IOT For SG

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
Internet of Things (IoT) for Smart Grids: A

Comprehensive Review
Bilal Naji Alhasnawi 1,*
1
Electrical Engineering Department, University of Basrah,
Basrah, Iraq;
bilalnaji11@yahoo.com
Basil H. Jasim 2
2
Electrical Engineering Department, University of Basrah,
Basrah, Iraq;
hanbas632@gmail.com
Abstract- Internet of Things has made small objects and things to be networked and interconnected, and even
connected to the Internet in order to offer advanced control and monitoring services. Smart embedded devices along
with intelligent decision-making ability will increase the efficiency of services in different domains including a smart
grid. A smart grid is an electrical power system that contains all of the activities of the electrical power system
connected together by a smart communication system. It includes main energy generation sources, renewable energy
resources, smart meters, and smart appliances. It uses communication technology to improve fault detection, reduce
power waste and enhance the self-healing features of the grid. Smart grids employ various devices for the monitoring,
analysis, and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers’ premises in a very
large number. Hence, an smart grids requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is
achieved with the help of the Internet of Things. Internet of Things helps smart grids systems to support various
network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy by
incorporating Internet of Things devices (such as smart meters, sensors and actuators), as well as by providing the
connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on the
Internet of Things of smart grids systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research
directions for Internet of Things of smart grid systems.
Keywords - Microgrid, Renewable Energy Source, Smart Metering, Security, Internet of Things(IoT), Converters,
Inverters, HAN, NAN, WAN, Communication Technology, Energy Management System
I. INTRODUCTION
Internet of Things (IoT), which has been enabled by recent advancements in wireless, sensing and embedded
processing technologies, is a new paradigm that aims at offering advanced efficient monitoring and control
services [1]. The IoT is a multidisciplinary infrastructure in which many of our surrounding objects and things
will be interconnected. IoT offers a whole new class of applications and services as well as higher efficiency for
existing applications and services [2].
Volume XII, Issue V, 2020 Page No: 389

Fig.1: Gartner’s estimation on the number of IoT devices in different sectors [3].
Figure 1 illustrates Gartner’s estimation on the number of IoT devices by the year 2020 which is more than 20
billion in total [3]. It shows the prediction of IoT devices in different sectors: Consumer sector covers the
devices that are purchased and used by the end-user (e.g., Personal gadgets, fitness bands, healthcare devices,
etc.). The cross-industry sector refers to the general devices and items that are deployed and used in industries
such as smart homes, smart cities, etc. And finally, the industry-specific sector refers to the special devices and
systems in the factories to increase the efficiency of other sectors. It includes infrastructures to improve the
efficiency of production lines, monitoring the quality, etc. The smart grid falls in the cross-industry sector.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the motivation. Section III present
contributions of this paper. Section IV describes the related work. Section V presents technical challenges of
smart grid. Section VI present information processing in smart grid. Section VII present internet of things and
smart grid. section VIII present integration of the IoT into an SG. Section IX present applications of IoT smart
grid systems. Section X present edge computing model for smart grid. Section XI present Architectures for IoT
SG Systems. Section XII present web enabled smart meter architectures. Section XIII present communication
protocols for the IoE-Based smart grid. Section XIV present application of the IoE-based smart grid. Section XV
present IoE in demand-side of power system. Section XVI present benefits in energy internet. Section XVII
present current IoT based smart grid technology enablers. Section XVIII present security in IoT of smart grid.
Section present XIX threats in IoT of smart grids. Finally, Section XX concludes the paper.

II. MOTIVATION
The power grids endure a significant wastage of energy due to a number of factors, such as consumer
inefficient appliances, and lack of smart technology, inefficient routing, and dispensation of electrical energy,
unreliable communication and monitoring, and most importantly, lack of a mechanism to store the generated
electrical energy [4]. Furthermore, power grids face some other challenges as well, including growing energy
demand, security, emerging renewable energy sources, and aging infrastructure problems to name a few.
In order to solve these challenges, the Smart Grid (SG) paradigm has appeared as a promising solution
with a variety of information and communication technologies. Such technologies can improve the effectiveness,
efficiency, security, and stability of the traditional power grid. SG differs from traditional power grids in many
aspects. For instance, SG offers a bi-directional communication flow between service providers and consumers,
while a traditional power grid only offers uni-directional communication from the service provider to the
consumer. SG provides smart meters, fault tolerance, and load balancing, as well as self-healing, detection, and
recovery from faults [5]. More specifically, the benefits associated with the smart-grid include:
 More efficient transmission of electricity;
 Reduced operations and management costs for utilities, and ultimately lower power costs for
consumers;
 Reduced peak demand, which will also help lower electricity rates;
 Increased integration of large-scale renewable energy systems;
 Improved security.
To sum up smart-grids, as shown in Fig. 2, are energy networks that can automatically monitor energy flows and
adjust to changes in energy supply and demand. This figure shows the traditional grid and smart grid, SG offers
a bi-directional communication flow between service providers and consumers, while a traditional power grid
offers uni-directional communication from the service provider to the consumer.

Fig. 2: Smart-grid environment within the broader electricity system.
One of the main concerns for SG is the connectivity, automation, and tracking of such a large number of devices,
which requires distributed monitoring, analysis, and control through high speed, ubiquitous and two-way digital
communications. It requires distributed automation of SG for such devices or “things". This is already being
realized in the real world through the Internet of Energy (IoE) technology. The IoE is defined as a network that
can connect any object with the Internet based on a protocol for exchanging information and communication
among various smart devices in order to achieve monitoring, tracking, management and location identification
objectives [6].
Hence, IoE technology can help SGs by supporting various network functions throughout the power
generation, storage, transmission, distribution, and consumption by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors,
actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. IoE
is considered as one of the largest applications of the IoT [7]. Figure 3 illustrates the main components of the
smart grid. The generation of electricity is not limited to conventional power plants (e.g., fossil plants) anymore.
The renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are included in the generation phase. To billing, real-time
pricing, supply prediction, demand prediction, and grid monitoring tasks require management systems. The
generated electricity is then transported to the micro-grid for distribution among consumers including smart
homes, smart buildings, data centers, factories and industries, electric vehicles, etc. Micro-grids have local
management systems and exchange information with other components in the smart grid such as utility suppliers

