data aggregation scheme. The proposed scheme combines multiple cryptosystems to achieve anonymity and multidimensional data aggregation without a trusted third party. In our approach, smart meters transmit usage re...

In modern industrial solutions, Ethernet-based communication networks have been replacing bus technologies. Ethernet is no longer found only in inter-controller or manufacturing execution systems, but has penetrated into the real-time sensitive automation process (i.e., close to the machines and sensors). Ethernet itself adds many advantages to ind...