Current and Future Communication Solutions for Smart Grids: A Review

A smart grid provides a bidirectional flow of electricity and information whilst ensuring well-balanced electricity supply and demand. The key enabler for the smart grid is its robust communication infrastructure. Choosing the best communication technology for the smart grid is crucial as it involves a mixture of critical and non-critical traffic. This study provides a comprehensive review on smart grid communication and its possible solutions for a reliable two-way communication toward supporting diversified power grid applications. Existing networking methods along with their advantages and weaknesses are highlighted for future research directions. The communication network architecture in the smart grid, with details on each networking technology, switching methods and medium for data communication, is critically reviewed to identify the existing research gaps. A discussion on issues and challenges encountered in smart grid communication for current implementation is highlighted together with the recommendations for further improvement. Overall, the highlighted issues and recommendations from this study are useful to researchers, technology providers and industries to develop new communication technologies for the smart grid that will provide reliable, robust, and suitable two-way communication in the future.