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The inclusion of renewable energy in the conventional grid system and the digitalization of the various aspects of the power system have precipitated the transformation of the traditional grid system to a smart grid. Key to the implementation of the smart grid is various communication technologies. The emerging dominance of communication technologies in power systems applications is pivotal to modernizing the conventional grid system. This research presented an overview of the application of communication technologies in the digitalization of the power systems network. It reviews smart grid communication technologies, their features, relevance, and various roles being played toward delivering an effective electrical service to stakeholders. Hence, this study focused on wireless and wired communication technologies applicable to smart grid applications. Based on the review, each communication technology has its strengths and weaknesses; hence in selecting the most appropriate technology for application in a smart grid, a compromise must be made. Therefore, for choosing the most preferred communication technology in any smart grid application, it is important to deploy the efficacy of multi-criteria methods. To serve as a case study, a framework for selecting a communication technology for advanced metering infrastructure is proposed and applied. Based on the spectrum, data rate, and coverage range, the study revealed that WiMAX communication technology is the most preferred, followed by Zigbee; the least preferred communication technology for smart grid communication is Power Line Communication (PLC).

The paper presents a methodology proposal for testing and evaluation of communication systems in Smart Grids, especially for Power Line Communication (PLC) systems. The PLC technology is widely used in power grid as a part of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) allowing mainly data transfers between a management system at utility and customer-premises smart meters. However, the PLC technology on medium voltage (MV) lines is often used for remote control and monitoring of distribution transformers as well. Since power grid and consequently power lines have different transmission parameters affected by their placement and potentially burdened by interferences, the PLC systems have to be evaluated on site before placed to production. In this paper, authors propose a methodology for long-term benchmarking of the PLC systems using newly developed testing tools. The methodology is subsequently tested on real power grid and a selection of results is presented.

Smart Grids (SG) may be the most significant technological change in the history of electric grids, that can help curb the looming energy crisis worldwide, with intelligent generation, transmission and distribution of energy using a robust communication network. Power lines are a very promising solution for carrying data to serve as broadband access network in the context of SG, along with the wireless communication techniques. This paper investigates the design and simulation of a digital communication system optimized for Power Line Communication (PLC) in Smart Grids. For the proposed PLC transceiver, we consider Discrete Multitone (DMT) modulation based on a modified bit loading technique for the subcarriers. Our results reveal that the proposed incremental bit loading algorithm enhances data rate, and reduces computation time, as compared to the originally proposed incremental bit loading algorithm for PLC.

This chapter introduces the background of the smart grid, including its motivations, communication architecture, applications, and requirements. In order to achieve the objectives of the smart grid, several important applications must be added to or upgraded in the current power grid. The most important applications and requirements include demand response, advanced metering infrastructure, wide-area situational awareness and wide-area monitoring systems, and communication networks and cybersecurity. The chapter explores some of the major topics in smart grid communication infrastructures and provides solutions and suggestions. It proposes a complete information and communication technologies (ICT) framework for the smart grid. The chapter introduces big data analytics and cloud computing into the smart grid communications to enhance grid operations and control. It also proposes security schemes for communications in the advanced metering infrastructure, and ID-based security schemes for transmission over the Internet in the smart grid.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is a key enabler of the Smart Grid. Narrowband Power Line Communication (PLC) technology is currently the preferred choice for many AMI use cases. Different PHY/MAC standards and dedicated routing protocols are emerging. New trustworthy models and simulation tools are needed for their evaluation in large scale deployments. This paper presents a realistic model for the latest generation of OFDM-based narrowband PLC standards. The model has been implemented in a popular network simulator - OPNET. Furthermore, the model and the simulator are validated against a real-world testbed. Finally, we present the calibration process and the scalability of the simulator. The results show that it is possible to simulate large topologies of up to 1000 smart meters under a proactive (RPL) or reactive (LOAD) packet routing.

AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) is reflected in two-way metering, two-way interoperability on an advanced measurement system. The access network of AMI connecting power utilities to customer's home area network (HAN) promotes the smart metering automation. In such a power line carrier communications medium, the use of OFDM modulation technique is well with the power line carrier communication channel, to effectively resist the power line channel noise, attenuation and time- varying characteristics of the impact. This paper introduces the concept of power line communication, the basic features and principles of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing technology (OFDM), focused on analysis of the advantages of OFDM technology used in power line communications.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is the foundation of the Smart Grid system. One of the most important parts of AMI is smart meter communication. Power Line Communication (PLC) technology utilizes the existing power line network for communication media between smart meters and Data Collector Units (DCU). One of the biggest challenges of communication using PLC is the noise level due to residential loads. In this study, laboratory test set up to measure noise caused by PV rooftop and residential loads are observed. Each PLC frequency band was measured and observed to determine the suitable frequency for PLC communication which was the low noise level. Some experiments in the field were conducted to determine the performance of the PLC. Laboratory test measurement result shows the FCC band (150-490 kHz) was outside the range of PV rooftop and residential load noise. On the other hand, the Cenelec A (35-90 kHz) frequency range was in the range of noise signal. Therefore, NB-PLC G3 using FCC frequency band was proposed to achieve robust data communication and lower noise level. G3 PLC FCC band was tested in the real field residential area, the experimental results showed 97.62% successful rate within one-week data collection.

