Decentralized Consensus Protocols: The Enabler for Smarter Grids Monitoring

The large scale deployment of the Smart Grids paradigm is expected to support the evolution of traditional electrical power systems toward active, flexible and self-healing web energy networks composed by distributed and cooperative energy resources. In this field, the application of hierarchical monitoring paradigms has many disadvantages that could hinder their application in modern Smart Grids where the constant growth of grid complexity and the need for supporting rapid decisions in a data rich, but information limited environment, require more scalable, more flexible monitoring paradigms. In trying and addressing these challenges, in this paper the role of decentralized consensus protocols for distributed and cooperative smart grids monitoring is analyzed.