Communication Networks is a core element for future power system. Many different communication technologies will exist together in the Smart Grid. Two major communication technologies for the Smart Grid are power line communications and wireless communications.

Smart Grid is bringing attention to the use of power line communications (PLC) as an appropriate networking technology within the grid. Since all the elements in the Smart Grid are connect through power line, PLC has no additional capital investment to use the communication medium. Also, wireless communications, such as WLAN, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and cellular are very popular and they are mature enough to use in the power system. In addition, wireless network is the basic essentials for internet of things (IoT). Since most of the wireless devices runs with batteries, low power consumption during communication is very important.

Current Research Issues are:

• Coexistence various communication technologies in Smart Grid
• Narrowband PLC in distribution network
• Energy efficient protocols for wireless communications