Communication Systems in Distributed Generation: A Bibliographical Review and Frameworks

The exhaustion of natural energy and oil reserves has initiated the concept of renewable energy systems (RESs). This has expanded the vision of energy sector towards a diversified power grid while introducing the distributed energy resources (DERs) and distributed generation (DG). Though, this diversification is achieved by adding new energy generation sources and a two-way power flow, it opens the channel of production and trading with alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) energy formats. But DC-based energy, due to its sporadic nature, can be further stored easily by energy storage devices. However, in recent years, a compelling need has arisen to understand the communication systems in distributed generation (DG) for better performance management, control and parallel power transfer. In this article, a bibliographic review on communication systems in distributed generations (DGs) is provided. The study identifies various communication technologies, standards, and protocols used in AC and DC-based DGs. Moreover, it contains the classification of different frameworks and methods involved. The methodology of different approaches and their likely combination are discussed for different types of communication networks. This study also represents useful information for readers, thereby demonstrate the complete life-cycle of digital data in sensors/actuators, transmitter, receiver, filter, decoder for control of DG elements and identifies future challenges as well. A comprehensive list of publications to date are compiled to provide a complete picture of different developments in this area.