Public-key cryptography (PKC) is widely used in smart grid (SG) communications to reduce the overhead of key management. However, PKC comes with its own problems in terms of certificate management. Specifically, certificate revocation lists (CRLs) need to be maintained and distributed to the smart meters (SMs) in order to ensure security of the communications. The size of CRLs may grow over time and eventually may introduce additional delay, bandwidth, and storage overhead when various applications are run on SG. In this paper, we propose novel algorithms for creating customized CRLs with reduced size for IEEE 802.11s-based advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) networks. Rather than maintaining a huge-size single CRL that introduces unnecessary search time and storage, the idea is to cluster/group SMs within the AMI network and create CRLs based on these groups. The grouping is mainly done in such a way that they bring together the SMs that will be very likely to communicate so that the CRLs will be kept local to that group. To this end, we propose two novel grouping algorithms. The first algorithm is a bottom-up approach, which is based on the existing routes from the SMs to the gateway. Since the SMs will be sending their data to the gateway through the nodes on the route, this forms a natural grouping. The second approach is a top-down recursive approach, which considers the minimum spanning tree of the network and then divides it into smaller subtrees. Via grouping, the length of the CRL for each SM and the corresponding distribution overhead can be reduced significantly. Simulation results have shown that our approach can maintain a balance between the size of the CRL and the number of signatures generated by CAs while guaranteeing security of the communications.

Internet of Things connects people and things at any time and in any place. Smart grid is one of the promising applications of Internet of Things. Advanced metering infrastructure is one of the most significant components in smart grid which collects data from smart meters and sends the collected data to the utility center to be analyzed and stored. To implement two-way communication between smart grid components, machine-to-machine communications has a great potential. In this paper, we propose a machine-to-machine architecture for advanced metering infrastructure in Internet of Things-based smart grid and focus on finding the optimum number of collectors based on two metrics: collectors' cost and packet delay. We model advanced metering infrastructure as a queuing system and derive an expression for packet delay. We also propose a newperformance metric, the product of cost and delay (CD), so that by minimizing it, we can find the optimum number of collectors. The simulation results indicate correctness of our theoretical model and show that we can achieve a balance between cost and delay.

Broadband PLC (power line communication) has become one of the most important communication technologies for Smart Gird applications, especially for AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) and HAN (Home Area Network). Currently, most broadband PLC products are based on OFDM, DMT or Spread-Spectrum technologies. Their performances differ from each other on certain circumstances. This paper proposes a performance testing model to test PLC devices' Transmitting Capacity and Noise Tolerance. Four PLC devices using different modulation technologies respectively are tested. In addition, the performances of different technologies are analyzed and some discussions are made. To reduce the affection of noise brought in by electric appliances, an "isolating socket" is introduced, which can filter the noises on the appliance side.

This survey paper is an excerpt of a more comprehensive study on Smart Grid (SG) and the role of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in SG. The survey was carried out as part of a feasibility study for the creation of a Net-Zero community in a city in Ontario, Canada. SG is not a single technology; rather it is a combination of different areas of engineering, communication and management. This paper intends to focus on AMI, which is responsible for collecting all the data and information from loads and consumers, as the foundation for SG. AMI is also responsible for implementing control signals and commands to perform necessary control actions, including Demand Side Management (DSM). In this paper we introduce SG and its features, establish the relation between SG and AMI, explain three main subsystems of AMI and discuss related security issues.

A systematic review of data protection and privacy preservation schemes for smart grid communications

Today, smart grid has been widely discussed in worldwide. As advanced metering infrastructure is one of main technologies of smart grid, its structure and functions of each component is represented. In terms of basic features of smart grid, some key capabilities that advanced metering infrastructure should possess are analyzed, and its impacts on power grid networks as well. Combining current research situation of power utility information acquisition system in china, this paper provides reference for building smart grid of user side on the basis of these preliminary analyses.

In this paper, based on statistical learning, we propose a method to estimate communication performance for the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) that employs the power line communication (PLC) technology. We verify the accuracy of estimation by comparing them with measured communication test results at a test site. We also present a stochastic model for the probing success rate by applying the estimated PLC communication quality values and the metering protocol sequence.

The increasing demand for has necessitated the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the development of the smart grid. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are contributing technologies. In this paper, a review on AMI and WSN in the smart grid is carried out. Also, the introduction of WSNs with AMI in the in-home energy management system of the smart grid is also presented with challenges faced in the deployment of WSNs for the smart grid. The low power and low-cost nature of WSN has presented itself as a technology that can be used with AMI and smart home appliances in achieving home energy management within the great goal of the smart grid.