Fig.3: main components of the smart grid
III. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS SURVEY ARTICLE
In this survey, we comprehensively cover the open issues, challenges and future research directions for
IoT of smart grid systems. The contributions of this survey are summarized as follows:
 A detailed discussion with taxonomy on the applications of IoT-aided SG systems;
 A survey of the intersection of IoT and smart grids, i.e., IoT-enabled smart grids.
 A detailed discussion on existing architectures for IoT of SG systems;
 A detailed discussion on existing security requirements for IoT systems, smart grids, and IoT-enabled
smart grids.
 A detailed discussion on the existing and emerging vulnerabilities, threats, adversaries and security trends
in smart grids;
 A discussion on big data analytics and cloud in IoT of SG systems;
 A discussion on the attack procedure, known as cyber kill-chain used to launch attacks in critical
infrastructure.
 An overview of IoT and non-IoT communication technologies, and associated threat vectors in smart

grids.
 A presentation of the open issues, challenges and future research directions in cybersecurity requirements
of IoT-enabled smart grids.
IV. RELATED WORKS
Several existing surveys have investigated security requirements, cryptography, key management,
authentication, access control, and challenges to efficiently secure IoT [8], [9], [10], [11]. Recently, researchers
have examined the application of similar techniques to smart grid communications [12], [13], [14]. In [15], the
authors focused on and surveyed AMI and smart metering technologies for the monitoring of reliability and
power quality in IoT of SG systems. However, its main focus is only on AMI and smart metering, rather than
covering the other important aspects of IoT of SG systems, such as applications, architectures, prototypes, etc.
There are two recent surveys on security in IoT-aided SG systems. In [16], Gupta et al. mainly focused on
security in IoT-aided SG systems and surveyed the vulnerabilities, security threats and their countermeasures in
IoT of SG systems. In [17], the authors focused on deep packet inspection as a security tool for SG and
industrial IoT. The authors studied the existing models and recommendations from academia and governmental
bodies (e.g., NIST) and evaluated deep packet inspection as a security tool for SG. However, their complete
focus in mainly on deep packet inspection. In [18], Bedi et al., focused on how IoT can be applied to electric
power and energy systems, such as the value and importance of IoT in the electric power network, economic,
environmental and societal impacts of IoT-aided electric power systems, challenges and recommendation related
to IoT. It provides just one application of IoT in electric power and energy systems. Jain et al. [19] also present a
survey on SG technologies, including smart metering, IoT and energy management system. However, firstly it is
a very short survey and secondly, it focuses separately on the technologies, rather than surveying them combine
as IoT-aided SG system. Al-Ali and Aburukba [20] presents a conceptual model for SG within the IoT context.
However, its main focus is on the SG communication layer based on IPv6 as the backbone and it presents a
conceptual model rather than surveying existing articles. Viswanath et al. [21] focus on residential SG,
specifically smart home. They developed a testbed for smart home that controls the energy based on dynamic
pricing and performs an energy management system. The authors also developed an Android application for
allowing remote access to consumers. Yang [22] presents the application of IoT in SG and provides a brief
overview of opportunities, challenges, and future directions. However, it does not survey existing work in the
domain of IoT-aided SG systems.

V. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES OF SMART GRID
1-Inadequacies in Grid Infra Structure
This is one of the most important challenges in the wide deployment of smart-grid networks. The active
networks that constitute many segments of a “smart” distribution system is best served with a more holistic
approach rather than focusing on the separate pieces of the generation and distribution process. Since in many
countries, the grid infrastructure is still evolving, this makes infrastructure upgrade a major task with significant
economic impact for grid operators. The goal for enabling existing grids to accommodate the upcoming needs of
clean energy and distributed generation may throw several challenges in design, erection, operation, and
maintenance of these networks. Besides focusing on smart-grids, there is also a need to address issues of
existing grid infrastructure. For instance, in many countries, several electrical parts are unevenly connected to
the national grid in order to optimally evacuate large wind farms or solar parks which otherwise demand
installation of the entire infrastructure.
2- Cyber Security
Smart-grid security is crucial to maintain a stable and reliable power system operation during the
contingency situation due to the failure of any critical power system component. Due to lack of the proper
“security measures”, a major blackout may occur which can even lead to a cascading failure. Therefore, to
protect this critical power system infrastructure and to ensure a reliable and an uninterrupted power supply to the
end-users, Smart-grid security issues must be addressed with high priority. More importantly, cybersecurity
emerges to be a critical issue because millions of electronic devices are interconnected via communication
networks (i.e., solutions that rely on Internet of Things technology) throughout critical power facilities, which
has an immediate impact on the reliability of such a widespread infrastructure.
By appropriately tackling issues related to the security requirements, network vulnerabilities, attack
countermeasures, secure communication protocols and architectures in the Smart-grid environment, it is
expected to improve considerably the efficiency of the overall system’s safety, security, and reliability. In more
detail, the cybersecurity topic in this environment must address both inadvertent compromises of the electric
infrastructure, due to equipment failures, user errors, natural disasters, and deliberate attacks, such as from
disgruntled employees, industrial espionage, and terrorists. For this purpose, the proper mechanism should be
incorporated both in the software and hardware level. Additionally, due to the importance of this domain,
cybersecurity risk management strategies have also to be deployed both in local, as well as in larger scale, while
the promotion of technology transfer of best practices, standards, and voluntary guidance, and research in the
areas of applied cryptography and cybersecurity for microgrids is also necessary.

3- Storage Concerns
The use of energy from renewable sources requires special attention to grid stability. In view of this, it is
clear that energy storage systems will become increasingly important in the near future since storage units take
in surplus electricity that is not needed at a given time and then feed it back into the grid when demand rises.
This is also stated in different market analysis. For instance, according to Deutsche Bank, the German market
for electrical storage devices is expected to at least double between 2012 and 2025, while by 2040 at the latest,
some 40 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity will have to be stored on a regular basis, in some cases over a
period of several months. We have to notice that the 40TWhfigure is one thousand times higher than the storage
capacity of today’s pumped-storage facilities in Germany. This imposes that an associated investment of roughly
30 billion euros will be required in Germany alone over the next 20 years.
In order to fabricate these storage components, various technologies are employed. For instance, hydrogen
storage devices (their operation relies on electrolysis in order to produce energy-rich hydrogen gas from water)
can take in surplus power from wind farms. The produced hydrogen is then temporarily stored in underground
caverns that are already used to hold natural gas. Depending on the power demand, the energy-rich hydrogen
gas can either drive turbines that then supply electricity to the grid, or it can be converted to methane through a
reaction with carbon dioxide; after that, the methane can be fed into the natural gas grid. The batteries are also a
well-known energy storage system. Lithium-ion cells are currently the best batteries for stabilizing distribution
grids because they combine high storage capacity with high charge and discharge rates. If load volatility should
occur in the grid, such batteries can take in or dispense power within milliseconds, thus balancing out
fluctuations in voltage and frequency. Another way to store energy is also compressed air. This approach
involves pumping air into hollow chambers such as salt domes and then compressing it to a pressure of up to
100 bar. The compressed air is later used to drive a gas turbine.
4. Data Management
Smart-grids ensure efficient connection and exploitation of all means of production, provide automatic and
real-time management of the electrical networks. This allows operators to a better measure of consumption,
optimize the level of reliability and improve the existing services which in turn leads to energy savings and
lower costs both for energy producers and consumers. Among others, this concept leads to a very large increase
in the volume of data to be processed due to the installation of smart meters and various sensors on the network
and the development of customer facilities, etc. Such a data deluge problem becomes far more savage with the
wide adoption of the Smart-Grid concept. In order to depict the importance of this problem, we might employ a
commercially available smart meter which sends the consumer energy usage every 15min, so every million
meters can generate 96million reads per day instead of one meter reading a month in a conventional grid. This
prerequisite that a smart-grid apart from efficient energy management have also to take into consideration the
data management plan in order to deal with high velocity, important storage capacity, and advanced data

