# A Review of Edge Computing Technology and Its Applications in Power Systems
## 1 Introduction
Power systems are complex, hierarchical physical networks that generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to consumers, carrying massive amounts of information. Wide-area coordinated management and control among generation, transmission, load, and distribution is crucial to ensure reliable power system operations [14]. Cloud computing is a paradigm that can provide end users with various services by integrating various virtualization technologies on the cloud side. This mechanism enables the operators and end users to access abundant computing resources and data storage capacities via the network without purchasing and maintaining hardware. In the past few decades, cloud computing has been increasingly used in power system analysis and control. For example, in 2014, Mercury Energy used cloud computing to provide services to help customers manage their power consumption [15]. Measurements collected from multi-sources at substations are sent to the cloud centers for future processing and analysis. With the development of smart grids, an increasing number of network-connected devices are integrated into power systems, leading to an exponential increase in data loads. Effectively managing and  
Figure 1: Workflow diagram for the general edge computing architecture. processing the massive data generated by these widely distributed devices is a critical challenge, especially for traditional centralized approaches that require real-time processing. Compared with cloud computing, edge computing can offer a decentralized paradigm that allows the smart devices to process the data at the edge of the network by themselves. Furthermore, the raw data collected by end devices can be stored and pre-processed in the small data centers at the network edge instead of sending to the centralized center. These features enable real-time monitoring and control of these devices, support advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and aid in predictive maintenance. Edge computing can also benefit enterprises by increasing the reliability of the power supply systems. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art edge computing technology for power system engineers who may not be very familiar with the fundamental science of edge computing yet but are interested in understanding its capabilities, architectures, and existing and potential applications in a variety of domain areas, particularly power systems. The main contributions of this paper include the following:  
* A review of generalized edge computing architectures and their applications;
* A review of popular edge computing technologies;
* A review of edge computing applications in power systems that are oriented from the architectures;
* A discussion of future opportunities of edge computing in power systems. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the state-of-the-art of edge computing architecture; Section 3 reviews the main technologies and relative works of edge computing in general areas; Section 4 reviews the existing applications of edge computing in power systems; Section 5 discusses the works in this paper and future opportunities for edge computing applications in power systems; Section 6 concludes the paper.