Enabling Smart Grid with ETSI M2M standards

There are global initiatives underway to establish a communications framework for Smart Grid systems. These efforts are led by governments, standardization bodies, and industry consortiums. This paper analyzes several challenges that are associated with communicating in Smart Grid systems and assesses the suitability of using the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's machine to machine architectures and protocols (ETSI M2M) to communicate in Smart Grid systems. The paper concludes with a presentation of an ETSI M2M compliant prototyping system that demonstrates solutions to some of the communications challenges that are found in Smart Grid systems.