A synthesis of communication architectures and services of smart grid systems

The future electrical grid or the Smart Grid is an intelligent power network featured by its two-way flows of electricity and information. With an integrated communication infrastructure, Smart Grid manages the operation of all connected components to provide reliable and sustainable electricity supplies. However, utilities from all over the world are now facing the key challenge of finding the most appropriate architecture that can satisfy their future communication needs. The architecture models given by the international organizations of standardization are conceptual, so it is insufficient to grab the relation between the network components. In this paper, we introduce the current architectures proposed by international organizations, that is, NIST, ITU and IEEE. And we highlight their limits which prevent us from understanding the communication flow in the system. Then, we present a communication infrastructure model based on these international roadmaps and guides. Unlike other architectures, this one fulfills the six functionalities that Smart Grid network must achieve. Finally, we present the communication technologies that can be used for interconnecting the components and standards for each section. This paper is a preliminary step in our work. In fact, we aim in the future work to check our architecture by modeling the system and take the step of verification and validation.