A Survey on Smart Grids: concerns, advances, and trends

The traditional power grids are facing new changes in their structure, with the advent of the power electronic devices and consequently their use to integrate Distributed Generation (DG) sources (mostly from renewables) at the main supply, the energy storage systems (ESSs) working alongside wind farms and solar plants, the presence of smart meters and network infrastructure, allowing the power grid automation and control. This paper presents a survey on Smart Grids researches, focusing on some hot and important subjects such as security, demand response, and power quality. We discuss the main advances, trends and challenges for implementation of real Smart Grids.