Communication is an essential part of the smart grid (SG), from the enterprise-level system to the end points such as sensors and appliances. Utilities use communication technologies to monitor and control transmission and distribution networks and volatile renewable generation in enterprise-level systems. Demand-response systems that encourage consumers to reduce peak and overall energy consumption also require communication. In addition, communication is essential for the home energy management system (HEMS) to control home appliances using context awareness to reduce energy costs. Because the communication aspect of an SG is so large, it includes a diverse set of communication characteristics and heterogeneity. Thus, it is difficult to grasp all communication technologies related to the SG. This book does a great job of introducing nearly all communication technologies that are currently used in SGs.

Three main drivers for a smart grid are facility modernization, clean energy, and local energy to avoid geopolitical risk and transmission loss. These drivers lead to distributed generation and active control. This book points out that current supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, which have a hierarchical and centralized structure, are not suitable to accommodate aggregating data generated from devices such as remote terminal units (RTUs) growing by several orders of magnitude. Thus, this book introduces distribution network operators (DNOs) that can handle variable power rates from distributed energy resources (DER). In the DNOs, inter-controller connectivity and connectivity between controllers and field devices generate coordination/control traffic, which is regulated by many standards such as IEC61850. However, as more field devices such as sensors are added, communication technology needs to be improved to handle congestion and message loss.

This book omits an important aspect of smart grids that uses phasor measure units (PMUs), capturing a wide-area snapshot of the power system. Since a PMU generates 10 to 60 frames per second, the bandwidth requirement is much larger than that for the SCADA. So, readers may wonder if existing communication solutions are suitable for a PMU system. Although this book introduces several communication solutions for backhaul, such as telephone lines, fiber optics, power line communication, satellite communication, radio communication, and 3G/4G, it is difficult to estimate whether the solutions are suitable for a utility system since the communication traffic in a utility environment is not analyzed.

The advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which connects smart meters in the home to the utility company, has relatively low reliability and bandwidth requirements compared to a SCADA system. The relaxed performance requirements increase the number of technology candidates in the last mile. Power line communication (PLC), mesh network, WiMAX, and 3G/4G are considered candidates. Security is one of the main challenges since these systems often convey private information. Reliability and interoperability are also important in AMIs and HEMSs since there are various interference and heterogeneity requirements in the last-mile communication environment.

As pointed out in the book, since the smart grid is a complex and multifaceted system, a wide range of topics--grid topology, the status and plan of deploying SG components such as AMI, communication cost, geographic characteristics, political background, and SG applications--should be thoroughly considered before selecting an appropriate one in a given environment. Furthermore, as the number of sensors and actuators increases, smart grid communication will face the problem of coexisting heterogeneous communication requirements and interference, as in ubiquitous computing.