Balancing the Load: Time Sensitive Networking for a More Resilient Grid

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Today’s electric grids are no longer simple or centralized. Distributed power, renewable integration and legacy infrastructure make them complex to manage, demanding real-time precision to avoid failures. Utilities must also cut costs, reduce emissions and fend off cyber threats. Under these pressures, the grid’s future depends on smarter, more secure ways to manage energy and data—and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is emerging as one strategy to modernize and strengthen the grid.

TSN delivers fast, deterministic coordination of time-critical data traffic across Ethernet networks. It integrates information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) traffic into a standard Ethernet network, enabling precise renewable energy synchronization, stronger systems protection and more reliable microgrids.

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global TSN market is projected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.9%, reaching $3.5 billion by 2032. Contributing to this growth, TSN deployment in the power grid sector is gaining traction. Read on to learn more about the ins and outs of TSN deployment in the power grid sector.

What Is Time Sensitive Networking and How Is It Used in Power Grid Infrastructure

TSN prioritizes time-critical data traffic across Ethernet networks through the data link layer (layer 2) of the communications stack. Data in an Ethernet network serve a variety of purposes with varying quality of service (QoS) requirements. Unlike standard Ethernet, TSN guarantees critical data delivery with bounded low latency and jitter and high reliability, including low packet delay variation and minimal packet loss. It is ideal for power grid applications where precise timing, synchronization and resilience are essential for safety and performance.

Here are three key TSN grid applications:

1. Substation Automation
   TSN ensures precise, real-time communication between intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), protection relays and control systems. This enables faster fault detection and isolation, improving reliability and safety.
2. Microgrids (Island Systems) and Edge Control: Integration of Renewable Energy
   TSN helps coordinate distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar, wind and battery storage. Deterministic networking ensures stable grid operation despite the variability of renewables. In microgrids, TSN enables seamless coordination of local generation, storage and loads. It allows real-time switching between grid-connected and islanded modes without disruption.
3. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Modernization
   The traditional SCADA systems that have been used for decades to monitor, collect data and control assets remotely and to inform operators when something goes wrong can be augmented with TSN, enabling networks to integrate IT and OT data. This supports real-time control and enables operators to respond faster to disturbances.

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) was originally designed for local area networks (LANs), such as those in substations and microgrids. Because today’s power grids are distributed across distances with complex and varied technologies, TSN and 5G is the future. In fact, beginning with the Third Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP’s) release 16, 5G has incorporated TSN functionality, extending new possibilities for wide area scaling of the smart grid.

How Time-Sensitive Networking Strengthens Grid Infrastructure Against Modern Challenges

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) achieves reliable, real-time communication by adding enhancements to standard Ethernet as a set of IEEE standards. It is delivered through TSN-capable Ethernet switches (otherwise known as bridges), endpoint devices and network controllers in conjunction with centralized user configuration (CUC).

Here are some of the key functions:

• Precise Timing and Synchronization (IEEE 802.1AS/AS-REV, including a specific profile based on precision time protocol (PTP) IEEE 1588): provides precise, sub-microsecond clock synchronization across network devices, ensuring that time-sensitive messages are delivered in exact sequence and on schedule.
• Scheduled Traffic via Shaping Mechanisms (IEEE 802.1Qav, IEEE 802.1Qbv, IEEE 802.1Qch): TSN can reserve time slots for important messages, preventing delays from other network traffic.
• Frame Preemption (IEEE 802.1Qbu): When a high-priority message needs to go through, TSN can temporarily interrupt lower-priority messages so the critical data isn’t held up.
• Asynchronous Traffic Shaping (IEEE 802.1Qcr): Smooths and regulates data flows without requiring strict time scheduling, reducing network congestion.
• Frame Replication and Elimination (IEEE 802.1CB): TSN can send duplicate copies of messages and remove duplicates at the destination, ensuring data isn’t lost even if a network path fails.
• Per-Stream Filtering and Policing (IEEE 802.1Qci): TSN monitors and manages each data stream individually, making sure traffic rules are followed and critical data isn’t delayed.

These and many more features turn the Ethernet from a “best-effort” network into one that delivers predictable, reliable and low-latency local communication for time-critical applications to help balance the load.

The Modernization of Aging Infrastructure in the Era of Technical Complexity

The U.S. electric grid is a vast system with over 9,200 power plants, 1 million megawatts of capacity and 600,000 miles of transmission lines. Much of the aging and increasingly complex infrastructure underscores the need to modernize—making the grid smarter, more resilient and ready for future demands.

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is emerging as a transformative technology in this effort. In substations, it enables precise, real-time communication for automation, while in microgrids and distributed energy systems, it supports efficient coordination of diverse energy sources.

Full-scale deployment faces challenges yet, including synchronization in multi-hop TSN networks, interoperability with legacy systems, integration with wireless technologies and security considerations, to name a few. Yet through careful consideration and planning, the many advantages of TSN are being realized today, making it nascent in modernizing the industrial sector and poised to play an important role in a smarter, more resilient grid.


SiTime supports TSN with TimeFabric™ software and Epoch OCXOs, providing up to 24 hour holdover extension. It delivers sub-microsecond synchronization even during reference signal outages. The IEEE 1588 servo software in TimeFabric is PTP compliant and dynamically compensates for network delays. Together, the hardware and software solution ensures distributed systems stay synchronized in harsh environments.
 

Check out SiTime TimeFabric and the Epoch Platform OCXO family.