Smart Grids and the Associated Security Protocols

Running head: SMART GRIDS AND THE ASSOCIATED SECURITY PROTOCOLS
SMART GRIDS AND THE ASSOCIATED SECURITY PROTOCOLS
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

1SMART GRIDS AND THE ASSOCITAED SECURITY PROTOCOLS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Characteristics of the Smart Grid System..............................................................................2
Generation of Smart Grid Domains...........................................................................................3
Transmission of Smart Grid Domains........................................................................................4
Distribution of Smart Grid Domains..........................................................................................5
Operations of Smart Grid Domains............................................................................................5
Security and Privacy Issues related to Smart Grids...................................................................6
Standards and protocols related to Smart Grids.........................................................................7
Comparison between the protocols and assessing the best for Smart Grids............................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................14

2SMART GRIDS AND THE ASSOCITAED SECURITY PROTOCOLS
Introduction
Smart grid is a modern technology that aids bidirectional flow of the energy and
makes use of both way communication and also controls the capabilities that leads to a range
of new applications and various functionalities. It is considered as “System of Systems” and
in smart grids each of the functional domains consist of three different layers that are the
communication layer, power and energy layer and the IT computer layer (Hurtado, Nguyen &
Kling 2015). The communication and the IT computer layer are the two infrastructures which
make the present power and the energy structure smarter. The technology has evolved in the
market to enhance the power generation and to help in maximizing production. These grids
help are effective in delivering in a two way process controlling the home appliances. The
smart model helps save energy and has the potential to reduce the costs thereby increasing the
transparency and the reliability of the network (Tsai & Lo, 2015). The major target of the
system is to decrease loss in power and inculcate advance monitoring systems. It is an
advanced version of the traditional power grid that helps to enhance intelligent decisions thus
making the system stable and reliable. The performance of the smart grid technology has
maintained desirous approach in the sphere of development in generating power, the most
sustainable way.
IoT in Smart Grids:
IoT or the Internet of Things is the concept which can be addressed in an unique
manner and is associated with including the physical objects which are connected to the
internet for the purpose of identifying themselves to the other devices based upon the TCP/IP
stacks (Akinsomi et al., 2016). Besides this the identifiable, along with the autonomous,
adaptive responsive and the self-configurable entities are capable of interacting with one
another along with cooperating in a continuous manner with one another for the purpose of

3SMART GRIDS AND THE ASSOCITAED SECURITY PROTOCOLS
ensuring the ubiquitous communication to the peers as well as to the servers in the internet
(Suleiman et al., 2015). This particular automated form of communication model devices
have been associated with becoming aware of eth context along with being associated with
organizing themselves, transferring of the information and responding to the changes taking
place in circumstances which are dynamic.
The power Internet of Things or the PIoT is the application of the internet of things
upon the smart grids (Kalalas, Thrybom & Alonso-Zarate, 2016). The power Internet of
things is capable of achieving a reliable form of transmission of the information by means of
wired or wireless communication network along with smart processing of information in the
power grid systems. Besides this the PIoT is also seen to be widely applied in each and every
aspect of the smart grids which includes the generation of power, power transmission,
transformation of information, distribution of power and power consumption (Aghajani,
Shayanfar & Shayeghi, 2017). The power internet of things are divided into three layers and
this is associated with including the perception layer, the network layer and the application
layer.
Challenges faced by Smart grids:
The IoT has been deployed in eth smart grids so as to enable the two way
communication by having an aim of making the electricity girds become smarter. One of the
fundamental attribute which is seen to be very vital in the process of integrating with the
other smart devices for the purpose of enabling the applications of the smart grids which
includes the interoperability amongst the various devices and platforms (Yoldaş et al., 2017).
Despite of the progress which has been made with respect to the deployment of the Power
internet of things in the smart grids along with the implementation, there still exists many
challenges which are faced by the smart grids related to the standards and the protocols which