Review of Internet of Things (IoT) in Electric Power and Energy Systems

TLDR

The electric power and energy sector is undergoing a transformation toward clean, distributed generation, with the Internet of Things enabling real‑time monitoring, situational awareness, control, and cybersecurity that enhance efficiency, reliability, resilience, and sustainability while improving asset visibility and reducing waste, though deployment challenges remain. This review evaluates the role, impact, and challenges of IoT in transforming electric power systems and proposes viable solutions to address deployment obstacles. Advancements in computational intelligence—emulating biological nervous systems with cognitive computation, streaming, and distributed analytics at edge and device levels—enable the evolution of intelligent IoT systems.

Abstract

A transformation is underway in electric power and energy systems (EPESs) to provide clean distributed energy for sustainable global economic growth. Internet of Things (IoT) is at the forefront of this transformation imparting capabilities, such as real-time monitoring, situational awareness and intelligence, control, and cyber security to transform the existing EPES into intelligent cyber-enabled EPES, which is more efficient, secure, reliable, resilient, and sustainable. Additionally, digitizing the electric power ecosystem using IoT improves asset visibility, optimal management of distributed generation, eliminates energy wastage, and create savings. IoT has a significant impact on EPESs and offers several opportunities for growth and development. There are several challenges with the deployment of IoT for EPESs. Viable solutions need to be developed to overcome these challenges to ensure continued growth of IoT for EPESs. The advancements in computational intelligence capabilities can evolve an intelligent IoT system by emulating biological nervous systems with cognitive computation, streaming and distributed analytics including at the edge and device levels. This review paper provides an assessment of the role, impact and challenges of IoT in transforming EPESs.