# Implementing Smart City Technologies to Inspire Change in Consumer Energy Behaviour
## 5 Communication Solutions for Energy Services in Smart City  
### Description of Communication Solutions  
The current electrical systems have deployed many sensors and actuators throughout the network, both in the generation and the transmission and distribution of energy. These devices are necessary for the control centres to measure, monitor and execute planning processes, protection and prevention of incidents that put the electricity supply system at risk, which directly affects its users. For these control and monitoring systems to increase the efficiency and security of the network, a reliable and fault-tolerant communication infrastructure is required, combining different technologies for transmission, communication and data storage, which allows the system to be sustainable over time. The global communication layer of the intelligent network is considered to consist of three types of networks, as defined in [49]:  
* Wide area networks (WAN) provide communication between the electricity company and the substations. WANs are high-bandwidth trunk communication networks that handle long-distance data transmission. * Field area networks (FAN), neighbourhood area networks (NAN) and advanced measurement infrastructure (AMI) provide communication for the energy distribution areas. The FAN/NAN/AMI interconnect WAN and the home/building/industrial area networks (HAN/BAN/IAN) of the end users. * Home area networks (HANs), building area networks (BANs) and industrial area networks (IANs) provide communication between electrical devices and smart meters within the home, building or industrial complex. The intelligent network is represented as follows: core (backbone), intermediate mile (backhaul) and last mile (access, distribution). The core incorporates the connection of the power station, substation and public services. This requires the use of high capacity and bandwidth availability technology, operating with extensive amount of data from different parts of the system. This network is generally composed of fibre optics, allowing high speed data transfer and immunity to interference [50]. The intermediate mile is represented by AMI, allowing automation of substations and distribution systems as well as data concentrators of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and Smart Power Management System (SPMS) in the control centres [51]. This network is required to provide high bandwidth means and is necessary to have a flexible and uninterrupted data flow, to ensure data transfer reliability to the core network. This network contains a mixture of wired and wireless communication technologies; these can be WiMAX, 3G, 4G- LTE, fibre optic, among others. The last mile incorporates the areas that are generally connected in the distribution of the electric power system, which consider the FAN/NAN areas and smart meters with an AMI infrastructure. The appropriate communication technology is based on the complexity of the area, but in general the technology focuses on data transfer speed and security. The application of HAN, BAN and IAN provides the information related to the management of energy in building but will occupy compatible technologies for the automation of home and building [52; 53]. The smart meters communication operating through AMI uses mixed wire (Power Line Communication (PLC), Broadband Power Line (BPL) and wireless (Cellular, WiMAX, ZigBee, etc.) communication technologies [54]. These smart meter networks work as a set of bridges between the AMI and the customers' gateways in HAN network. The implemented Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in the electrical system requires the use of multiple different networks, considering individual latency and coverage as well as the reliability between the communication methods. In this intelligent network the most critical condition is found in the WAN (backbone) network, which is used for the control and monitoring of generating plans and substations through an AMI and connects other sectors of the network and interested parties.