ALARM: average low-latency medium access control communication protocol for smart feeders

The smart distribution system initiative requires higher usage of a distribution feeder-level communication infrastructure to improve system automation. This study proposes a hybrid medium access control (MAC) protocol to manage time-driven and event-driven distribution system applications. This MAC protocol, ALARM, for high-priority events/situational awareness requirements is proposed based on the power system properties. ALARM protocol utilises unique properties of radial feeders and reduces average communication congestion, latency to collect all messages and processing time. This work shows the advantage of using cyber and power system properties to improve automation enabled future distribution system operations.