There is growing interest in renewable energy around the world. Since most renewable sources are intermittent in nature, it is a challenging task to integrate renewable energy resources into the power grid infrastructure. In this grid integration, communication systems are crucial technologies, which enable the accommodation of distributed renewable energy generation and play extremely important role in monitoring, operating, and protecting both renewable energy generators and power systems. In this paper, we review some communication technologies available for grid integration of renewable energy resources. Then, we present the communication systems used in a real renewable energy project, Bear Mountain Wind Farm (BMW) in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, we present the communication systems used in Photovoltaic Power Systems (PPS). Finally, we outline some research challenges and possible solutions about the communication systems for grid integration of renewable energy resources.

to appear in IEEE Network, Sept. 2011