New Dual Algorithm to Placement the Data Aggregation Point for Smart Grid Meters

The Smart Meter Neighborhood Area Network (SM-NAN), commonly referred to as the last mile network, is a crucial component in enabling communication within the smart grid. This network facilitates the connection between Smart Meters (SMs) and Data Aggregation Points (DAPs), responsible for gathering energy consumption and invoicing data from SMs. The placement of DAPs significantly impacts the distance and transmission lines connecting them to SMs. Our research focuses on optimizing DAP deployment to minimize mean and maximum distances between DAPs and SMs. The paper introduces a system that introduces the concept of network division and develops two techniques to address the DAP placement problem. Through extensive simulations based on actual suburban community topologies, our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches in reducing the communication gap between DAPs and connected SMs. This research presents promising ideas to enhance the efficiency and performance of the last mile network in the Smart Grid (SG). The performance of two algorithms, DPCA avg and DPCAws, is compared and simulated with varying numbers of DAPs (K = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) in the subnetwork, considering maximum and mean distance minimization, as well as the maximum number of hops per path. Results indicate that both DPCA avg and DPCAws effectively reduce mean and maximum distances between DAPs and SMs, respectively. DPCA avg achieves a maximum distance of 797.3 m, with a mean distance of 345.31 m. In contrast, DPCAws focuses on minimizing the maximum distance, resulting in a maximum distance of 750.3 m and a mean distance of 423.1 m when the number of DAPs is one (k = 1). DPCAws demonstrates an awareness of maximum distance and minimizes it, while DPCA avg prioritizes mean distance reduction. Additionally, DPCAws reduces the maximum number of hops per path, further optimizing the last mile network.