A proposed architecture for soft computing in smart grid as a cloud-based service

Smart Grid empowers the electrical utilities improve the efficiency and the availability of the power system while constantly monitoring, controlling and managing the demands of customers. Computational requirements for Smart Grid applications can be met by utilizing the Cloud Computing model. Collecting, storing and analyzing large amount of data, which can be very varied and produced at high rates will be done in a distributed manner. The scalable and elastic resources of a Cloud infrastructure not only satisfy these needs but also offer interesting properties to utility companies (i.e., elasticity, scalability, pay-as-you-go model, etc.) and make a reliable, robust, and efficient Smart Grid environment. In this paper, we present the opportunities and challenges of using Cloud Computing in power grid Applications and propose a Cloud-based solution for information requirements of Smart Grid.