analytics requirements.
Indeed, smart-grids data requires complex analytics, due to their nature, distribution and real-time
constraints of certain needs. In other words, big data techniques are becoming necessary for advanced and
efficient data management for this kind of application. Among others, by appropriately analyzing this data,
smart-grid producers and operators will be able to do things they never could do before such as better
understanding customer behavior, conservation, consumption, and demand, keeping track of downtime and
power failures, etc.
5. Communication Issues
Although lots of newly-developed information and communication technologies have dramatically affected
the other industry sectors, the electric systems generally remain to operate in the same way for decades.
However, in recent years there is a continued demand for communication technologies that enable the electric
generation and distribution systems to incorporate large amounts of distributed energy resources into the grid
and to deal with the intermittent nature of renewable energy. Among others, wireless communication plays an
extremely important role in realizing all the aforementioned goals of smart-grid. More specifically, the
advancements in wireless communication technologies have made it possible to implement a smart-grid with its
capability to convey various vital information from and to electricity consumers, to achieve a very high utility
efficiency. Note that although the wireless concept is not necessary (smart-grid infrastructure can also employ
wired links), in general, wireless telecommunication infrastructure offers a much greater degree of freedom for
information collection, dissemination, and processing than the corresponding wired communication
infrastructure. For instance, a typical example is the recent advances in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have
made it attainable to realize embedded electric utility monitoring systems. Apart from this, WSNs can also be
employed in order to realize remote system monitoring, equipment fault sensing, wireless automatic meter
reading, network distributed resource optimization, and so forth. To sum up the key consideration for
communication infrastructure in the smart grid environment include among others:
• Ease of deployment;
• Latency;
• Standards;
• Data carrying capacity;
• Secure;
• Network coverage capability.

6-Stability Concerns
The engagement of multiple energy producers in the smart-grid environment introduces stability concerns.
This occurs because the majority of the producers rely on renewable energy sources in order to meet day-to-day
load demands. The diverse characteristics of renewable energy-based technologies compared to conventional
power plants have led to many technical challenges, including among others operational stability concerns
requiring real-time coordinated control strategies for both conventional as well as renewable energy sources.
Typical stability problems affect lower voltage stability due to lower power-sharing support, low-frequency
power oscillations, lower angular stability due to lower overall system inertia, worsening of the smart-grid
transient profile during micro-grid islanding, and the inability to serve as system reserve.
7- Energy Management and Electric Vehicle
In typical smart-grids, the energy management system is based on pricing. The dynamic pricing is a concept
that has immense possibilities for application in the energy sector since it can be considered as a demand-side
management tool that facilitates the offering of different prices at different demand levels, while it also supports
producers postpone investment decisions by shifting peak loads from peak to non-peak hours.
In a smart-grid environment the units are categorized into three groups:
• Price-elastic units that can be influenced by prices. Such units are conventional generation units, controllable
renewable generation units ( biomass power plants), controllable loads (e.g., electric heaters), etc.
• Price-inelastic units that cannot be influenced by prices. This group includes ( mainly the uncontrollable loads
and the uncontrollable renewable generation units, such as wind and photovoltaic power plants.
• Electric vehicles can be influenced by prices but have storage dynamics as well as energy and mobility
constraints. These features are desirable to substantially contribute to balancing volatile renewable generation.
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VI. INFORMATION PROCESSING IN SMART GRID
The core idea of the smart grid is to use advanced communication technologies to collect the power
grid data and extract the necessary information to improve the efficiency and reliability of the grid. The
collected data includes the energy usage of customers which is usually received from smart meters and
transmitted to the utility suppliers. Different entities in the smart grid must act upon the extract information:
utility suppliers, and customers.
1-Utility Suppliers: The utility suppliers monitor the status of the grid, predict the accumulated demand from
the customers, estimate the energy from renewable sources and generate the required electricity using
conventional power plants. The suppliers must update the dynamic and real-time prices according to supply and
demand. In addition, suppliers perform accounting and billings based on the dynamic price and energy usage of
customers over time. The information management systems (IMS), as well as other services from the utility
suppliers, can be hosted on private clouds
2-Customers: The customers include smart homes, smart buildings, smart factories, smart cities, etc. In the
smart grid, the price of electricity is dynamic, the customers have to manage their demand accordingly to
respond to the power grid status and dynamic price to minimize their bill. Scheduling the home appliances, load
shifting during peak hours, and exchanging energy with other customers (i.e., when one customer has surplus
power generated from renewables) are among the decision of a home energy management system (HEMS). A
home automation system (HAS) can incorporate the dynamic pricing, user’s preferences and HEMS to minimize
the electricity bill while maintaining the main functionalities of home appliances.
3-Cloud service: In a cloud-centric design, customers rely on cloud service providers for their management
systems including HEMS (home energy management system), HAS (home energy management system), and
Demand Management system (DMS). In addition, customers may supply some portion of their own demand
from renewable energy sources such as solar panels in a smart home. Therefore, intelligent supply prediction
systems can create customized and dedicated models to predict the available renewable energy based on
historical and weather-related data.
Figure 4 shows the relationship between three entities in the smart grid: customers, utility suppliers, and cloud
service providers, and the information flow between them. This architecture heavily relies on the cloud
computing and information management services from third-parties.
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Fig. 4 : The relationship between three entities in the smart grid: customers, utility suppliers, and cloud service providers
VII. I NTERNET OF THINGS AND SMART GRID
As presented in Fig. 2, the SG completely revolutionizes the energy generation, transmission,

