A survey on information and communications technology infrastructure for smart grids

Abstract: _Smart Grids (SGs) aim to improve the aging power system grid into a modernized grid with the utilization of the advanced communication technologies in the industry. The incorporation of communications technology in power systems enables two-way flow of electricity and information within the grid system. SGs emerge as the next generation technology in power systems, as a result of the increasing demand of upgrading the conventional grid into the more modernized grid, with the aim of resolving some of the major crisis such as the environmental and energy crisis posed by the existing grid. In order, to deploy this intelligent grid, a sustainable, energy efficient, flexible, scalable, and secure communication infrastructure need to be designed and implemented to address these issues. There are several surveys and studies on the Information and communication technologies (ICT) architectures to develop a suitable protocol of applying the proposed advanced and up-to-date communication and networking technologies into the power system, to enable the intelligence features of the grid system. This paper reviews the works on communications technologies on SGs, with the objective of addressing the issues related to ICT infrastructure, and the recent communication technologies with their corresponding communication requirements