Enabling Communication and Networking Technologies for Smart Grid

Transforming the aging electric grid to a smart grid is an active area of research in industry and the government. One of the main objectives of the smart grid is to improve the efficiency of power generation, transmission and distribution and also to improve the stability and the reliability of the grid. In order to achieve this, various processes involved in power gener-ation, transmission, and distribution should be armed with advanced sensor technologies, computing, communication and networking capabilities to an unprecedented level. These high speed data transfer and computational abilities aid power system engineers to obtain wide area measurements, achieve better control of power system operations and improve the reliability of power supply and the efficiency of different power grid operations. In the process of making the grid smarter, problems existing in traditional grid applications can be identified and solutions have to be developed to fix the identified issues. In this dissertation, two problems that aid power system engineers to meet the above mentioned smart grid’s objective are researched. One problem is related to the distribution-side smart grid and the other one is a part of the transmission-side smart grid. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is one of the important distribution-side smart grid applications. AM