A Survey on IoT-Based Smart Electrical Systems: An Analysis of Standards, Security, and Applications

The rapid integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is transforming electrical power systems into intelligent, interconnected, and data-driven infrastructures, enabling advanced monitoring, control, and optimization across the entire energy value chain. IoT-based smart electrical systems enable advanced monitoring, control, and optimization of energy generation, distribution, and consumption, while also introducing new challenges related to interoperability, security, scalability, and data management. Despite the growing body of literature, existing surveys typically address these challenges in isolation, focusing on individual technological or operational aspects and thus failing to capture their strong cross-dependencies in real-world deployments. This paper delivers a comprehensive survey that systematically analyzes and interrelates nine key dimensions that prior literature largely examines in separate silos: architectural models, communication protocols, reference standards, cybersecurity and privacy mechanisms, data processing paradigms (edge, fog, and cloud), interoperability solutions, energy management strategies, application scenarios, and future research directions. Unlike conventional reviews confined to single-layer or domain-specific perspectives, this survey adopts a holistic, cross-layer approach, explicitly linking architectural choices, protocol stacks, interoperability frameworks, and security mechanisms with application and energy management requirements.