A Survey on Enhanced Smart Micro-Grid Management System with Modern Wireless Technology Contribution

Abstract

Micro-grid (MG) deployment has dramatically become more popular with the high penetration of renewable energy resources (RER). This trend brings with it the merits of independent power grid clean energy resource-based systems, and simultaneously the demerits of an unstable grid due to the intermittent nature of RER. Control and monitoring of MG through robust and ubiquitous communication system infrastructure is the solution to overcoming this intermittency. There has been an increasing focus in recent years on using wireless communication technologies as a prominent candidate in holistic proposal for the micro-grid management system (MGMS). The MGMS has been developed using the multi-agent system (MAS), multi-micro-grid (multi-MG), Internet of things (IoT) integration, and cloud concepts requiring new communication specifications, which can be satisfied by next-generation wireless technologies. There is, however, a lack of comprehensive corresponding investigation into management levels of MG interaction requirements and applied communication technologies, as well as a roadmap for wireless communication deployment, especially for the next generation. In this paper, we investigate communication technology applications in the MG and focus on their classification in a way that determines standard gaps when applying wireless for MG control levels. We also explore and categorize the literature that has applied wireless technologies to MG. Moreover, since MGMS has been revolutionized by attaching new technologies and applications to make it an active element of the power system, we address future trends for MGMS and offer a roadmap for applying new enhancements in wireless technologies, especially the fifth generation (5G) of wireless networks with its exclusive characteristics, to implement this novel approach.