distribution and consumption in four sub-systems. It is comprised of three types of networks, a Home Area
Network (HAN), a Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and a Wide Area Network (WAN).
1-HAN is the first layer; it manages the consumers’ on-demand power requirements and consists of smart
devices, home appliances, electrical vehicles, as well as renewable energy sources (such as solar panels). HAN
is deployed within residential units, in industrial plants, and in commercial buildings and connects electrical
appliances with smart meters.
2-NAN is the second layer of an SG and consists of smart meters belonging to multiple HANs. NAN supports
communication between distribution substations and field electrical devices for power distribution systems. It
collects the service and metering information from multiple HANs and transmits it to the data collectors which
connect NANs to a WAN.
3-WAN is the third layer of an SG and it serves as a backbone for communication between network gateways,
NANs, distributed grid devices, utility control centers and substations. It facilitates the communication among
power transmission systems, bulk generation systems, renewable energy sources and control centers.
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Figure 5: Smart grid (SG) architecture presenting power systems, power flow and information flow. The SG is
comprised of four main subsystems (power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization) and three types
of networks (a wide area network (WAN), a neighborhood area network (NAN) and a home area network
(HAN). The power flows through the subsystems while the information flows through the networks [23].
Fig. 5. Illustration of the smart grid architecture [24]
VIII-INTEGRATION OF THE IO T INTO THE SMART GRID
The SG has already achieved wide adoption in information sensing, transmission, and processing, and
now IoT technology plays a significant role in SG. The driving force behind the initiative of SG is to improve
planning, maintenance, and operations by ensuring that each component of the power grid is able ‘listen’ and
‘talk’, and to enable automation in SG. For example, in the traditional power grid, the utility company only
knows about the disruption of service when a customer informs himself/herself. In SG, the utility company will
automatically know about the disruption of service because certain components of SG (such as smart meters in
the affection region) will cease sending the collected sensor data. Here, the IoT plays the key role in enabling
this scenario because all the components of the grid (see Fig. 6) must have IP addresses and should be capable
of two-way communication. This is enabled by the IoT. IoT technology provides an interactive real-time
network connection to the users and devices through various communication technologies, power equipment
through various IoT smart devices, and the cooperation required to realize real-time, two-way and high-speed
data sharing across various applications, enhancing the overall efficiency of a SG. The application of the IoT in
SGs can be classified into three types based on the three-layered IoT architecture. Firstly, IoT is applied for
deploying various IoT smart devices for the monitoring of equipment states (i.e., at perception layer of IoT).
Secondly, IoT is applied for information collection from equipment with the help of its connected IoT smart
devices through various communication technologies (at network layer of IoT). Thirdly, IoT is applied for
controlling the SG through application interfaces (at application layer of IoT) [25]. The SG has already achieved
wide adoption in information sensing, transmission and processing,
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Fig. 6: Functional cloud computing service clusters
X. EDGE COMPUTING M ODEL FOR SMART GRID
This section provides a model based on EC for the smart homes in the smart grid era. Figure 8
illustrates the envisioned model on EC in the smart home. Most of the information processing that is required
for managing the demand, home automation, supply prediction, etc. is performed within the home network. In
addition, some of the management tasks of utility suppliers are distributed to the micro-grids. Each microgrid
integrates a management system for local supply management, local demand prediction, and local electricity
market.
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Fig. 8 Smart grid integration with smart home
To bring the intelligence close to the consumer (e.g., smart home), the home energy management system,
demand management system, and supply prediction are implemented within the home network. The required
computation capability to support these systems is available in personal desktop computers and gateways. The
real-time usage information of each appliance is transmitted via short-range wireless radio over Bluetooth low
energy, ZigBee, etc. to the local gateway.
1.Intelligence at the Edge: Smart home management systems often can boost their efficiency by analyzing the
historical data and learning from them. This may include learning the preferences of consumers (e.g.,
comfortable lighting of home) as well as learning to predict the user demand and renewable supply.
2.Smart Grid Market: In micro-grid, the excess of generated power from customer (e.g., solar panels, stored
energy in batteries, etc.) can be sold back to other customers. This creates a an energy market where the
autonomous agents –representing customers– trade power in auctions to maximize their profit [26].
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XI-ARCHITECTURES FOR IOT SG S YSTEMS
1) Perception Layer
This layer enables the main objectives of sensing and collecting information in IoT-aided SG systems using a
variety of devices. It is comprised of various kinds of IoT sensing devices, such as RFID tags, cameras, WSN,
GPS and M2M devices, in order to collect data in a SG. It is categorized into two sub-layers, a perception
control sub-layer and acommunication extension sub-layer.
2) Network Layer
The network layer is comprised of the converged network formed by various telecommunication networks and
the Internet. The network layer has been widely accepted due to its mature technologies. Its function is to map
the information collected by the IoT devices in the perception layer to the telecommunication protocols.
Subsequently, it transmits the mapped data to the application layer through the relevant telecommunication
network.
3) Application Layer
The application layer is the integration of IoT technology and industry expertise for the realization of a broad set
of IoT SG applications. Its function is to process the information received from the network layer, and based on
this information, it monitors and troubleshoots the IoT devices and SG environment in real-time. It provides
various applications of IoT-aided SG systems which are presented in Fig. 3. It is comprised of application
infrastructure/middleware and various types of servers related to content, web services and directory services.
Figure 9: Three-layered architecture of IoT SG systems, comprised of a perception layer, a network layer and an application layer.
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XII-WEB ENABLED SMART METER ARCHITECTURES
An architecture for IoT SG systems based on the web of things (Fig. 8). The web of things is comprised of a
number of web services provided on top of the IoT devices in which the web browser acts as an interface to
these web services. There are two types of energy sources, non-renewable and renewable energy sources.
Non-renewable energy sources include thermal power plants (combusting coal or oil) that release carbon
emissions to the environment, as well as nuclear power plants.
The energy sources in this architecture are connected to individual digital energy meters. These
digital energy meters are responsible for collecting household energy consumption data. The meter readings
from energy meters of nonrenewable and renewable sources are collected by separate IoT gateways which
communicate regularly with these meters. The collected data from IoT gateways are updated to the server
periodically, and the server provides web services on top of these IoT devices. These web services include the
locations of houses connected through the SG, and the meter information. Moreover, for each home, the
scheduling of power sources and the controlling of the energy sources by switching the source controllers
remotely through IoT devices are provided as web services. Through the Internet, by connecting to any device, a
user can access these services. The energy sources for each household are switched through source changers
which are controlled through IoT devices; these IoT devices switch the energy sources upon receiving
instruction from the user via the server.
Figure 10: Web-enabled SG architecture comprised of web services on the top of IoT devices [41].
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XIII-COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS FOR THE IOE-B ASED SMART GRID
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the new communications paradigm that can provide the potential of
ultimate communication. The IoT paradigm describes communication not only human to human (H2H) but also
machine to machine (M2M) without the need of human interference. The Smart Grid (SG) is the new paradigm
that enables highly efficient energy production, transport, and consumption along the whole chain, from the
source to the user. SG is the combination of the classical power grid with emerging communication and
information technologies. IoT based smart grid will be one of the largest instantiation of the IoT in the next
future.
There are several drawbacks in the existing power grid such as lack of efficient monitoring, fault
diagnostic, and automation techniques. Moreover, the current power grid is inflexible in adding new energy like
that coming from renewable sources. Thus, a more flexible and intelligent power grid is a challenging
requirement. This gap is filled by the Smart Grid (SG) paradigm. SG integrates into the current power grid new
information and communication networks and technologies. The integration of IoT and SG is referred to as the
Internet of Energy (IoE). The IoE uses the bidirectional flow of energy and information within the smart grid to
get information about power usage and that way may predict future actions to increase energy efficiency and
low overall cost [27]. There are several IoT technologies that are key enablers for SG. These technologies cover
the whole protocol stack starting from the physical layer to the application layer. Additionally, new IoT designed
data layers emerged. In this chapter, we try first to give a brief overview of all these technologies. For short
range applications these among others include Radiofrequency identification (RFID(, Bluetooth Low-Energy
(BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC), fourth generation of cellular systems (4G), IEEE 802.15.4, and the
recent IEEE 802.11ah. For long range applications namely the Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies
include the LoRaWAN protocol, Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) and the future cellular IoT [28].
Fig. 11: Enabling representative communications technologies for SG and IoT integration
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XIV-APPLICATION OF THE IOE-B ASED SMART GRID
• Smart home applications allow the use of sensors and actuators in devices and appliances. These devices may
include smart TVs, smart refrigerators, temperature monitoring, lighing control, and home security systems.
That group of devices together forms a Neighbor Area Network (NAN).
• The online monitoring of power lines is another useful application of SG. The IoT based smart gridwill be able
to improve the reliability of power lines by continuous status monitoring. Reports about faults will be send
directly to the control units in order to resolve them in an instant way.
• The Demand-side energy management (DSM) is another critical point where the SG plays an important role.
The user energy consumption profile is collected by IoT-nodes and then send to smart meters. Thus, the
demand-response can be regulated in order to minimize the electrical consumption and the operation cost of the
smart grid.
• The electric vehicles to the power grid is another application domain. The IoT technology helps in this way to
collect information about the vehicles battery state and location in order to improve the charging and
discharging scheduling algorithms.
Fig. 12: Interaction of Actors in different smart grid domains
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XV. IO E IN DEMAND-SIDE OF POWER SYSTEM
1) IoE and microgrids
A microgrid refers to a localized group of electrical loads and small-scale generation resources (microsources),
which can satisfy all or part of its demand to large extent. The emersion of microgrids is accelerating in power
systems, especially office sites, universities, residential communities, military sites, and industrial regions etc.
Microgrids can be designed to operate independently (isolated, islanding mode, off-grid mode) or
collaboratively (connected to an upstream grid). If a microgrid is connected to the main grid, the excess
generation of intrinsic resources can be sold to the upstream grid to increase the profit of microgrid. A microgrid
may be comprised of a set of distributed generation (DG) sources such as gas-fired combustion turbine, diesel
generator, micro-turbines, reciprocating engines, biomass, and waste-to-power units along with small-scale
RESs such as small-scale wind turbines and solar panels. Some of abovementioned generating units can be used
in a combined heat and power (CHP) scheme to improve efficiency [29]. In addition, small-scale storage units
should also be used to store the excess generation of small-scale RES when there is a lower level of demand.
Such small-scale distribution networks usually integrate battery storage units but utilization of fuel cell,
micro-CAES, and flywheel units can be found in some cases. Many hybrid schemes are proposed to investigate
the cooperative operation of microsources and storage facilities which are present in the microgrid. In addition,
some researches have proposed the paradigm of interconnected microgrids which mitigate the reliance on the
main grid [30].
Two concerning issues of the current microgrids are power quality and efficiency of the system. At the
current time, the microgrid’s operators conduct their own forecasts and schedules. The internal control of
microgrid’s components will be managed by the microgrid’s operator. In this situation, the operators of the main
grid or the market operator or the regional transmission organization have no monitoring and control on
microsources of the microgrid. From a system operator point of view, a microgrid is regarded as a single load
and must be dealt with like an aggregator or retailer for power exchange. Hence, due to the inevitable
uncertainties and the internal limitations of the microgrid, part of energy may be
curtailed.
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Fig. 13. Microgrid architecture.
By implementation of IoE infrastructure, the data corresponded with all microsources can be shared with the
main grid’s operator, which is not done at present. This is a massive amount of in-detail data which requires a
large burden to be analyzed. However, incorporation of the elaborate instantaneous signals of microsources and
internal load patterns along with the evaluation of historical records of microsources can provide a more
comprehensive probabilistic scheduling that it brings tangible benefits for the power system. For example, more
exploitation of RES, alleviation of emission, prevention of incurring considerable costs pertaining to the
commitment of more expensive units can be mentioned. In another word, the incorporation of IoE in microgrids
helps to mitigate the risk and manage the operation of the whole system better enjoying the existing potentials of
microgrids to have the more efficient operation of the distributed capacities. In addition, IoT digital intelligence
helps to solve security issues concerned with the connection of two microgrids to each other due to rapid
fluctuations in generation or consumption, which particularly impact industrial consumers economically in case
of outages or brownouts. IoT can also provide better maneuverability for the microgrid’s operator to model and
control the microgrid, and to perceive a better insight into components’ behaviors. Modern analytical techniques
can be employed by the operator to analyze the components patterns.
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Fig. 14. The deployment of IoE in microgrids
2) IoE and demand response
Before the last two decades, the demand model was considered to be a random process which is governed only
by statistical laws. Thus, the power industry has developed very sophisticated approaches to adapt generation to
demand in real-time. This lack of control on demand incurred high costs because the grid dimension was
designed for peak transmission; large power plants should be constructed to serve the demand for just a few
hours within a year; a considerable detriment was incurring due to the costs associated with emission. However,
more pervasiveness of electricity markets and developments of the communications networks, which are
capable of controlling and monitoring demand at the consumer level in real-time, have emerged the idea of
demand response programs (DRPs) [31]. Currently, the world is experiencing a transition. The advent and
ubiquitous presence of the internet have facilitated the demand response (DR) implementation to be more
user-friendly and more attractive for the consumers. The loads can be made aware of electricity price at
real-time using different IoT-based technologies such as smart counters, AMIs, web servers, and mobile
networks or internet-based applications. The user can manage its consumption by tracking the state of its
internal loads and can have remote control over them using IoE technologies. The control over equipment in the
residential or industrial sections can be managed automatically using IoT controller technologies. Hence, a
proper reaction can be done in the requested time by elastic loads. DRPs are segregated into time-based rate
programs (TBR) and incentive-based programs (IBP). TBR refers to the model of electricity pricing which
provokes a reaction by the consumer due to instantaneous price. TBR has three kinds of time of use program
(TOU), real-time pricing (RTP), and critical peak pricing (CPP). These programs incline the user to have a
sensitive reaction associated with the instantaneous price of electricity [32]. IBP is classified into three
categories of voluntary programs (including direct load control (DLC) and emergency demand response
programs (EDRP)), mandatory programs (including capacity market program (CAP) and
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interruptible/curtailable (I/C) services), and market clearing programs (including demand bidding/buyback (DB)
and ancillary services market (A/S)) [33].
Obviously, the execution of all these programs can be facilitated enjoying IoE. The system operator will
have more elaborate control over a wider range of consumptions. Hence, they can make smarter decisions. They
can impose more intelligent consumption reductionf or load shedding. In the past, the entire feeder must be
disconnected to impose load shedding. Enjoying IoT technologies, the operator has more options to reduce
consumption. They can have control over the small-scale loads and can choose to turn them off by type,
classification or category. Thus, the user will not be unsupplied entirely. In addition, each individual load can be
connected to AMIs for receiving various data such as price to manage the consumption of electrical devices
automatically using IoE infrastructure. The manufacturers of various kinds of electrical equipment are inclined
to equip their products with IEDs and controlling boards capable of remote control or automatic control with the
ability to connect to internet-based or cloud databases or AMIs. In addition, appropriate APIs can enable the user
or operator to manage and control the consumptions and monitor the patterns visually.
It is evident that the DR notification mechanism requires a reliable communicational system, and the way
customers can manage their usage by shifting or reducing electricity consumption can be facilitated using IoT
infrastructure. In addition, the reduction or shift of consumption can be carried out automatically using advanced
controlling equipment with the capability to connect to telecommunications networks.
4) IoE and residential consumption management
Residential end-users have certain consumptions in their houses. They usually tend to use off-peak power
instead of expensive peak electricity. But the off-peak period is late at night when most consumers are asleep or
inactive. Hence, IoE infrastructure can help to facilitate the management of energy in buildings [34]. Hence, the
concepts of smart buildings and smart homes are framed as a subcategory of smart grids in demand-side [35]. At
first, all end-users must be equipped with advanced counters (or AMIs) to get aware of the instantaneous price
of electricity. The type of pricing system can be uniform pricing, time-based rate (TBR) pricing, or realtime
pricing. In the recent decade, the manufacturers of residential appliances are equipping their products by IEDs
with IoT connectivity capability to have real-time informatics connection with AMIs. These devices can be
programmed to do some duties automatically, which brings economic advantages for the owners. For example, a
dishwasher is able to start the machine when the price of electricity is cheaper or will be cheaper. The concept of
smart building monitors and controls many items in a house automatically or through remote control by the user
using mobile applications or web based servers by using cloud data transferring [36]. Some of the IoE usages in
a smart building are the remote control of energy electricity consumptions by electrical devices such as TV,
washing machine, dishwasher, refrigerator etc., the control of HVAC system, the control of doors, the 24/7
monitoring of the house through security cameras, control of lighting etc. as depicted in Fig. 15.
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Fig. 15. The schematic of a smart building
XVI. B ENEFITS IN ENERGY INTERNET
 Optimized energy management system: The main goal of the EMS system is to develop the
management of a power grid by optimizing the demand-response, utility price decrement, and revenue
saving by decreasing losses. In the EI architecture, with the plug-and-play sharing of load, DRERs and
DESDs will generate local balance in the microgrid by decreasing the overall load consumption on the grid
tie node, the central monitor, and control, which will manage the system efficiently and effectively, with
plenty of advanced EMS techniques based on the real-time pricing environment, as shown in the literature.
 Increased utilize of renewable resources: The energy crisis is an essential issue in the world. The EI
system will raise the use of renewable energy resources, such as solar, wind, natural gas, tidal, and hydel,
which are abundantly available. The EI system integrates all of the RERs at one point, for improved
consumer satisfaction.
 Improved system reliability: The reliability of the power system is improved by the frequent system
monitoring in EI. The stability is increased because of the balancing of variable loads. Disturbances such as
faults and unnecessary breakdowns are reduced, and thus the power system’s reliability is improved.
 Increased energy efficiency: EI consists of smart equipment systems, which result in a power-loss
reduction. The faster information and communication, planning, and energy telemetry technologies used in
EI make the system efficient. The voltage and frequency fluctuations are reduced by using
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communication-based techniques. The load demand on the remote power plant is reduced. Transmission
losses are reduced, and this leads to an increase in energy efficiency by introducing an EI system.
 Dynamic Pricing: The real-time demand is a variable parameter during off-load and peak load. Thus,
to model a service cost based on the customer’s demand, a dynamic pricing strategy is required. This is one
of the major challenges for the implementation of the EI system. Dynamic pricing can be contrasted with a
fixed pricing approach to setting the selling price for a service
 Stability issues: The transmission system stability issue will become more complex because of EI with
a combination of various forms of energy exchange. The power system transfer stability and fault detection
for smart-grids connected to EI is yet to be developed.
 Cyber security concerns: As the EI system is widely based on information exchanges, it is vulnerable
to security threats and the associated cyber physical attacks. The AMI in the EI system consists of smart
meters, phasor measurement units (PMUs), which measure and record the energy consumption data as a
reference, so that the consumer can make adjustments based on the real-time consumption data. The
information about the consumption and appliance usage from smart meters and PMUs might be hacked by
the unauthorized parties [37]. Thus, an effective cyber security mechanism is required.
XVII. CURRENT IO T B ASED SMART GRID TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS
In this section we provide a brief description of the key technologies and elements for IoT-based Smart Grid.
There several technologies that may be considered as enablers for SG. A sample protocol stack for servers and
IoT nodes is depicted in Fig. 16. We notice that the IoT stack is different from the common host stack in Internet.
The protocol stack for IoT nodes consists of constrained or compressed versions of common protocols. There
are several options for the physical layer, while for MAC layer the most common option is IEEE 802.15.4. The
network layer requires the use of an adaptation protocol like 6LoWPAN in order to compress and fragment the
IPv6 headers. In the transport layer UDP is used, while in the application layer a constrained version of HTTP
Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is utilized. The data layer uses the compressed XML format the
Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) protocol.
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Fig. 16: Protocol stacks for hosts (left) and (right) for IoT nodes
XVIII. SECURITY IN IO T OF SMART GRID
Connected devices lead to increased availability of attack surfaces for breaking into a secure and critical
network infrastructure [38]. To mitigate the risk posed by security flaws and vulnerabilities, it is of utmost
importance to detect the security issues at the earliest. Moreover, it is statistically infeasible for a smart grid and
IoT network to be completely immune to cybersecurity threats as the threat landscape continues to evolve and
the attackers persist to devise newer, sophisticated and organized means to break into a secure network [39].
Smart grids cybersecurity requirements differ considerably from industrial control systems (ICS), and the
supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, due to a high number of interconnected and
integrated components [40]. Smart grids contribute widely to continuous operations of critical infrastructure.
Increased complexity and connectivity expose them to threats and vulnerabilities risking safety and reliability
[41].
A. Threat Visibility and Intrusion Detection in Smart
Applications, Smart grids, and IoT An attempt made by an unauthorized user to gain access into a protected
network is known as an intrusion. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are used to detect unauthorized access to
assets and resources [42]. The IDS are network security components that monitor access attempts made to gain
access to trusted devices and legitimate applications [43], [44]. Along with detecting malicious use through
continuous asset tracking, IDS also offer advanced human machine interface (HMI) alerting the network
administrators and security professionals when a malicious activity is detected [45]. The confidentiality,
integrity and availability (CIA) of time-critical information exchange in IoT, smart grids, and other mission
critical infrastructure is enhanced with strategic placement of IDS [56]. However, due to a large number of
connected devices in IoT, and IoT-enabled smart grid networks, the traditional IDS techniques to alert the
26

