A comprehensive layered approach for implementing internet of things-enabled smart grid: A survey

Abstract

The current power grid confronts severe challenges in satisfying customers' demands. Fast transition to the much more flexible power grid enriched with renewable energies, micro-grid, and distributed energy resources has been considered as a straightforward solution to the customers’ high demand. Using smart equipment and renewable energies, electric power generation and storage through the power grid domains will be facilitated, which enables bi-directional energy and information flows. The power grid with such enhanced features is called Smart Grid (SG). Controlling and managing the diverse sets of variables in the SG requires precise measuring, monitoring, communicating, and analytic systems which increase the complexity of the grid. This complexity is the main barrier to the realization of the SG up to now. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) simplifies monitoring, communications, and data processing among smart things to connect to anything in the world. This motivates the SG stakeholders and researchers to proceed with the best way to exploit the IoT technologies in the SG. In this survey paper, we summarize various efforts in this regard to highlight the advantages of the IoT-enabled SG and its probable gaps. To this end, a comprehensive layered approach has been proposed in this paper to classify various applications of the IoT technologies in the SG. Investigating IoT opportunities in each architecture layer facilitates the role of each technology and its relationship with other technologies. Also, open issues and future measures for the realization of IoT-enabled SG have been discussed in the paper.