Dilan Sahin

ABSTRACT Electrical grid is one of the most important infrastructure of the modern nation. However, power grid has been aged over 100 years and prone to major failures. The imbalance between power demand and supply, the equipment failures and the lack of comprehensive monitoring and control capabilities are other important signs to take incremental steps for switching to a smarter power grid with effective communication, automation and monitoring skills. This new concept is named as smart grid, which is a modern power grid system with advanced communication, monitoring, sensing and control capabilities. Wireless sensor network (WSN) concept places an important role in this modernization process of the power grid with its efficient and low-cost deployment characteristics. However, harsh and complex smart grid environmental conditions, dynamic topology changes, connectivity problems, interference and fading may pose some challenges for the communication performance of WSN technology. For this objective, in this paper, the use of multi-path and single-path QoS-aware routing algorithms under harsh SG environmental conditions is investigated in order to evaluate their service differentiation capabilities in reliability and timeliness domains. In this regard, this study is an important step towards developing novel routing protocols specifically designed for smart grid environments.

The smart grid (SG) is envisioned as providing a communications network for the energy industry, similar to that which the Internet now provides for business and personal communications. The SG offers new business opportunities for different kind of industries, such as smart-meter vendors, electric utilities, and telecom operators from all around the world. This article deals with issues related to smart homes (SHs) and smart metering, which are key elements in the new SG. It introduces the key players in this field and points out the research challenges. Finally, SG pilot projects and field tests from all around the world and the deployment of advance metering infrastructure projects in North America, Asia, and Europe are summarized.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) represent a fundamental element in the growth and performance of smart grids. A sophisticated, reliable and fast communication infrastructure is, in fact, necessary for the connection among the huge amount of distributed elements, such as generators, substations, energy storage systems and users, enabling a real time exchange of data and information necessary for the management of the system and for ensuring improvements in terms of efficiency, reliability, flexibility and investment return for all those involved in a smart grid: producers, operators and customers. This paper overviews the issues related to the smart grid architecture from the perspective of potential applications and the communications requirements needed for ensuring performance, flexible operation, reliability and economics.

Abstract—For 100 years, there has been no change in the basic
structure of the electrical power grid. Experiences have shown
that the hierarchical, centrally controlled grid of the 20th Century
is ill-suited to the needs of the 21st Century. To address the
challenges of the existing power grid, the new concept of smart
grid has emerged. 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 demand, energy and network availability,
and so on. 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. 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.

With the rapid increase in world population and power demand, the aging infrastructure of the existing power grid has caused many problems to electric utilities and customers in terms of system reliability, power quality, and customer satisfaction. Field tests show that the power grid has harsh and complex environmental conditions, dynamic topology changes, connectivity problems, interference, and fading, which make wireless communication very challenging in power grid environments. Recently, cognitive radio (CR) network is recognized as a promising technology to address the communication and networking problems of next-generation power grid, i.e., smart grid (SG). This article presents a comprehensive review about SG characteristics and CR-based SG applications. Also, architectures to support CR networks in SG applications, major challenges, and open issues have been