human users each time an alert occurs does not scale well [47]. Furthermore, considering the number of false
positives generated by IDS will make it difficult to holistically monitor information flow. This section
investigates various intrusion detection techniques that have been applied to the IoT architecture and analyses
their scalability to the IoTenabled smart grid landscape [48]. The IDS for IoT differ from IDS for traditional
systems primarily in the following aspects:
a. The IoT nodes such as Internet enabled smart grids, smart watch, smart pen, smart health-care, and
smart vehicles are miniaturized electronic devices with significantly low computing power compared
to traditional computing devices such as smart phones, laptops, mainframes, desktops and tablets
[49].
b. The IoT nodes have a small payload and make use of line of sight wireless communication such as
Bluetooth low energy (BLE), ZigBee, IEEE 802.15.4, and near field communication (NFC) which
have a small bandwidth suitable for limited data transmission. The traditional computing devices
utilize communication architectures that consume larger bandwidth than IoT nodes can process [50].
c. Smart grids, critical infrastructure, and the IoT nodes use new and specifically defined
communication protocols such as low-power wireless personal area networks (LoWPAN) and IPv6
whereas the traditional computing systems are based on TCP/IP protocol stack that is centered around
the standard Ethernet based data exchange. The IDS need to be compatible among various protocols
to allow seamless integration. Different and novel protocols incorporate unforeseen and original
vulnerabilities and place cutting-edge demands on IDS [51].
d. The traditional computing systems rely on IDS that alert users when a malicious activity is detected.
While such methodology is appropriate in the context of such devices, smart grids are more
susceptible to malicious access due to increased attack surfaces. The number of alerts generate by
IDS is generally too large for a user to be alerted each time. To combat this limitation, intelligent IDS
combined with capabilities for intrusion prevention and discarding of false positives are required
[52].
e. Traditional computing systems are protected by techniques such as virtual private network (VPN)
encryption, VPN credentials, embedded systems, cryptography, trusted infrastructures and predictive
maintenance, where each component contributes to defense-in-depth architecture. Low computing
power in embedded IDS calls for additional computing resources to avoid risking a bottleneck
through overutilization of the available resources [53].
f. Smart nodes such as smart homes, smart cities, end user IoT devices use sensors to gather context
information to make intelligent decisions. The need to secure the gathered information intensifies for
vital applications such as power plants, smart grids, and transportation systems where security
exploits result in terrible consequences for cities and nations. To secure these nodes, a strategic
27

