1
Smart Grid Technologies: Communication
Technologies and Standards
Vehbi C. Gungor, Dilan Sahin, Taskin Kocak, Salih Ergüt, Concettina Buccella,
Carlo Cecati, Gerhard P. Hancke
Abstract—For a hundred 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
twentieth century is ill-suited to the needs of the twenty-first. 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.
Index Terms—Smart Grid, Communication Technologies, Ad-
vanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Quality of Service (QoS),
Standards.
I. INTRODUCTION
Today’s electrical infrastructure has remained unchanged for
about a hundred years. The components of the hierarchical
grid are near to the end of their lives. While the electrical
grid has been ageing, the demand for electricity has gradu-
ally increased. According to the U.S. Department of Energy
report, the demand and consumption for electricity in the
U.S. have increased by 2.5 % annually over the last twenty
years [1]. Today’s electric power distribution network is very
complex and ill-suited to the needs of the twenty-first century.
Among the deficiencies are a lack of automated analysis, poor
visibility, mechanical switches causing slow response times,
Vehbi C. Gungor, Dilan ¸Sahin and Taskin Koçak, are with the Bahçe¸sehir
University, Dept. of Computer Engineering,
˙
Istanbul, Turkey. e-mail: ca-
gri.gungor, dilan.sahin, taskin.kocak@bahcesehir.edu.tr.
Salih Ergüt is with Türk Telekom Group R&D Division,
˙
Istanbul, Turkey.
e-mail: salih.ergut@turktelekom.com.tr.
Concettina Buccella and Carlo Cecati are with the University of
L’Aquila, Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Eco-
nomics, and with DigiPower Ltd. L’Aquila, Italy e-mail: concettina.buccella,
carlo.cecati@univaq.it.
Gerhard P. Hancke is with the University of Pretoria, Department of
Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Pretoria, South Africa. e-
mail: g.hancke@ieee.org.
lack of situational awareness, etc. [2]. These have contributed
to the blackouts happening over the past 40 years. Some
additional inhibiting factors are the growing population and
demand for energy, the global climate change, equipment
failures, energy storage problems, the capacity limitations of
electricity generation, one-way communication, decrease in
fossil fuels and resilience problems [5]. Also, the greenhouse
gas emissions on Earth have been a significant threat that
is caused by the electricity and transportation industries [6].
Consequently, a new grid infrastructure is urgently needed to
address these challenges.
To realize these capabilities, a new concept of next genera-
tion electric power system, the smart grid, has emerged. The
smart grid is a modern electric power grid infrastructure for
improved efficiency, reliability and safety, with smooth inte-
gration of renewable and alternative energy sources, through
automated control and modern communications technologies
[1], [11]. Renewable energy generators seem as a promising
technology to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions [7]. Importantly, smart grid enabling new network
management strategies provide their effective grid integration
in Distributed Generation (DG) for Demand Side Management
and energy storage for DG load balancing, etc. [8], [9].
Renewable energy sources (RES) are widely studied by many
researchers [10] and the integration of RES, reducing system
losses and increasing the reliability, efficiency and security
of electricity supply to customers are some of the advances
that smart grid system will increase [12]. The existing grid
is lack of communication capabilities, while a smart power
grid infrastructure is full of enhanced sensing and advanced
communication and computing abilities as illustrated in Figure
1. Different components of the system are linked together
with communication paths and sensor nodes to provide in-
teroperability between them ,e.g., distribution, transmission
and other substations, such as residential, commercial and
industrial sites.
In the smart grid, reliable and real-time information be-
comes the key factor for reliable delivery of power from the
generating units to the end-users. The impact of equipment
failures, capacity constraints, and natural accidents and catas-
trophes, which cause power disturbances and outages, can be
largely avoided by online power system condition monitoring,
diagnostics and protection [1]. To this end, the intelligent
monitoring and control enabled by modern information and
communication technologies have become essential to realize
the envisioned smart grid [1], [14].
