Search

Artificial intelligence is increasingly used for real-time decision support and control in cyber-physical smart grids. However, the growing reliance on data-driven control creates a need for methods that are both explainable to human operators and consistent with electrical-network physics. This review proposes a two-dimensional classification scheme for AI methods in smart-grid control. The scheme combines an explainability dimension with a physics-informed dimension and applies the resulting framework to voltage regulation, congestion management, and microgrid control. A systematic literature search identified 25 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2017 and 2025. The selected studies were classified according to their explainability mechanism, degree of physical-knowledge integration, application domain, and relevance to cyber-physical grid operation. The review shows that most studies emphasize either explainability or physical consistency, while methods combining both remain limited. Voltage regulation is dominated by reinforcement-learning and safety-constrained control studies, whereas microgrid control contains a broader variety of AI methods. The proposed classification provides a structured basis for analysing trustworthy AI in smart-grid control. It highlights methodological gaps and identifies under-developed combinations of explainability, physics-informed learning, and operational deployment.

Smart-grid optimization increasingly uses artificial intelligence, automated control, and data-driven market coordination to manage low-carbon electricity systems. These developments create new opportunities for flexibility, but they also raise unresolved questions about equity, accountability, and justice. Existing reviews often examine energy justice, smart-grid optimization, algorithmic governance, and flexibility markets as separate domains. This fragmentation limits understanding of how optimization models and market rules may reproduce or reduce social inequalities. This article critically reviews the literature on justice-aware smart-grid optimization and develops a structured future research agenda. It focuses on how energy equity, algorithmic governance, and low-carbon flexibility markets can be integrated into future smart-grid research and policy. A targeted review of 26 peer-reviewed articles published between 2017 and 2025 integrates perspectives from energy justice, smart-grid studies, AI governance, and electricity market design. The review identifies conceptual tensions, methodological gaps, and governance challenges rather than presenting new empirical data. The review shows that justice is often operationalized narrowly in optimization, while broader concerns about recognition, participation, and accountability remain underdeveloped. It also finds that flexibility markets can distribute benefits unevenly unless market design explicitly addresses barriers to access and agency. A more interdisciplinary and justice-centered approach is needed to guide smart-grid optimization. The proposed agenda calls for stronger integration between technical modeling, energy justice theory, participatory governance, and regulatory innovation.