placement of network-based IDS at various ingress and egress points is critical.
D. Privacy Concerns in Smart Grids
Smart grids are increasingly being perceived as green and environmental-friendly solution to power generation
that would enable the end-users to generate power locally through environmental-friendly means such as solar
cells and wind turbines. Any excess power generated could be uploaded back into the grid. This would also
enable users to reduce electricity consumption and the electricity bill by selling their excess power. While these
are legitimate benefits of smart grid,
there is still a paucity of information on the steps taken to protect and secure the personal information collected
through the smart grid [54]. Given the ability of local users to upload power, fears arise that malicious hackers
could break into the grid’s communications network through smart components such as meters and appliances to
destabilize the grid. Security mechanisms need to be supplemented with security policies to exercise control
over the manner in which a user’s personal
information is accessed, collected, used and disclosed, safeguarding both the privacy as well as the environment.
The modern smart grids and digitized substations require high availability, performance, real-time
communication (sub Nanosecond time-synchronization) networks and service availability to handle
ever-growing massive data. Innovative communication, utility wide Area networks (WAN), wireless mesh
networks (WMN), automated substation and distribution station, mobile workforce are restrained by the issues
related to data privacy, encryption, message security and access control. For example, the connection of a
neighbor area network (NAN) or home area network (HAN) client to a nearby substation’s IEDs needs network
access control (NAC), identification and admission control, and authentication management policies in place.
Pole top equipment, smart meters, scheduled maintenance and downtime availability of backups require time
references from synchro phasors.
Certificate revocation, key management and network timestamp verification generate large quantities of data
logs for security incident and event management (SIEM) and valuation. Fig.8. depicts various smart grid
domains that are susceptible to cyberattacks [55].
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Fig. 8. Smart grid domains [55].
E. Attack Motives in Smart Grids
smart devices scattered in physically insecure locations and public wireless communication channels used
to access smart grids lead to increased user engagement as well as introduce new security challenges. Malicious
users might try to gain access to critical AMI, HAN, NAN and FAN for the following nefarious purposes:
 Reduce the bill: Users might want to evade paying for exact usage hours by reducing bills [56].
 Fool the billing system and change meter readings: This is done to mislead the control center to make
erroneous decisions
 Exploit the knowledge of the power system configurations to simulate smart grids: This knowledge
can be later used to launch bigger attacks, or to place rouge smart grids into network. The rouge smart
grids lure unsuspecting users to log in, divulge sensitive personal information, and get manipulated in
despicable ways.
 Increase the cost for energy distribution: This type of attack may be motivated by competitors trying to
bring other distributors into disrepute and hence losing customer base.
 Gain acceptance in the hacker community: A class of attackers known as script-kiddies break into
systems to gain popularity as hackers and to impress friends.
 Personal revenge: An attacker may intend to blackout specific houses, companies, employer
establishments and public areas for personal reasons. A more serious impact is tampering with victim’s
smart meter data to ridiculously high usage readings.
29