USA, Canada, China, South Korea, Australia and European
2
Figure 1. Smart grid architecture increases the capacity and flexibility
of the network and provides advanced sensing and control through modern
communications technologies.
Community (EC) countries has started doing research and
development on smart grid applications and technologies. For
example, the U.S. Government has announced the largest
power grid modernization investment in the U.S. history, i.e., $
3.4 billion in grant awards, funding a broad range of smart grid
technologies [2]. Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) are
integrating advanced metering and two-way communication,
automation technologies to their distribution systems [15]. In
addition to research and development projects, many electric
utilities are also taking incremental steps to make the smart
grid technology a reality. Most of them are signing agreements
with telecom operators or smart meter vendors to carry out
smart grid projects. All these agreements define the main
requirements and features of the necessary communications
infrastructure to provide online communication between smart
meters and the utility’s back-haul system, i.e., the so-called
advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). In general, the AMI
is a two-way communications network and is the integration of
advanced sensors; smart meters, monitoring systems, computer
hardware, software and data management systems that enable
the collection and distribution of information between meters
and utilities [14].
In this paper, a comprehensive but brief review on smart
grid communications technologies is presented. Section II
describes smart grid communications technologies and their
advantages and disadvantages. Section III mentions smart grid
communications requirements in terms of security, system
reliability, robustness, availability, scalability and the Quality
of Service (QoS) mechanism. The standardization activities
are reviewed in Section IV. Finally, the paper is concluded in
Section V.
II. COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES AVAILABLE FOR
SMART GRIDS
A communications system is the key component of the
smart grid infrastructure [1], [14], [16]. With the integration of
advanced technologies and applications for achieving a smarter
electricity grid infrastructure, a huge amount of data from
different applications will be generated for further analysis,
control and real-time pricing methods. Hence, it is very critical
for electric utilities to define the communications requirements
and find the best communications infrastructure to handle the
output data and deliver a reliable, secure and cost effective
service throughout the total system. Electric utilities attempt to
get customer’s attention to participate in the smart grid system,
in order to improve services and efficiency. Demand side
management and customer participation for efficient electricity
usage are well understood, furthermore, the outages after
disasters in existing power structure also focus the attention
on the importance of the relationship between electric grids
and communications systems [1].
Different communications technologies supported by two
main communications media, i.e., wired and wireless, can be
used for data transmission between smart meters and electric
utilities. In some instances, wireless communications have
some advantages over wired technologies, such as low cost
infrastructure and ease of connection to difficult or unreachable
areas. However, the nature of the transmission path may cause
the signal to attenuate. On the other hand, wired solutions
do not have interference problems and their functions are not
dependent on batteries, as wireless solutions do.
Basically, two types of information infrastructure are needed
for information flow in a smart grid system. The first flow
is from sensor and electrical appliances to smart meters,
the second is between smart meters and the utility’s data
centers. As suggested in [17], the first data flow can be
accomplished through power line communication or wireless
communications, such as ZigBee, 6LowPAN, Z-wave and
others. For the second information flow, cellular technologies
or the Internet can be used. Nevertheless, there are key limiting
factors that should be taken into account in the smart metering
deployment process, such as time of deployment, operational
costs, the availability of the technology and rural/urban or
indoor/outdoor environment, etc. The technology choice that
fits one environment may not be suitable for the other. In
the following, some of the smart grid communications tech-
nologies along with their advantages and disadvantages are
briefly explained. An overview of smart grid communication
technologies can be found in Table I.
A. ZigBee
ZigBee is a wireless communications technology that is
relatively low in power usage, data rate, complexity and cost
of deployment. It is an ideal technology for smart lightning,
energy monitoring, home automation, and automatic meter
reading, etc. ZigBee and ZigBee Smart Energy Profile (SEP)
have been realized as the most suitable communication stan-
dards for smart grid residential network domain by the U.S
National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) [18].
