Smart Grid Communications Architecture: A Survey and Challenges

With an increasing interest from both the academic and industrial communities, this article systematically investigates developments in communication technology for the smart grid. Smart grid can be defined as an electric system that uses information, two-way secure communication technologies and computational intelligence in an integrated fashion across the entire spectrum of the energy system from the generation to the end points of the electricity consumption. Communication networks play a critical role in smart grid, as the intelligence of this complex system is built based on information exchange across the power grid. The design of the communication network associated with the smart grid involves detailed analysis of requirements, including the choice of the most suitable technologies for each case study, and architecture for the resultant heterogeneous system. Key-Words: cognitive communications, demand response, heterogeneous wireless networks, smart grid.