 Stop production: Motivated by financial gains from corporates and foreign governments, hackers might
just want to bring smart grid infrastructure to a standstill.
 nuclear competition among nations: As smart grids are accessible across geographical boundaries;
cyberwarfare is set to gain momentum with the advent of smart grids.
XIX. THREATS IN IO T OF S MART GRIDS
An individual or a group of individuals responsible for a malicious incident that negatively impacts
the security posture of a network is called a threat actor [57]. Threat actors are categorized based on a
combination of skill level, type of activity within the network, and their pursuing motivations. There are threat
actors who perform the attack simply for their own amusement, or just to see if it can be done; whereas some
threat actors may have a social agenda or a strong political motivation [58]. The IoT ecosystem provides them
with an opportunity to break into unauthorized networks with various malicious intents [59]. The IDS provide
mechanism to alert security administrators about such hidden malicious attempts. In the following, we list the
major threat actors in smart grid and IoT:
a. Script Kiddies: It is defined as an incompetent individual who employs readymade scripts to alternate a
specific application or operation [60]. Script kiddies often penetrate into IoT networks for fun or other
nefarious purposes such as to deface a website and ruin a network operation. Their operation strategies
are restricted to hunt and misuse easy-to find shortcomings and vulnerabilities in IoT nodes and
accessible networks, often haphazardly [61]. These actions are often an attempt to awe their companions
or to gain popularity on computer enthusiast groups [62]. However, these threat actors are not viewed as
hazardous exploiters of security lapses in the IoT networks.
b. Hacktivists: Unlike script kiddies, these are advanced threat actors compared to script kiddies and possess
strong fundamentals in programming and network exploitation [88]. The activities undertaken by
hacktivists often encompass various political convictions, motivations and issues. Hacktivists propose
activism in a form that is malicious and destructive to IoT architecture, undermining the IoT network
security. Hacktivists contemplate downing or intruding a network as an opportunity to cause political
persuasion. Moreover, these threat actors have unintended conclusions where security threats and risks
are often disguised but destructive [63].
c. Organized Cyber-criminals: Although the script kiddies and hacktivists can execute a handful of
network security exploits using commonly available reconnaissance and attack tools, they often lack
financial and infrastructural resources to carry out large scale DoS attacks and other severe exploits [64].
To cause advanced cybercrimes, assemblies of human beings possessing advanced technical skills
combined with financial resources have begun to emerge [65]. These threat actors are termed as
organized cyber criminals and their key feature is access to large botnets and other malicious
30