The communication between smart meters, as well as among
intelligent home appliances and in home displays, is very
important. Many AMI vendors, such as Itron, Elster, and
Landis Gyr, prefer smart meters, that the ZigBee protocol can
be integrated into [37]. ZigBee integrated smart meters can
communicate with the ZigBee integrated devices and control
them. ZigBee SEP provides utilities to send messages to the
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Table I
SMART GRID COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES
Technology Spectrum Data Rate Coverage Range Applications Limitations
GSM 900 - 1800
MHz
Up to 14.4
Kpbs
1-10 km AMI, Demand
Response, HAN
Low date rates
GPRS 900 - 1800
MHz
Up to 170 kbps 1-10 km AMI, Demand
Response, HAN
Low data rates
3G 1.92-1.98 GHz
2.11-2.17 GHz
(licensed)
384 Kbps-2
Mbps
1-10 km AMI, Demand
Response, HAN
Costly spectrum fees
WiMAX 2.5 GHz, 3.5
GHz, 5.8 GHz
Up to 75 Mbps 10-50 km (LOS)
1-5 km (NLOS)
AMI, Demand
Response
Not widespread
PLC 1-30 MHz 2-3 Mbps 1-3 km AMI, Fraud Detection Harsh, noisy channel
environment
ZigBee 2.4 GHz- 868 -
915 MHz
250 Kbps 30-50 m AMI, HAN Low data rate, short
range
home owners, and home owners can reach the information of
their real-time energy consumption.
1) Advantages: ZigBee has 16 channels in the 2.4 GHz
band, each with 5 MHz of bandwidth. 0 dBm (1 mW) is
the maximum output power of the radios with a transmission
range between 1 and 100 m with a 250 Kb/s data rate and
OQPSK modulation [18]. ZigBee is considered as a good
option for metering and energy management and ideal for
smart grid implementations along with its simplicity, mo-
bility, robustness, low bandwidth requirements, low cost of
deployment, its operation within an unlicensed spectrum, easy
network implementation, being a standardized protocol based
on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard [4]. ZigBee SEP also has
some advantages for gas, water and electricity utilities, such as
load control and reduction, demand response, real-time pricing
programs, real-time system monitoring and advanced metering
support [18], [19].
2) Disadvantages: There are some constraints on ZigBee
for practical implementations, such as low processing capa-
bilities, small memory size, small delay requirements and
being subject to interference with other appliances, which
share the same transmission medium, license-free industrial,
scientific and medical (ISM) frequency band ranging from
IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANs), WiFi,
Bluetooth and Microwave [18]. Hence, these concerns about
the robustness of ZigBee under noise conditions increase the
possibility of corrupting the entire communications channel
due to the interference of 802.11/b/g in the vicinity of ZigBee
[20]. Interference detection schemes, interference avoidance
schemes and energy-efficient routing protocols, should be
implemented to extend the network life time and provide a
reliable and energy-efficient network performance.
B. Wireless Mesh
A mesh network is a flexible network consisting of a group
of nodes, where new nodes can join the group and each node
can act as an independent router. The self-healing character-
istic of the network enables the communication signals to
find another route via the active nodes, if any node should
drop out of the network. Especially, in North America, RF
mesh based systems are very popular. In PG&E’s SmartMeter
system, every smart device is equipped with a radio module
and each of them routes the metering data through nearby
meters. Each meter acts as a signal repeater until the collected
data reaches the electric network access point. Then, collected
data is transferred to the utility via a communication network.
A private company, SkyPilot Networks uses mesh networking
for smart grid applications due to the redundancy and high
availability features of mesh technology [37].
1) Advantages: Mesh networking is a cost effective so-
lution with dynamic self-organization, self-healing, self-
configuration, high scalability services, which provide many
advantages, such as improving the network performance,
balancing the load on the network, extending the network
coverage range [21]. Good coverage can be provided in urban
and suburban areas with the ability of multi-hop routing. Also,
the nature of a mesh network allows meters to act as signal
repeaters and adding more repeaters to the network can extend
the coverage and capacity of the network. Advanced metering
infrastructures and home energy management are some of the
applications that wireless mesh technology can be used for.
2) Disadvantages: Network capacity, fading and interfer-
ence can be counted as the major challenges of wireless mesh
networking systems. In urban areas, mesh networks have been
faced with a coverage challenge since the meter density cannot
provide complete coverage of the communications network.
Providing the balance between reliable and flexible routing,
a sufficient number of smart nodes, taking into account node
cost, are very critical for mesh networks. Furthermore, a third
party company is required to manage the network, and since
the metering information passes through every access point,
some encryption techniques are applied to the data for security
purposes. In addition, while data packets travel around many
neighbors, there can be loop problems causing additional
overheads in the communications channel that would result
in a reduction of the available bandwidth [20].
C. Cellular Network Communication
Existing cellular networks can be a good option for com-
municating between smart meters and the utility and between
far nodes. The existing communications infrastructure avoids
utilities from spending operational costs and additional time
for building a dedicated communications infrastructure. Cel-
lular network solutions also enable smart metering deploy-
ments spreading to a wide area environment. 2G, 2.5G, 3G,
WiMAX and LTE are the cellular communication technologies
4
available to utilities for smart metering deployments. When
a data transfer interval between the meter and the utility of
typically 15 minutes is used, a huge amount of data will be
generated and a high data rate connection would be required
to transfer the data to the utility. For example, T-Mobile’s
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network
is chosen for the deployment of Echelon’s Networked Energy
Services (NES) system. An embedded T-Mobile SIM within a
cellular radio module will be integrated into Echelon’s smart
meters to enable the communication between the smart meters
and the back-haul utility. Since T-Mobile’s GSM network
will handle all the communication requirements of the smart
metering network, there is no need for an investment of a
new dedicated communications network by utilities. Telenor,
Telecom Italia, China Mobile, Vodafone have also agreed
to put their GSM network into service for data flow of
smart metering communications. Itron’s SENITEL electricity
meter is integrated with a GPRS module and communicates
with a server running SmartSynch’s Transaction Management
System. CDMA, WCDMA and UMTS wireless technologies
are also used in smart grid projects. A CDMA smart grid
solution for the residential utility market has been introduced
by Verizon, and Verizon’s 3G CDMA network will be used
as the backbone of the smart grid communications with the
SmartSynch smart grid solutions [37]. UMTS is IP-based
and a packet oriented service that is suitable for metering
applications [37]. Telenor with Cinclus technology is offering
UMTS technology for smart grid communications [37].
An Australian energy delivery company, SP AusNet, is
building a dedicated communications network for smart grid
applications and chose WiMAX technology for the commu-
nications need of the smart meters. WiMAX chip sets are
embedded into the smart meters and wireless communications
is dedicated between smart meters and the central system in SP
AusNet’s system. A U.S. wireless carrier, Sprint Nextel, had
signed a partnership with the smart grid software provider,
Grid Net, on a project to provide communication between
smart meters and smart routers over its 4G wireless network.
General Electric (GE) is developing WiMAX based smart
meters with CenterPoint Energy and had collaborated with
Grid Net, Motorola and Intel to focus on WiMAX connectivity
solutions. In GE’s smart meter project with CenterPoint En-
ergy, it will deploy WiMAX based MDS Mercury 3650 radios
to connect the utility’s back-haul system to collection points,
which will collect data from smart meters that are installed by
CenterPoint [37]. Furthermore, some major companies, such
as Cisco, Silver Springs Network and Verizon, also implement
WiMAX smart grid applications. The world’s largest WiMAX
vendor, Alvarion, has announced its partnership with a U.S.
utility company, National Grid, for a WiMAX based smart
grid project. Lower deployment and operating costs, proper
security protocols, smooth communications, high data speeds
(up to 75 Mbps), an appropriate amount of bandwidth and
scalability are the advantages of today’s WiMAX technology.
1) Advantages: Cellular networks already exist. Therefore,
utilities do not have to incur extra cost for building the commu-
nications infrastructure required for a smart grid. Wide-spread
and cost-effective benefits make cellular communication one of
the leading communications technologies in the market. Due to
data gathering at smaller intervals, a huge amount of data will
be generated and the cellular networks will provide sufficient
bandwidth for such applications. When security comes into
discussion, cellular networks are ready to secure the data
transmissions with strong security controls. To manage healthy
communications with smart meters in rural or urban areas,
the wide area deployment capability of smart grid becomes a
key component and since the cellular networks coverage has
reached almost 100 %. In addition, GSM technology performs
up to 14.4 Kbps, GPRS performs up to 170 Kbps and they both
support AMI, Demand Response, Home Area Network (HAN)
applications. Anonymity, authentication, signaling protection
and user data protection security services are the security
strengths of GSM technology [37]. Lower cost, better cov-
erage, lower maintenance costs and fast installation features
highlight why cellular networks can be the best candidate as a
smart grid communications technology for the applications,
such as demand response management, advanced metering
infrastructures, HAN, outage management, etc.
2) Disadvantages: Some power grid mission-critical ap-
plications need continuous availability of communications.
However, the services of cellular networks are shared by
customer market and this may result in network congestion
or decrease in network performance in emergency situations.
Hence, these considerations can drive utilities to build their
own private communications network. In abnormal situations,
such as a wind storm, cellular network providers may not pro-
vide guarantee service. Compared to public networks, private
networks may handle these kinds of situations better due to
the usage of a variety of technologies and spectrum bands.
D. Power Line Communication
Power line communication (PLC) is a technique that uses
the existing power lines to transmit high speed (2 - 3 Mbps)
data signals from one device to the other. PLC has been the
first choice for communication with the electricity meter due
to the direct connection with the meter [20] and successful
implementations of AMI in urban areas where other solutions
struggle to meet the needs of utilities. PLC systems based on
the LV distribution network have been one of the research top-
ics for smart grid applications in China [22]. In a typical PLC
network, smart meters are connected to the data concentrator
through power lines and data is transferred to the data center
via cellular network technologies. For example, any electrical
device, such as a power line smart transceiver-based meter,
can be connected to the power line and used to transmit the
metering data to a central location [37]. France has launched
the "Linky meter project" that includes updating 35 million
traditional meters to Linky smart meters. PLC technology is
chosen for data communication between the smart meters and
the data concentrator, while GPRS technology is used for
transferring the data from the data concentrator to the utility’s
data center [37]. ENEL, the Italian electric utility, chose PLC
technology to transfer smart meter data to the nearest data
concentrator and GSM technology to send the data to data
centers.
5
1) Advantages: PLC can be considered as a promising
technology for smart grid applications due to the fact that the
existing infrastructure decreases the installation cost of the
communications infrastructure. The standardization efforts on
PLC networks, the cost-effective, ubiquitous nature and widely
available infrastructure of PLC, can be the reasons for its
strength and popularity [23]. Data transmissions are broadcast
in nature for PLC, hence, the security aspects are critical.
Confidentiality, authentication, integrity and user intervention
are some of the critical issues in smart grid communications.
HAN application is one of the biggest applications for PLC
technology. Moreover, PLC technology can be well suited
to urban areas for smart grid applications, such as smart
metering, monitoring and control applications, since the PLC
infrastructure is already covering the areas that are in the range
of the service territory of utility companies.
2) Disadvantages: There are some technical challenges
due to the nature of the power line networks. The power
line transmission medium is a harsh and noisy environment
that makes the channel difficult to be modeled. The low-
bandwidth characteristic (20 kbps for neighborhood area net-
works) restricts the PLC technology for applications that need
higher bandwidth [37]. Furthermore, the network topology,
the number and type of the devices connected to the power
lines, wiring distance between transmitter and receiver, all,
adversely affect the quality of signal, that is transmitted over
the power lines [37]. The sensitivity of PLC to disturbances
and dependency on the quality of signal are the disadvantages
that make PLC technology not suited for data transmission.
However, there have been some hybrid solutions in which
PLC technology is combined with other technologies, i.e.,
GPRS or GSM, to provide full-connectivity not possible by
PLC technology.
E. Digital Subscriber Lines
Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) is a high speed digital
data transmission technology that uses the wires of the
voice telephone network. It is common to see frequencies
greater than 1 MHz through an ADSL enabled telephone
line [16]. The already existing infrastructure of DSL lines
reduces installation cost. Hence, many companies chose DSL
technology for their smart grid projects. The Current Group,
a Smart Grid Solution Company, has collaborated with Qwest
to implement a Smart Grid project. Qwest’s existing low
latency, secure, high capacity DSL network will be used for
data transmissions. Xcel Energy’s "SmartGridCity" project has
also proved the interoperability of the technology by utilizing
the Current’s intelligent sensors and OpenGrid platform and
Qwest’s DSL network. A smart metering project has been car-
ried out for Stadtwerke Emden-Municipal Utilities in Germany
by Deutsche Telekom. In the project, Deutsche Telekom is
responsible to provide the data communications for electric
and gas meters. A communication box will be installed at the
customer premises and the consumption information will be
transmitted over DSL to Stadtwerke Emden [37]. Deutsche
Telekom offers many services in this project, such as reading
consumption data, installation and operation, data transmis-
sion, etc. However, the throughput of the DSL connection
depends on how far away the subscriber is from the serving
telephone exchange and this makes it difficult to characterize
the performance of DSL technology [16].
1) Advantages: The widespread availability, low cost and
high bandwidth data transmissions are the most important rea-
sons for making the DSL technology the first communications
candidate for electricity suppliers in implementing the smart
grid concept with smart metering and data transmission smart
grid applications.
2) Disadvantages : The reliability and potential down time
of DSL technology may not be acceptable for mission critical
applications. Distance dependence and lack of standardiza-
tion may cause additional problems. The wired DSL-based
communications systems require communications cables to
be installed and regularly maintained, and thus, cannot be
implemented in rural areas due to the high cost of installing
fixed infrastructure for low-density areas.
To conclude, wired technologies, such as DSL, PLC, optical
fiber, are costly for wide area deployments but they have the
ability to increase the communications capacity, reliability and
security. On the other hand, wireless technologies can reduce
the installation costs, but provide constrained bandwidth and
security options.
III. SMART GRID COMMUNICATIONS REQUIREMENTS
The communication infrastructure between energy genera-
tion, transmission, and distribution and consumption requires
two-way communications, inter-operability between advanced
applications and end-to-end reliable and secure communica-
tions with low-latencies and sufficient bandwidth [25]; More-
over, the system security should be robust enough to prevent
cyber-attacks and provide system stability and reliability with
advanced controls. In the following, major smart grid commu-
nication requirements are presented.
A. Security
Secure information storage and transportation are extremely
vital for power utilities, especially for billing purposes and
grid control [24]. To avoid cyber-attacks, efficient security
mechanisms should be developed and standardization efforts
regarding the security of the power grid should be made.
B. System Reliability, Robustness and Availability
Providing the system reliability has become one of the
most prioritized requirements for power utilities. Aging power
infrastructure and increasing energy consumption and peak
demand are some of the reasons that create unreliability issues
for the power grid [26]. Harnessing the modern and secure
communication protocols, the communication and informa-
tion technologies, faster and more robust control devices,
embedded intelligent devices (IEDs) for the entire grid from
substation and feeder to customer resources, will significantly
strengthen the system reliability and robustness [26]. The
availability of the communication structure is based on pre-
ferred communication technology. Wireless technologies with
constrained bandwidth and security and reduced installation
