Communications for Electric Power System

Abstract

This chapter is an overview on Communications applied for the Electric Power Systems. Thus, in the first section of this chapter, the Standards for Electric Power Systems Communications are briefly shown in order to understand the communication infrastructure requirements for the Smart Grids. The layers of the Smart Grid Network are (1) Power Grid, (2) Smart Grid and (3) Application. This chapter is focused on the Smart Grid layer, which has three primary functions to accomplish in real-time the requests of both consumers and suppliers based on Communications Technologies for Smart Grid Metering. So, Smart Grid Metering is an important interface to be implemented and integrated with Smart Grids based on technologies such as Fibre Optic Communication, x Digital Subscriber Line/Loop, Power Line Communications, and Wireless Technologies. The Wireless Technologies for the Smart Grid Architecture of Communication System used for Power System Control is approached here as well. Some examples of Communication Systems for the Electric Power System based on IEEE standard (such as IEEE 802.11 Mesh Networking, IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks and so on) are presented at the end of this chapter. Last section concludes the chapter.