infrastructure with state of the-art computational speeds. These threat actors often act in exchange of
financial gains and provide third party network exploitation services. Malicious security activities arise
from foul placement and execution of refined and specialized technical abilities [66]. These threat actors
do possess skills required to script and build complex ransomware frameworks aimed to intrude IoT
networks at a stupendous scale. They are adept at using malicious packet tunneling programs to spread
malware to steals sensitive, confidential and top-secret information from a contaminated node [67].
d. Nation state sponsored threat: Nation-state hackers progressively focus on administration institutions,
offices, nuclear storehouses and SCADA systems of an enemy nation and aim to bring down as much
critical networks as possible to wreak havoc through the Internet [68]. Furthermore, Nation-state
sponsored threats span a wide number of organizations capable of complex threat scripting and
publicizing techniques capable of intruding critical operations to spill secret data [69]. With growing
cyberwarfare collaborating with the advent of increased connectivity through IoT, dangers for digital
attacks from nation-states add a powerful dynamic to the cyber threat landscape [70],[71],[72].
Nation-state hackers progressively focus on administration institutions, offices, nuclear storehouses,
communications infrastructure, AMI, PMU, and distributed energy resources (DER) [74].
X X. CONCLUSION
The Smart grid is the future grid which solves the problems of unidirectional information and energy
flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security in the traditional power grid. The IoT
technology provides connectivity anywhere and anytime. It helps smart grid by providing smart devices or IoT
devices (such as sensors, actuators, and smart meters) for the monitoring, analysis and controlling the grid, as
well as connectivity, automation and tracking of such devices. This realizes the IoT smart grid system which
supports and improves various network functions at power generation, transmission, distribution, and utilization.
Also in this paper, we surveyed advances in cyber threats that aim to exploit the vulnerabilities in IoT
architecture in general and smart grids in particular. We introduced inherent IoT architecture and related
protocols that make it vulnerable to threats. We discovered the advantages offered by smart grids and the
privacy concerns and attack motives that make them an attractive target to threat actors.
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Bilal Naji Alhasnawi was born in Al Samawah, Iraq in 1993. he received the B.S. in
Electrical engineering from the University of Kufa, in 2015. he received the M.S. degrees
in Electrical engineering from the University of Basrah, in 2018. he is also working toward
his Ph.D. degree within the Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering,
University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq. His research interests Smart Grid Engineering, Control
Theory, Renewable Energy Technologies, Electrical Power Engineering, Power Systems
Analysis, Power Electronics, Power Converters, Isolated Microgrids, Droop control,
hierarchical control, Microgrids Optimization, Energy Management, Photovoltaics, Distributed Generation,
Wireless Sensor Network, Information and Communication Technology, and Computer Engineering. He is an
Active Reviewer of the IEEE ACCESS.
Dr. Basil H. Jasim. was born in Basrah, Iraq in 1973. He received the B.Sc and M.Sc
degrees in Electrical Engineering and Control & Computers Engineering from the University
of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq in 1995 and 1999 respectively. He also received his PhD degree in
the field of Control and Systems from the Basrah University, Iraq in 2007. He is currently an
Professor at the University of Basrah. His teaching interests covering wide areas of modules
across the department of Electrical Engineering, University of Basrah, include Intelligent
Control Systems, Robust Control Systems, Microprocessor & Microcontrollers and Industrial
Automation. He currently serves as a co-editor of the Basrah Journal for Engineering Sciences. His research
interests include Intelligent Control of Robotics, Computational Intelligence, Chaos & Nonlinear dynamics,
Renewable electrical energy systems, and PLC applications in industrial and engineering education. Dr. Basil is
a Senior Member of the IEEE.
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Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930

Internet of Things (IoT) for Smart Grids: A

Volume XII, Issue V, 2020 Page No: 389

Volume XII, Issue V, 2020 Page No: 390

 More efficient transmission of electricity;

 Increased integration of large-scale renewable energy systems;

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Fig. 2: Smart-grid environment within the broader electricity system.

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Fig.3: main components of the smart grid

III. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS SURVEY ARTICLE

 A detailed discussion with taxonomy on the applications of IoT-aided SG systems;

 A detailed discussion on existing architectures for IoT of SG systems;

 A discussion on big data analytics and cloud in IoT of SG systems;

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IV. RELATED WORKS

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V. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES OF SMART GRID

1-Inadequacies in Grid Infra Structure

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• Data carrying capacity;

• Network coverage capability.

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7- Energy Management and Electric Vehicle

In a smart-grid environment the units are categorized into three groups:

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VI. INFORMATION PROCESSING IN SMART GRID

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VII. I NTERNET OF THINGS AND SMART GRID

As presented in Fig. 2, the SG completely revolutionizes the energy generation, transmission,

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Fig. 5. Illustration of the smart grid architecture [24]

VIII-INTEGRATION OF THE IO T INTO THE SMART GRID

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Fig. 6: Functional cloud computing service clusters

X. EDGE COMPUTING M ODEL FOR SMART GRID

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Fig. 8 Smart grid integration with smart home

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XI-ARCHITECTURES FOR IOT SG S YSTEMS

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XII-WEB ENABLED SMART METER ARCHITECTURES

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XIII-COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS FOR THE IOE-B ASED SMART GRID

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XIV-APPLICATION OF THE IOE-B ASED SMART GRID

Fig. 12: Interaction of Actors in different smart grid domains

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XV. IO E IN DEMAND-SIDE OF POWER SYSTEM

1) IoE and microgrids

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Fig. 13. Microgrid architecture.

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Fig. 14. The deployment of IoE in microgrids

2) IoE and demand response

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4) IoE and residential consumption management

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Fig. 15. The schematic of a smart building

XVI. B ENEFITS IN ENERGY INTERNET

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XVII. CURRENT IO T B ASED SMART GRID TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS