Smart Grid Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control

For century, there has been no change in the fundamental structure of the electrical power grid and vehicle networks. Current hierarchical, centrally controlled grid of the electrical grid is not best for growing demand. To address the challenges of the existing power grid, the new concept of smart grid and smarter planet are under research. The smart grid can be considered as a modern electric power grid infrastructure for enhanced efficiency and reliability through automated control, high-power converters, modern communications infrastructure, sensing and metering technologies, and modern energy management techniques based on the optimization of ondemand, energy and network availability. While current power systems are based on a solid information and communication infrastructure, the new smart grid needs a different and much more complex one, as its dimension is much larger and needs utmost performance. This paper addresses critical issues on smart grid technologies primarily in terms of information and communication technology (ICT) issues and opportunities. The main objective of this paper is to provide a contemporary look at the current state of the art in smart grid communications as well as to discuss the still-open research issues in this field. It is expected that this paper will provide a better understanding of the technologies, potential advantages and research challenges of the smart grid and provoke interest among the research community to further explore this promising research area. KeywordsAdvanced metering infrastructure (AMI), communication technologies, quality-ofservice (QoS), smart grid, standards