Present and future ICT infrastructures for a smarter grid in Japan

This paper first provides a vision of a future power delivery and utilization grid in Japan, and reviews the present information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure for existing power grids. Based on this vision and review, future ICT infrastructure to cope with the significant penetration of photovoltaic generation, legacy communication equipment and aged power assets is proposed for wide-area monitoring and emergency protection and control, demand area secure communications, and ad-hoc and plug-and-play sensing for maintenance. This will enable the renovation of ICT infrastructure for a future Japanese smarter grid.